• To support administration in long-term decisionmaking;
• To raise public, NGO and administrative awareness, and;
• To give up-to-date information about environment problems.

Electronic media can facilitate the distribution of environment related information, it increases the speed of access, and helps lower costs.

The users of such information can be divided into several groups with different needs (see also Diagram 1 below);

• The General Public - Small amounts of information which are simple to understand
• Education - Additional background-information
• Administration - Evaluated information for help in decisionmaking
• Science, planning companies - Complete high-level information including source data

Information services receive and deliver this information by different media in order to account for different user needs. In the states of the former European "Union of Twelve", some 5 to 15 percent of households had Internet-connections - a small audience for electronically delivered information to the broad public. Increasingly, universities, science and commercial sites are now well equipped with Internet access, forming an audience for high quality/high depth electronic information.

Figure 1: Information uses and types of information

MUNICH: A CASE STUDY

Municipal Environment Information

In 1995, the environmental information system was successfully funded under the EU DG XIII Telematics Programme. This enabled the existing environmental information, especially the environment atlas, to be produced in an electronic media form i.e. Internet and CD-ROM format. In cooperation with the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), a pre-demonstrator programme for public access mapping programme was developed. Later it was decided to develop first classic Internet pages and to postpone mapping solutions until the availability of server-based Internet mapping facilities. The prototype of our health and environment system has now been running on an Intranet for more than a year now.

Intranet

Online data is also transferred from two ozone measurement facilities while automatic warnings are generated (and checked) in case the permitted limits are exceeded. Connecting to several other Bavarian measurement sites is currently underway. Additional data includes health, Agenda 21, energy, recycling as well as a metadata catalogue.

The Intranet is used for intra-administration information purposes as well as for the evaluation of the Internet pages. In the third quarter of 1998, all our Intranet information will be available to all departments of administration in the City of Munich connected to the backbone.

Internet

Public-Access PC/InfoKiosks

Infoscreen (proposed)

Automated Air Pollution Email Warnings

Accessibility and User-needs

• High education level;
• Above average financial power.

Science and commercial sites are using the Internet more and more as a searchable medium, and this can only diminish the value of paper-only publications. For the broader public, on the basis of the 'user-pyramid', news delivered by 'modern' media seem to have a value of their own. Furthermore, because of the growth of commercial radio and TV channels, even minor news presented in a tailored way is distributed because of their local relevance.

COST/PROFIT ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFERENT MEDIA

The value of Health and Environment Information itself can not be submitted to a cost/profit analysis because of the lack of fundamental data and firm evaluation methods. The popular (German) knowledge that 'precaution is cheaper than cure' obviously is true for environment problems. Furthermore, constraints, for example, in the traffic sector are very unpopular, so information seems to be the only way to achieve a change in behaviour, and with that a relief in environmental stress and resources.

Different means for distributing health and environmental information can be evaluated one against the other and be brought into an ordinal file. The experience gained in the process of publishing environmental information in the City of Munich shows that electronic media can be a cheap method in comparison with print media when publishing environmental information. The "Umweltatlas," for example, cost some ECU 40,000 to print one enhanced version with 13 Maps. The entire electronic health and environmental information system in comparison costed some ECU 150,000. The air pollution warnings via fax require some 100 to 200 man hours per year, while the email service, perhaps 10.

DESIGNING A SUCCESSFUL ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

• Check Target Groups and User Needs
  News and local problems deserve the same attention as in-depth environment and health information. Public interest for an information system is therefore very important in justifying spending. In Munich, ozone-warnings attract public attention and intend to guide people to our other Internet pages.

• Evaluate Existing Information
  In many administrations environmental information is already collected. This data may become components of an "environmental information system," effectively shortening the development period for such a system.

• Allow a Construction Phase for an Internet Site
  Start with a small, well structured system to attract public attention and to accustom the public to the continuous growth in information rather than presenting a full grown site which remains static for a longer time is advantageous.

• Develop Meta-level Information
  Electronic media and information systems are forced to operate with constantly changing data formats. Methods that can use information from one source for several media, and in several depths of detail are necessary. The Department of Environmental Protection of Munich therefore developed an SGML (ISO 8879:1986) system to capture and process textual information. Hopefully it will outlive the next three generations of word processors we are otherwise faced with using in developing the paper version of the "Umweltatlas". To reduce costs, a lot of public domain software can be used (perl, nsgmls, emacs) which has the additional advantages of multi-platform availability, continuous development and less breaks in backwards compatibility. Cooperation with students can also reduce costs.

• Create a Corporate Identity
  Creating a uniform framework for all pages of the information system and staying free of browser-dependent features is of considerable importance. A corporate look can be modified in moderate steps to retain a 'modern' and 'fresh' look.

• Select Distribution Media and Tools
  Though Internet/WWW is very popular, other electronic media are just as important for different tasks. For example, in distributing news in a non-highspeed environment, email is recommended because of its low bandwidth needs and hardware and software server needs. For public infokiosks, the widespread model of a joint venture with a commercial agency seems to be a good way to cut costs. The City of Munich leases locations for the free publication of municipal WWW-Contents. To attract the attention of a greater number of people, infoscreen-like devices in crowded places are a suitable means to distribute headline-like environment information.

• Maintain a Permanent Dialogue with User-groups
  Quantitative evaluation of any information system's success is almost impossible. A reasonable way to accurately develop the system is a permanent dialogue with target groups, especially those multiplying your information (schools, newspaper, NGOs).