Download Reportnet - General

Introduction to the EEA and the EIONET
Anna Rita Gentile , European Environment Agency
First meeting of the ESBN Digital Soil Mapping working group
Miskolc 7-8 April 2005
EEA mission
Established by EEC Regulation 1210/1990, amended by
EEC Regulation 933/1999, EEA is operational since
1994
“EEA aims to support sustainable development
and to help achieve significant and measurable
improvement in Europe’s environment,
through the provision of timely, targeted,
relevant and reliable information to
policy making agents and the public’”
EEA members and participating countries
IS
FI
NO
SE
EE
LV
Old members
LT
IE
UK
NL
New members
SK
Cooperating
countries
DE
BE
LU
FR
PL
CZ
LI
AT
CH
HU
RO
SI HR
BA
YU
BG
IT
PT
MK
ES
AL
TR
GR
CY
MT
16/03/2001
EEA main tasks
• Make environmental information accessible
• Networking – Implement and coordinate the
EIONET (European Environmental Observation and
Information Network)
• Reporting – Prepare regular reports on the state
and trends of the environment
• Annual budget of approx. 30 Meuro, approx. 130
staff, 5 topic centres
EIONET
More than 300 national institutions in 31 countries:
•
•
•
•
National Focal Points
European Topic Centres
National Reference Centres
Main component elements
• Members are nominated by countries
• Aims to improve capacity building in member states
• Improve data flows related to reporting obligations (also
moral obligations)
• Covers a broad range of environmental issues
European Topic Centres
• Water
• Terrestrial environment
• Air and climate change
• Biodiversity (new)
• Sustainable use of natural resources (new)
EEA strategy 2004-2008: Main directions
• EEIS – European Environmental Information System
(shared, integrated, spatial)
• Strengthening of international partnerships
• Contribution to streamlining of European reporting
(Reportnet tools)
• Use of indicators, scenarios, prospective analysis and
other tools to support policy assessment
• Spatial dimension of environmental problems/regional
integrated spatial assessments
• Facilitate access to information
Nr. of reporting obligations per
environmental theme
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Acidification
Air Quality
Biodiversity Change and Nature
Chemicals
Climate Change
Natural Resources
Noise
Ozone Depletion
Soil
EU
Convention
UN
OECD
Various other issues
Waste
Water
Source:
EEA ROD
Current situation: Overlapping data flows
The Public and Decision-Makers
EC
Eurostat
DG
EEA
OECD UNEP
Other
ETC
DG
NRC
NFP and other National Authorities
Current development: Use of common
tools (Reportnet)
A system of IT tools and business processes, to
share with others, in order to improve European
environmental reporting by:
• Streamlining
• Quality improvement
• Ensuring Transparency and availability
of information reported by countries
The future: towards a shared European
Environmental Information System (EEIS)
International Organisations, ConventionsEuropean Union
e.g. UNEP, UNECE, OECD, Basel Conv. EEA, Eurostat
Shared
EEIS
information
Shared
EIONET
information
User access
shared tools
e.g. Reportnet tools
Information
Infrastructure
EECCA
countries
other
EEA
countries Member countries
Users
Policy makers,
Env. experts,
Media,
Informed
public
Towards a European Spatial Information
System: Understanding territorial change
•
•
•
•
•
“what is happening”
“why it is happening”
“does it matter”
“what is being done”
“where it is happening”
Integrated “spatial” assessments
Environmental media
Water
Air
Soil
Flora
&
fauna
Transport
Fisheries
…
Sectors
Agriculture
Example:
PRospective Environmental analysis of Land
Use Development in Europe: PRELUDE
Status
to date
Scenarios
High density of use
Medium density of use
Low density of use
(1) How much?
(2) Where?
(3) Environmental impacts?
SOIL ACTIVITIES IN EEA WORK PROGRAMME
2004-2008: Landscape assessments and
understanding territorial change
To support the territorial aspects of
environmental policies, with specific
reference to land use changes in
ecologically sensitive areas and soil
protection. Specific activities:
• Creation of an integrated information system to
support thematic and sectorial policies;
• Sustainability assessments in European regions for
biodiversity and landscapes;
• Evaluation of territorial changes in relation to:
climate change, desertification, erosion,
estensification and intensification of agricultural
activities and contamination;
• Assessments of marine and coastal ecosystems.
EEA-EIONET JRC-ESBN collaboration
(output from meeting in Barcelona
15/9/2004) - 1
• Action plan for soil information (EEA lead)
• Rationale
• Basic reference data sets
• Information Services
• Output. Report covering:
• Information requirement specification
• Action plan for completion of technical options for
monitoring
• Organisational settings for monitoring
EEA-EIONET JRC-ESBN collaboration
(output from meeting in Barcelona
15/9/2004) - 2
• Digital soil function mapping (JRC lead)
• Technical review (state of the art, future needs,
technical feasibility)
• Capability development (protocol and processes, data
assembly, system construction)
• Outcome: Report:
• Specification for system design
• Requirements for DSFM infrastructure
EEA-EIONET JRC-ESBN collaboration
(output from meeting in Barcelona
15/9/2004) - 3
• Enhancing business as usual (JRC and
EEA)
• Improving soil data availability and quality
• Upgrading EUSIS
• Moving to open access
Thank you!
http://www.eea.eu.int