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Theme IV-3: Environmental
Data Integration – Dr. David Stanners (European Environment Agency,
Copenhagen, Denmark)
Presentation abstracts
will appear here as soon as possible.
Bridging The Gap:
Information for Action
The ‘Gap’ which needs
bridging is between the data/ information available and
that needed for ‘sound and effective’ environmental policymaking.
The ‘Bridging the Gap’ conference in 1998, concluded:
‘At present some
of the systems for monitoring and gathering information about
the environment in European countries are inefficient and wasteful…
there is therefore a pressing need to update and rationalize the
systems for monitoring and gathering information about the environment
throughout Europe. Streamlining such systems could release resources…
better directed to improving information on policy relevant and
topical subjects.’
The current reporting
system is largely the product of an environmental policy agenda
characterized by "end of pipe" approaches to point sources
of pollution that are controlled by "command and control
" policies. Whilst this has been successful in some areas, there
is now a recognized need to move towards the integration
of environmental policies into economic sectors, to tackle diffuse
sources of pollution, and to broaden the range of policy measures.
This shift in the environmental agenda needs to be supported
by an appropriate monitoring and reporting system, from one that
is mainly designed for compliance reporting on directives
or regulations, to one designed for assessment reporting.
Environmental monitoring
(e.g. of air and water quality), modelling (e.g. of air emission
estimates and outlooks/scenarios) and statistics (e.g. on waste
and water use) programmes are established in countries for many
purposes (local, national, international) but are expensive and
take a long time to put in place. So this refocused reporting
system needs to be developed now, in parallel with the production
of the sector integration strategies. However some limitations
occurs in the practice while recommendations are made, for instance
in the European countries, the EEA Reporting Obligations Database
is an important analytical tool to support a streamlining process.
Integrated assessments
are now recognized as increasingly important and the EEA, in its
reports (e.g. Environment in the European Union at the Turn of
the Century) has made the best use of existing data but found
it lacking in many areas. The challenge we face therefore is to
re-configure programmes which deliver data that meet simultaneously
the compliance and policy assessment needs of policymakers in
the most cost-effective way. Progress is being made. For example,
the same air emissions data are used for meeting simultaneously
the needs of international conventions, sectoral reporting mechanisms,
EEA indicator reports and environmental outlooks. On water, links
are being made between data for EEA indicators and reporting under
the proposed Water Framework Directive.
On research, higher
priority should be given to plugging gaps in the areas of models,
scenarios and indicators.
The objectives of this
Session are to depict the state of the art and define the future
directions for research and development in this area both from
theoretical, developer and practitioner points of view.
Submitted abstracts
include:
Integration of Environmental
Data: A Fuzzy Set Approach
A Salaski. University of Kiel, Germany
Methodology for Integrating
Remote Sensing, Environment and Social Sciences
Dr. Liu Chuang, China
Linking environmental
and socio-economic information
David Heath: EUROSTAT
The role of uncertainty
and sensitivity analysis in data integration
Andrea Saltelli: JRC Ispra
Bridging the gap: Information
for Action
David Stanners: European Environment Agency
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