Towards a European Shared Environmental Information System in Support of Sustainable Policies Presented by: Meropi Paneli ECOINFORMATICS- 2006 European Commission Directorate-General Environment Research, Science and Innovation Unit Rue de la Loi, 200 1049 Brussels BELGIUM Meropi.Paneli@cec.eu.int

Policies Support To Develop…. To Implement … To Monitor .. Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development , WSSD Johannesburg 2002 The Treaty on European Union The EU Sustainable Development Strategy The EU 6th Environmental Action Programme Four Priorities 1. Climate Change 2. Nature and Biodiversity 3. Environment and Health 4. Natural resources and waste Seven Thematic Strategies 1. Clean Air For Europe (CAFE) 2. Soil protection 3. Sustainable use of pesticides 4. Marine environment 5. Waste prevention and recycling 6. Sustainable use of natural resources 7. Urban environment Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters European Commission – DG Environment 2

Information About …. ? European Commission – DG Environment 3

Measuring Progress… Sustainable Development Indicators EU level long-term SD indicators to monitor our economic development while protecting the environment and meeting our social goals Economic development Poverty and social exclusion Ageing society Public Health Climate change and energy Production and consumption patterns Management of natural resources Transport Good governance Global partnership - Eurostat - European Commission – DG Environment 4

But…..but…..the problems with Env Dta Infra data is : not sufficiently available, accessible, inter-operable and shared across juridical and administrative boundaries. not of sufficient or consistent quality, nor sufficiently up-to-date. sometimes redundant or outdated because the nature of problems have changed since the legislation was adopted. Alongside the data itself, there are often considerable delays or redundancy in reporting and assessment. EU has islands of data of different standards and quality... European Commission – DG Environment 5

Resulting in….. difficulties with: compliance assessment assessment of the state of the environment analysis of cause-effect relationships design successful and cost-effective policy remedy measures. assessment of the environmental impact of other sector policies (transport, agriculture, cohesion, research etc.)  the cost-efficient integration of environmental concerns into those policies. unnecessary administrative burden on Member States and Commission Services for data management and assessment, reporting and monitoring. European Commission – DG Environment 6

The Challenge Improve availability and quality of information needed to develop and implement Community environment policy Reduce administrative burden on Member States The SEIS is to support policy development, implementation and monitoring at local, regional to global levels European Commission – DG Environment 7

What is the SEIS? Infrastructure and rules to facilitate use of data by wide range of users Cost-efficient monitoring to support reporting on indicators, risk and monitoring Underpinned by legal requirements (well implemented) European Commission – DG Environment 8

Achieving the Vision Actions to establish infrastructures and rules Actions to streamline monitoring Actions to make legal requirements coherent European Commission – DG Environment 9

Infrastructure and rules Adoption of INSPIRE: commitment to sharing as a foundation for further streamlining Common architecture and tools for reporting: coherence between different reporting sytems, better exploiting technology and economies of scale European Commission – DG Environment 10

INSPIRE will deliver … 2006-2013 A data policy framework and a range of sharing agreements between public bodies ensuring that information is exchanged without barriers. Structures at EU and Member State level to coordinate the practical implementation of the Infrastructure for Geo-Spatial Information in Europe. Metadata concerning spatial data sets held by public authorities, for use in searching for and identifying available spatial data sets and the corresponding services. A data Clearing House and electronic network, connecting distributed databases equipped with services, that allows anybody to query, view, access and use geo-spatial data sets held by public bodies and made available on a voluntary basis by third parties A range of specifications for geo-spatial data sets and services helping spatial data sets to be used in a wider context . A framework for monitoring the implementation of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe European Commission – DG Environment 11

INSPIRE will not … Impose the collection of spatial data Deliver integrated information services for particular applications such as environmental reporting, risk management, environmental impact assessments, indicator development land-use planning etc. Example: INSPIRE Institutional framework Technical standards Fundamental data sets Data Services European Commission – DG Environment EEA Reportnet components 12

Actions to streamline monitoring Key role of Thematic strategies and cross-cutting policies, e.g. Biodiversity: Streamlining European 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Water Information System for Europe (WISE): to cover all water related information Soil: framework for sharing and exchange of information Marine: improved knowledge based upon effective monitoring and assessment Environment-Health information system Streamlining of indicators to make downstream monitoring more efficient Support of 7th Framework Programme including Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) European Commission – DG Environment 13

To result in: Actions to make legal requirements coherent EEA monitoring review Review of reporting requirements at international and community level To result in: streamlining of monitoring/reporting in upcoming policy proposals possible proposal(s) to repeal/streamline reporting make existing policies “SEIS-compliant” (e.g. WISE, CAFE) European Commission – DG Environment 14

Some Major Challenges remain … Conclusions The EU is committed to the development of a Shared Environmental Information System serving local to global needs Some Major Challenges remain … Major regional and global initiatives face the difficult challenge of co-ordination and coherent development Sustained funding of operational data collection, RTD and usage capacities More than technical issues …. Data policies and usage conditions risk to be major obstacles European Commission – DG Environment 15