1. INTRODUCTION
Background
CAPE (Co-ordinated Action for Pan-European Transport and Environment Telematics Implementation Support) is a European Union (EU) funded project that aims to encourage the greater use of telematics or so-called Information Society Technologies (IST) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the EU.
A key objective of CAPE is to showcase telematics applications through different mechanisms in order to facilitate their uptake. These mechanisms to date have included an online website, user-fora, and technical workshops. This publication represents another of those mechanisms, namely to summarise and demonstrate in the form of a "good practice" guide those technologies supporting environment and knowledge management.
Why this Guide?
A clear opportunity exists for CEE countries to "leapfrog" certain western technological developments and move quickly into the realm of telematics (for instance from line-based to wireless communications), coincident with the EU enlargement process. A recent CAPE survey1 revealed that more than 70 percent of CEE local government environment experts and decisionmakers considered the use of IT/telematics applications a future priority. Some 80 percent indicated a preference for decision-making support systems and 90 percent for public information and dissemination-related applications. Upon further examination, the key environmental areas for application were considered to be waste, environment monitoring (air and water), emergency management, and transport.
Amongst the vehicles considered most useful for disseminating telematics results, 80 percent requested conferences and dissemination events, 81 percent asked for technical training sessions, and 75 percent requested on-site technical visits. In response to this, CAPE hosted the above referenced events in Munich, Prague, Warsaw and Sofia during summer and autumn 1999. Constructive dialogue and exchange of experiences was hosted during those events on a series of applications that met these priority needs.
Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed also called for supporting documentation and "good practice" guides. This guide is intended to satisfy those requests and to further document and demonstrate the value and benefits of telematics applications. It specifically targets the CEE local government decisionmaker, although it may be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about implementing telematics applications. It summarises 12 innovative and proven telematics tools matching the priority areas identified. Several of the applications included were developed under the European Commission's 4th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, 1994-8, and were presented at the Munich User-forum and Workshop. Others have been funded through different European Commission and international programmes. Several local initiatives are included for comparison, as well as a number developed independently in CEE.
It is the goal of this guide to show the strengths of telematics applications in bettering environmental management processes, and to show how knowledge and information can be better exploited and distributed through such tools. It is also intended to complement other "good-practice" guides currently available, including the ENWAP User Forum Good Practice in Air and Water Management Systems for Europe and the CAPE project's Good Practice in Transport Telematics Implementation.
Structure of the Guide
Data for the 12 surveyed applications was collected with a
standard questionnaire format (included in Annex I) that examined
the technical profile of the application, its background and
objectives, transferability, and benefits. Questionnaire responses
have been edited for clarity and are presented according to this
strucure, enabling cross-checking between cases. An abstract
summarises the main points of each study and serves to introduce
it.
Case studies are presented in sections addressing the four priority
areas identified above, namely:
- waste and contaminated sites management,
- environmental monitoring (of air and water),
- emergency management and
- public access to information (this category substitutes for transport, which is dealt with in its entirety by a separate CAPE publication, entitled "Good Practices in Transport Telematics Implementation)."
Three case studies have been selected for each area, and with the exception of waste management, each contain an example from the CEE region.
An Executive Summary digests and summarises the information contained within the case studies and provides additional analysis. After summarising the Context of Environment Telematics in Europe, the Good Practice in Environment Telematics section introduces the 12 surveyed applications. This overviews each case-study by name, the environmental issues addressed by each project and the nature of funding. The following four sections examine key transfer-related issues, including: applications' Relevance to Central and Eastern Europe, their Environmental Benefits, the technical frameworks required for Implementation and Lessons Learned - concerning for instance, project management and legal frameworks. Through these sections, the Executive Summary aims to demonstrate telematics' benefits for the environment and the requirements for implementation and transfer.
A Glossary of Terms is included after the Foreward in order to help explain some of the more technical terms included in the Executive Summary and case studies. An effort has been made to keep the guide as simple and straightforward as possible. It is targeted toward readers with a general understanding of information technology issues.
The Introduction, Executive Summary and case study abstracts have been translated into Czech and Polish in order to promote the dissemination of results to a wider audience. Furthermore, the guide and its local language translations are available in full-text on the world wide web at: http://www.rec.org/ist/cape, and under the Telematics Applications Programme website: http://www2.echo.lu/telematics/.
1 The survey, entitled "Status and Priorities for
Telematics Applications - A Survey of Local Government in Ten
Central and East European Countries" was undertaken in October
1998 and published in August 1999. It is accessible via the Internet
in full under http://www.rec.org/REC/Programs/Telematics/CAPE/quansrvy/cee/env/env.html
Updated:
CET
