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 and the EU.A key objective of CAPE is to survey, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the needs and priorities among central and east European and EU local and regional self-governing authorities for transport and environment telematics solutions.
In this respect, a qualitative examination of the organisational, technical and legal frameworks, related policies and priorities has been undertaken for each of the EU accession countries within central and eastern Europe. These include: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
Complementing this, two quantitative surveys (based on questionnaire
submissions) of the status and priorities for telematics solutions in central
and eastern Europe (CEE), and a third for the EU have been prepared:
Status and Priority for Transport Telematics Applications in CEE; Status and Priority for Environment Telematics Applications in CEE; Status and Priority for Environment Telematics Applications in EU.
Methodological Background of the Quantitative Surveys
For the quantitative surveys, questionnaire mailing was based on a thoroughly researched database of contact persons within public authorities . In compiling this, the following sources were relied upon:data researched systematically by consortium partners (The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe - REC (Hungary), International Society for Environmental Protection - ISEP (Austria), Prague Project Institute - PPI (Czech Republic) and Gestionnaires Sans Frontières - GSF (Romania); complementary data extracted from the European Local Government Organisation database.
In order to ensure survey representation, approximate target numbers
for mailing were determined by the relative share of population for each
country in relation to the overall population of the respective CEE/EU
regions. For the CEE countries, surveys were translated by the consortium
partners into the ten respective languages in order to facilitate responses
. The questionnaire (see Annex 3) was largely based on multiple-choice
questions, thereby enabling the simple extrapolation of data from each
respondent.
Survey mailing was undertaken during August/September 1998, and responses consequently entered into a Microsoft ACCESS database during October/November 1998. The consequent reports summarising the results of these surveys were compiled during December 1998, and finalised during spring 1999.
1 Outside the CAPE project, two comparable surveys
on general and transport telematics use are available from the European
Digital Cities (EDC) project, another support action of the Telematics
Application Programme of the EU.
2 For further information on procedures for
the questionnaire survey see: Annex I.
3 For further information on the survey response
and representativeness see: Annex II.
Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe
