Towards eEnvironment, a Shared Environmental Information System for Europe
“Integration of knowledge on Europe’s environment” was the main motto of the conference Towards eEnvironment, which took place on 25 to 27 March 2009 in Prague. The European Commission intends to establish a Shared Environmental Information System, a system which would provide high-quality and verified information.
A number of environmental information systems are currently operated in Europe. However, the goal of the EU Commission is to establish a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), which would serve as a uniform entry portal for information on the state and development of the environment and on activities aimed at its protection. In order to promote this plan, the Czech Presidency of the EU Council called an international conference entitled Towards eEnvironment, which was held in Prague this week.
The conference, which was ceremonially opened by the First Deputy Minister of the Environment, Mr. Jan Dusík, together with the Vice-Rector of Masaryk University in Brno, Mr. Jan Svatoň, was attended by over 400 participants from all over the world, including the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, the Director of the Earth Observation Programmes of the Eureopean Space Agency, Mr. Volker Liebig, and the Deputy Minister of the Environment, Ms. Rut Bízková.
The Shared Environmental Information System will provide the general public, public administration, companies and also the media with easy access to credible and comparable information on the state of the environment in the countries of the European Union. SEIS will use geographic information systems, which will allow for viewing maps on the state of the environment. Furthermore, it will include, for example, information on the quality and quantity of water, waste management and quality of air, land monitoring, information on protected areas, emission limit values, the applicable legislation and further useful and guaranteed information. It will also utilise Global Monitoring for Environment and Security.
The international conference Towards eEnvironment focused on information exchange and sharing amongst the academic community, public administration, European environment agencies, firms and institutions that are involved in processing information on the environment, as well as the end-users of such information. In conclusion of the conference, representatives of the EU Member States adopted a Memorandum on SEIS. This important document will be submitted to the European Commission as a recommendation of the Czech Presidency for further introduction of the SEIS. “Through this conference, the Czech Presidency strived to encourage faster introduction of the Shared Environmental Information System in the EU and allow not only public administration and companies, but also the general public to obtain better electronic access to verified information,” said First Deputy Minister of the Environment, Jan Dusík.
“The conference also pointed out developing activities in the area of environmental information systems and allowed experts to establish closer cooperation,” concluded the chairman of the conference, Prof. Jiří Hřebíček of Masaryk University in Brno.
On Thursday, 26 March, awards were ceremonially handed out in the Bethlehem Chapel for the best papers presented in the four sessions of the conference with respect to the use of information technologies in the area of the environment. In international competition, the representatives of the Czech Republic, Jiří Čtyřoký and Michal Pochmann, received the first prize in the section Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) for their paper entitled “Urban Atlas helps urban planners in Prague”.
The conference was organized by Masaryk University in Brno in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment, the European Commission, the European Environment Agency and the European Space Agency. CENIA – the Czech Environmental Information Agency, the Czech Space Office, the Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute also took part in organisation of the conference.
For more information, including papers presented at the conference, please visit www.e-envi2009.org.
Contact:
- Jakub Kašpar, Spokesperson, Ministry of the Environment, Czech Republic
- tel.: +420 267 122 040, mobile: +420 724 175 927; e-mail: jakub.kaspar@mzp.cz
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:40
