The need for increased transparency at the governmental level with regard to collecting and disseminating data also became important, with growing demand from society for the availability of better quality information on the environment in which they live. Improved access to environmental information is said to be the seed for public participation in the environmental decisionmaking process, which in turn ensures better accountability of governments and businesses for their actions. This also helps to improve cooperation between the public, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and the government sector in solving environmental problems.
Among the driving forces behind this growing trend for improving the availability of information in the CEE countries are the forthcoming 'Convention on Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in Environmental Decisionmaking', due to be signed by most of those CEE countries seeking EU accession, in Aarhus, Denmark later this June at the Environment Ministers Conference. Additionally, the EU's Directive on Access to Information stipulates that public authorities are required to make available information relating to the environment to any person upon request without having to prove an interest runs central to the need to increase the availability of environmental data as well as the EU accession process.
Many Telematics projects in CEE and in the EU assist in some way in the meeting of specific requirements of EU Directives, while also ensuring decisionmaker and public access to environmental information. In CEE, these can also be seen therefore to facilitate the EU accession process. This link with EU Directives will be clearly shown during the course of the next two days, however, briefly I would like to touch upon a few regional examples.
UNEP's ENRIN shares similar goals and activities to the EU's and EEA's 'EIONET' (the European Environment Information and Observation NETwork). EIONET was created to provide reliable environmental information at a European level and is a cooperative activity between the EEA and EU Member States. With the EU accession of CEE countries, the EIONET is currently being extended to this region with the appointment of National Focal Points already having taken place. As a result of the overlap between EIONET and ENRIN, the two programmes will be closely harmonized to provide objective, reliable and comparable environmental information that enables decsionmakers to take the requisite measures to protect the environment, to assess the results of such measures and to ensure that the public is properly informed about the state of the environment.
The EIONET concentrates on providing periodic reports on the state of the environment, including media oriented monitoring, assessment of trends affecting the environment, source oriented monitoring, assessment of pressures, problems, areas and sectors etc. through National Focal Points to its network of Topic Centers. Each Topic Centre concentrates on collecting and disseminating information in a specific area, for example, inland waters, air quality, land cover, and nature conservation. These elements are connected together through a telematics network. The expansion of this network to CEE started during 1997 and has already begun to improve the accessibility of environmental information for the decisionmaker, improve data collection methods and harmonise this on a pan-European level. While essentially still an Intranet, improved public access is also achieved through the EEA's web site from which links to Topic Centres are available.
The EU's Phare Programme has been active in many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe since 1990 and has financed a number of activities that have supported improved environmental data collection, analysis and dissemination. Its support of the Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin (EPDRB) has seen the implementation of an international surface water quality monitoring, data collection, and assessment system provided currently though eleven monitoring stations, and an Accident Emergency Warning System (AEWS) served by Principle International Alert Centres (PIAC's) in each of the 17 Danubian countries. This has brought tangible benefits to the host CEE, countries including strengthened national and international capacity to provide reliable information, an information management system capable of serving environmental managers at the national level, while permitting the exchange of information at the international level, and improved comparability of sampling techniques and laboratory analysis.
These benefits help to ensure improved information with regard to polluters, the monitoring of compliance with EU standards, and advance knowledge of emergencies such as oil spills and pollution leaks. Information on the state of the Danube is made available through a National Information Centres Network and National Reference Laboratory Network.
The Black Sea Programme, an internationally funded initiative has also seen similar benefits with the launch of a pollution monitoring programme. Assessments of land-based pollution sources in the different countries of the region has enabled scientists and decisionmakers to make a first assessment of priority actions for controlling land and sea based sources of pollution, and encouraged international cooperation in improving the quality of the Black Sea. A Geographic Information System (GIS) has also been developed through the cooperation of eleven scientific institutions and more than 50 experts in the region, and is the first comprehensive, multi-disciplinary resources developed for scientists and environment managers, for the public and NGO community. The Black Sea Information System meanwhile, can be accessed via the Internet and provides metalevel data on major marine environmental datasets collected through the above systems, as well as contact information to scientists, experts, research programmes, summary reports and so on.
The Corine projects have served to collect data on Land Cover, Air quality and Biotopes through the so-called Corine inventory.
In 1990, the CORINAIR Programme, a Phare funded initiative, launched an air emission inventory for the CEE countries beginning with a telematics-based assessment of all known pollution sources, such as industry, transport, agriculture, and nature. This has enabled policymakers to effectively list the priority actions required for controlling air pollution. A secondary benefit was the establishment of a standardized methodology for air emission inventorying in the EU as well as in the CEE countries, permitting a common approach on the analysis of problems and search for possible solutions.
The CORINE Land Cover inventory project aimed to classify and define land cover related to geographic context by relying on GIS technology. Each classification is thus documented with colour photographs, generalized patterns, statistics (for the total area of a given class in hectares, with a number for the classified area, and for the classified area in relation to the country's total area), as well as a description followed by ancillary data and satellite image hardcopies. The results from the project are intended to assist in the effective development of relevant policy on European environmental land cover applications and indicators, maintenance of the European CORINE Land Cover database, as well as analysis of land cover and changes in land use.
In Bulgaria, the CORINE Biotopes Programme of the European Commission played an important role in initiating a standardized, coherent and compatible national database on protected and/or threatened plant and animal species and habitats for the benefit of nature conservation management. The project has served as a basis for the development of a nationwide Biodiversity Monitoring Programme. The aim of the classification was to create an effective habitat identification tool for a wide range of field workers, botanists, zoologists, and conservation experts, to map the habitat mosaic patterns on the landscape level at a scale of 1:25,000, which falls between the scale of CORINE Land Cover data and usual vegetation maps, as well as to monitor the changes in habitat diversity using satellite images and aerial photographs combined with surface mapping of habitat units.
Much of this data is now collected on CD-ROM and is available free of charge to most public research institutes, libraries and resource centers, making it a valuable resource for the public at large.
In the environment field, telecottages assist local municipalities in elaborating local sustainable development plans, raising awareness to proposed environmental investments, and assist in studies concerning local needs. Data pertaining to the changes in nature and landscape, land use, travel information, and sustainable development are collected and disseminated by the network. The work of the telecottage is usually voluntary but has been financed in the past with the support of local development programmes.
At the municipal level, the Prague Environmental Information System (IOZIP), managed by the Institute of Municipal Informatics of the City of Prague (IMIP), collects environmental data from different sources, processes this into a digital form and disseminates this for the benefit of the Prague City Authorities, experts and the public. A wide range of subjects are covered by the system including air, water, soil, landscape and noise pollution. Modern technologies such as GIS and the Internet are utilised for data processing, with information standardized for output either in digital form (on CD-ROM), on the Internet or printed materials (yearbooks, atlas etc.). The institution is supported by the City of Prague municipal budget and is responsible for supporting activities aimed toward the development of the City's information systems, including those in the environment field. An interesting feature to note is the fact that the data management system, IOZIP, was initiated more than ten years ago.
In the field of EIA, increasing attention is being given to the use of GIS in surveying land use and risk assessments. The value in this technology for surveying many different social elements (land use, pollution levels, climate trends, populations, transportation use etc.) at once makes it an excellent tool for urban planners, either within local authorities or within the private sector. Particularly, GIS technology can be applied for screening new investments that could have a potentially harmful effect on the environment, industry, for example. This screening procedure is increasingly requested by EIA legislation, which itself is growing in importance, not just in CEE countries but across the European region. The procedure is increasingly relying on municipal information systems (such as IOZIP or Telecottages) and sources like the Internet for signaling announcements of new investments. Electronic dissemination also helps to encourage among other things, public participation in the environmental decisionmaking process. A system that not only details new investments but also invites public opinion to be submitted electronically by email, Internet or public kiosks could be of considerable strategic value to the public, to city and local authority planners, and to the private sector in seeking an ideal means to solicit public opinion concerning proposed developments.
Secondly, while some organisations may be fortunate enough to receive financial support and donations of equipment and technical support, much of this remains superficial without the necessary training of individuals in how to effectively use the equipment. In some cases, decisionmakers still prefer to glance out the window for detecting poor air quality rather than switch on their hi-tech PC which delivers the information to their desk.
Thirdly, support that is initially offered should be provided with a guaranteed source of technical support and replacement hardware, for example when elements of the system wear out or become obsolete. With equipment supplied from the EU or the USA, it can often be impossible to upgrade or replace without the procedure becoming a time-consuming and costly affair.
Fourthly, in spite of considerable investment, the telecommunications infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe remains weak for supporting live, real-time telecommunications links. Data transfer can often be interrupted, making the process of data collection time consuming and frustrating.
Finally, while telematics equipment can offer the local decisionmaker increased awareness of those polluters of the environment, vague rules on environmental responsibility passed down from the central level can leave the authorities powerless to act in terms of regulating polluters.