2.4. ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
This section builds on section 2.1 Context of Environment Telematics in Europe, which opened the Executive Summary. It summarises the benefits and relevance of the surveyed telematics tools, particularly in an environmental context and with regard to CEE countries (and also the problems outlined in the previous section). The benefits in terms of meeting of policy targets, and improvements to cost-effectiveness and efficiency are also summarised.
Technologies Supporting Waste and Contaminated Sites Management
Stricter sustainable development targets (aimed at ensuring the use of existing natural resources without compromising those available to future generations) are giving rise to the need to sort waste, and to increase the amounts of waste recycled and re-used. Telematics applications which support these goals can be invaluable.
A unique and innovative, yet relatively simple application, is the Austrian Construction and Demolition Recyclables Exchange. This application helps to reduce the level of construction waste entering domestic landfills. By setting up an exchange system hosted and managed via the Internet (see Figure 2 below), the country's federal governments are able to better re-use and recycle building waste. The approach has a direct impact on sustainable development policy targets and helps avoid the depletion of natural resources. It also helps to meet the requirements of strict legislation concerning landfills.
Given the large number of construction and development projects
now underway in CEE, and the consequent demolition of older structures,
such a system could prove valuable to authorities looking to
reduce building waste that is being disposed of in landfills.
This would also assist the 40 percent of authorities CAPE identified
who say they are looking to implement policies that promote waste
reduction and recycling. The system also offers economic benefits
to those who would otherwise pay for the disposal of waste, and
enables the purchase of discounted building materials.
Figure 2: An online session from the Construction & Demolition Recyclables Exchange
showing Supplies in Lower Austria. (Source: CDRE)
An application like SINDRA is intended to benefit local authorities within a whole region, by improving the storage and accessibility of information related to waste and waste management. This information would cover such issues as local waste levels, collection, sorting and disposal mechanisms, treatment facilities, waste flows and so on. This tool, coupled with background information on regulations and taxation regimes, helps local authorities monitor waste management practices and prepare and assess waste policies. The tool also improves cooperation and the exchange of experiences among local and regional decision-makers.
Improperly managed waste landfills or industrial process sites can cause soil and groundwater contamination. The "polluter pays" principle is increasingly being enforced and with European legislation calling for contaminated sites to be cleaned up prior to sale, telematics tools like COSIMA which support this process can offer significant cost savings.
COSIMA is an application whose strengths lie in its support to contaminated site managers and the enhanced information it provides to city planners. Relying on GIS technology, it can be used to identify the nature, extent and effects of contamination arising from landfill, industrial or military activity. The COSIMA application also supports rapid decision-making of the most suitable clean-up mechanisms. Land can be restored ( to a level compliant with soil and remediation standards) and successfully offered to prospective investors and housing developers, thereby facilitating both economic and sustainable development. COSIMA can also be used to support risk-assessment and can help prioritise or rule out future activities which may have an impact on any given site.
Technologies Supporting Environmental Monitoring
Effective air quality management requires the monitoring of real-time conditions, emissions and emergency situations. Many public authorities in CEE already realise this, and some 40 percent anticipate a demand for telematics technologies in this process in the near future. Monitoring tools can help ensure compliance with legislation, including local and European laws on air quality, while modelling tools can be relied upon to prevent short-term severe deterioration of air quality. Both modelling and monitoring data can serve as a basis for defining future air-related policy, and can be invaluable in the planning of air quality management strategies.
Telematics tools like AIRVIRO, which monitors and models air quality, have already been adopted by the City of Vilnius, Lithuania, as part of its Urban Air Quality Management System. The AIRVIRO system supports the collection of real-time air quality data through a network of sensors and stations, and processes this information into convenient reports for decision-makers and urban air quality managers. It also summarises air quality data for public use and makes this available via the Internet. Besides contributing to a well-informed (and environmentally conscious) society, the reports generated can be relied upon to draft urban air quality management strategies.
AIRVIRO also models and simulates air quality situations and therefore serves as a decision support system, which is already being used to help air quality managers determine traffic routes and industrial levels of permissible emissions. Tangible environmental benefits will be realised once the policies the system is helping to define are fully implemented. When this happens, the system will enable the monitoring of the effectiveness of, and compliance with, those policies.
At a regional level, tools like the Joint Air Management System or JAMS are of value in dealing with transboundary air pollution problems. JAMS has been implemented in the "Black Triangle" region of CEE to provide automated monitoring of transboundary air pollution. Annual reports on the state of the Black Triangle environment, based on monitoring data, are now being generated. These reports enable air quality managers in all Black Triangle countries to draft and prepare targeted environmental strategies and policies.
JAMS is also an emergency warning system that enables monitoring authorities to act quickly when emergencies arise, thus minimising the impacts of potential ecological disasters. For example, in poor weather conditions, industrial activity can be temporarily halted. JAMS also provides an effective tool for facilitating transboundary cooperation among air quality managers, enabling frequent communication and a coordinated approach to air quality management. This results in harmonised policy dealing with transboundary air quality issues. The System helps to meet the goals of respective domestic policies for managing the Black Triangle environment.
Water resource managers operating at the local and national level need to effectively manage water quality and water resources, particularly since much waste water is not collected in CEE, but instead enters directly into the groundwater. Standardised information concerning the availability and quality of water resources, including hydrology data, groundwater reserves and reservoirs can be pertinent to their activities.
Applications like SNIRH aim to provide exactly this
kind of data. Applied in the relatively new EU member state of
Portugal, SNIRH enables effective and coordinated management
of water resources at the national and local level, in compliance
with EU quality standards (see Figure 3 below). The system assists
water resource managers in tracking water quality and resource
levels at the regional, river-basin level and helps them to ensure
adequate clean-water supplies. By storing all forms of water-related
data (geographic, hydrographic, water-use etc.) in an information
system that can be readily queried, the tool also supports the
planning, development and implementation of National Water Resources
and River Basin Plans. Given the EUs forthcoming Water Resources
Framework Directive, the system can also serve as a means to
assisting in meeting EU standards.
Figure 3: SNIRH system query showing water quality compliance. (Source: SNIRH)
SNIRH has also assisted in optimising communication with other government institutions, and has helped to ensure internal resources at the National Institute for Water Resource Management (INAG) are effectively allocated. The system is also geared toward providing public access to information, and thus ensures the articles of the EU's Access to Environmental Information Directive and Aarhus Convention are complied with.
Technologies Supporting Emergency Management
EC policy increasingly emphasises the need for preventive measures in environmental management, as opposed to remediative actions for existing environmental pollution. The environment can be better preserved without loss or damage to the existing ecosystem when the potential impact of threats is minimised. As a result, the cost of emergency expenditures can be kept low, which benefits authorities, households, insurance companies - and the environment.
Applications like TELEFLEUR, funded under the EC's Telematics Applications Programme, increase emergency preparedness among public authorities in urban areas that have been experiencing flash-floods. The application's main benefit is its ability to serve as an alarm system that warns of potential flash-floods and gives support to the coordination of emergency services such as the police and fire deptartments, public works, etc. In the event of a flash-flood, a decision support system assists public adminstration in identifying and coordinating the necessary manpower and equipment required to minimise flood damage, not only during, but also prior to its occurrence. It also details the most effective emergency measures, and the required restorative actions. Thus, the application helps minimise environmental impacts and reduce the costs of flood damage - a prioirty issue according to public authorities surveyed by CAPE.
The Danube Accident Emergency Warning System is used by the riparian countries along the Danube basin in Western, Central and Southern Europe. Today it is being relied upon to reduce the risks of spills of hazardous substances and support water quality managers to control these areas. Using a network of sensors throughout the river basin, up-to-date monitoring information is collected, enabling water quality managers to take timely preventive measures to minimise impacts and environmental threats.
The Systems' main strength is its ability to rapidly provide information on pollution-related incidents, through a network of Principal International Alert Centres (PIACs - see Figure 4 below). The benefits have already been realised. For instance, during October 1997, an accidental oil spill was successfully contained and the transboundary impacts prevented. Eight other pollution incidents have been detected since the system's implementation in 1997, ensuring limited environmental impact. Other benefits of the system include the way it helps participating countries comply with international conventions concerning the Danube, as well as agreements on transboundary waters and emergency management. But perhaps most importantly, this telematics tool has helped to bring about the international cooperation of a region, traditionally polarised as East and West.
Figure 4: The Danube Accident Emergency Warning System (Source: DAEWPS)
The strengths of a disaster management tool like DEDICS lies in its usefulness to minimise the potential impacts of forest fires in natural areas, particularly those bordering on urban areas or adjacent to industrial activity. DEDICS can benefit locations in drier, mediterranean-like regions. Like TELEFLEUR, this application improves communication and coordination between all main public service actors, including fire patrol vehicles (through the use of radio communication systems and Global Positioning System tools), a command center, and networks of watchtowers. The main results are the better coordination of emergency efforts and improved communication, resulting in better use of human and financial resources, and mimimised environmental damage. The strength of the system is the way it can process different environmental monitoring data and present this in a format that is useful to both public administration and emergency services.
Technologies Supporting Public Access to Information
Ensuring citizens' access to environmental information, either upon request or on an on-going basis is required under national, European and international laws. Providing the public with access to environmental information helps to raise their awareness and understanding of environmental concerns, which in turn can contribute to better acceptance of tough environmental policy and sustainable development targets. Public involvement in decision-making can also ensure a more informed, cooperative and participatory process.
HEIS-MUC and IOZIP will be jointly summarised because of their similarities. Both applications store, process and disseminate valuable environmental information for the benefit of urban (and international) communities. Their target audiences are the cities of Munich and Prague respectively. Both tools offer the ability to manage, store and process data collected through different independent sources - and through different technical equipment. The systems can handle data on air quality, noise pollution, water resources (see Figure 5 below) and traffic levels, stored in media such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), databases and the Internet.
Figure 5: Air quality indicators. (Source: IOZIP)
These applications' end-products include useful and presentable environmental information, both for the public and decision-makers. For instance, public access to data is provided via the Internet, public-access-terminals, City Info Columns and InfoKiosks in Munich - and via the Internet, CD-ROM, Yearbooks and Atlases in Prague. The end-user benefits through improved access to data in several different user-friendly formats. And by enabling widespread public access at relatively low cost, the systems help officials meet many of the public information requirements of domestic and international legislation. The easy availability of data also saves time and money for those complying with public requests for information.
There are also extra benefits for decision-makers: Public administration policy-makers are faced with information "overload," yet they are expected to absorb and understand many different critical environmental issues, ranging from air quality to traffic data, noise emissions and weather patterns, water quality and waste levels etc. Knowledge of these issues is essential in developing policy, facilitating development and planning and conducting environmental impact assessment. Electronic tools like HEIS-MUC and IOZIP help streamline the acquisition and storage of information. The valuable data that is reported at the end of the line can better contribute to informed decision-making.
The Black Sea Web offers similar benefits to HEIS-MUC and IOZIP. The difference is that, instead of serving a single city, the Black Sea Web is oriented toward an entire region (incorporating the Black Sea, Ukraine, Romania, and Russia). The application is a regional Environmental Management Support System that benefits local and national decision-makers, citizens non-governmental organisations and other interested parties, such as the media, experts and academia. The application provides user-friendly access to marine data regarding the Black Sea environment using the Internet. Much of the data is actually stored in country-specific and differently formatted marine databases (located at separate sites). The advantage, however, is that the diverser sources of information is never apparent to the user.
A key strength of the Black Sea Web is in the way it promotes regional cooperation and exchange of information among Black Sea environmental decision-makers. Environmental problems are often not limited to one country, and in the case of marine areas, they often cross boundaries. The Black Sea Web and Marine Environmental Mangement Support System helps different environmental managers work together to preserve the environment of the Black Sea as a whole.
