1. 1 Information Infrastructure for European Environmental Reporting The contribution through Reportnet Stefan Jensen EEA, Copenhagen, Denmark Openforum Santa Fe 2003 http://eea.eu.int

2. 2 Which are the important processes? Core set of indicators sets new basis for the change process New EU framework directive on reviewed reporting under way for late 2002 Technological basis for Reportnet technologies has been laid in eEIONET with the support of IDA funding Business processes need to be re-engineered together with the involved stakeholders

3. Driving Forces Pressures State Responses Impact How to get to indicators? The DPSIR Assessment Framework Quality Health, ecosystems materials Causes Pollutants Policies and targets

4. 4 Indicators in the reporting process at the EEA

5. 5 Environmental issues and related sectors Environment issues –Air pollution –Climate change –Water Stress –Nature/Biodiversity –Terrestrial environment –Waste/material flows –Chemicals –Technological/natural risks Sectors –Transport –Energy –Agriculture –Tourism –Fisheries –Industry –Households

6. 6 Which are the important processes? Core set of indicators sets new basis for the change process New EU framework directive on reviewed reporting under way for late 2002 Technological basis for Reportnet technologies has been laid in eEIONET with the support of IDA funding Business processes need to be re-engineered together with the involved stakeholders

7. 7.. from Chaotic reporting... EuroStat ECEEAOECDUNEP ETC DG National institutions Users UNECE WHO...

8. 8...towards Structured reporting EuroStat ECEEAOECDUNEP National institutions ETC DG Shared area Users UNECE WHO others...

9. 9 Three purposes of reporting – EEA interests 1.Checking compliance and implementation of legislation 2.Assessing environment trends (P, S and I) and associated driving forces (D) 3.Evaluating the effectiveness of policy measures (R)

10. 10 EIONET Priority Data Flows Overall performance of countries in 2001

11. 11 EIONET Priority Data Flows 2001: Overview

12. 12 Which are the important processes? Core set of indicators sets new basis for the change process New EU framework directive on reviewed reporting under way for 2003 Technological basis for Reportnet technologies has been laid in eEIONET with the support of IDA funding Business processes need to re-engineered together with the involved stakeholders

13. 13 Definitions European Environmental Information System Organisations, work processes, agreements, applications, data, indicators, and assessments that are involved in international environmental reporting in Europe Information infrastructure The framework of data standards, interoperability mechanisms, and other permanent structures that enables information exchange and sharing within and between information systems Reportnet Suite of IT tools optimised to support the business processes of a data collection network building on a shared information infrastructure

14. What are the characteristics of Reportnet (general) Reportnet is the framework for environmental data and information exchange to be applied by the EEAs EIONET network Reportnet functions are underpinned by several IT tools in the 8 functional areas – Reportnet provides the functional specification of next generation eEIONET Reportnet content is built along EEA‘s priority dataflow areas which will be extended based on the outcome of the core set of indicator discussion

15. What are the characteristics of Reportnet (technical) Reportnet is built on: - Open source tools which are either „out of the box“ or customised to EIONET needs – increasingly webservices - Data interchange formats (such as XML) - Common metadata approach DublinCore – resource discovery ISO19115 – spatial data ISO11179 - data elements) - Documented and shared data definitions (i.e.XML schema, RDF) - Communication protocols (HTTP, SMTP, LDAP, SOAP, XML/RPC )

16. 16 DEM Data exchange modules EEA warehouse = data service ready/ published data Other ware- houses - ready/ published data EEA Reportnet data repository Reportnet servers for storage of data in process National data Content registry= which data have been delivered and are availablecan also give overviews of ready data and external warehouses ROD Reporting obligations - structured overvivew tool for each country Legally defined reporting obligations Moral Agreements with countires without DD Data dictionary with technical definitions of all deliverables Indicator definition= repetitive analysis methodology Mainly used by reporters; NRCs/ NFPs Indicator assessment tools Mainly EEA data management and follow-up Mainly EEA analysis and processing towards information

17. 17 Functions to be covered by Reportnet tools

18. Reporting Obligations e.g. Activities asked for by HELCOM

19. 19 Data dictionary technical description of what to be delivered/hand eled and how to obtain the acceptable quality Content and functions Nomenclature/code lists/definitions Data capture Country reported data DEM tools quality control European merged data Assessments Data set definitions Data capture and merging methodology in countries Nomenclature/code lists/definitions Data set definitions Data capture methodology Data sets definitions Nomenclature/code lists/definitions Data set definitions Data capture and merging methodology in countries Indicator methodology and dependent data sets Defined outputs Predefined classification, grouping Portrayal information, cartography, presentation Presentation

20. 20 Data dictionary – registry components Parts of ISO 11179 used Themes (namespaces) Documentation of data sets –text description on content and use –legal attributes and values –acceptable quality Documentation of elements/ attributes Documentation of pre-defined code lists (fixed lists) Visualisation rules for products

21. Data Dictionary e.g. On Water basin

22. Network directory e.g. Contact points for Nature protection

23. Data exchange modules e.g. on Air pollutants

24. National repositories e.g. Danish reporting for Eurowaternet

25. European data sets e.g. Ecological regions Output from EEAs datawarehouse

26. Indicator management e.g. Trends on Greenhouse gases (tools under re-development)

27. 27 Content Registry – registry components Some principles: Connecting services providing metadata in XML/RDF This is harvested into a MySQL database Dublin Core plus free extension (to be stored in service specific namespaces) as meta data model application developed in OpenSource (Java)

28. Monitor deliveries through the content registry (metadata)

29. 29 Which are the important processes? Core set of indicators sets new basis for the change process New EU framework directive on reviewed reporting under way for late 2002 Technological basis for Reportnet technologies has been laid in eEIONET with the support of IDA funding Business processes need to re-engineered together with the involved stakeholders

30. 30 Shared EEIS information Elements of the shared European Environmental Information System International institutions National institutions Users Shared EIONET information Information Infrastructure EEA EIONET Decision makers, informed public, general public User access GMET, EDEN, shared tools Other Networks Other organisations

31. 31 transparent information management Common validation and aggregation harmonised collection policy relevant assessments provide once use many Principles of Shared European Environment Information System (EEIS)

32. 32 What is next in harmonisation? Reportnet project under the IDA (Interchange of Data between Administration) program of DG Enterprise from mid 2003 to mid 2005 Key challenges: –Business Process Reengineering of European environmental reporting (”bridging the gap”) –New data sharing agreements between countries, commisson and various committees –Standardisation of concepts and data (there is no environmental data standards council) -Further development of generic tools and architectures and data flow automation

33. 33 Summary Where EEA moved between Openforum 2000 and 2003: –Move from central metadata cataloguing to internet based decentral metadata provision and harvesting –Implementing the IS011179 based data dictionary (registry) for storage of data defintion, XML schemas, coding lists –„XML-izing“ all metadata exchange processes –no need for UDDI registry (yet), a simple WSDL repository might be needed soon –no need to apply an ebXML registry (yet) EEAs and US-EPA both face the registry interoperability challenge these days

34. 34 EEA European Environment Agency Copenhagen · Denmark http://www.eea.eu.int