1 Aarhus Convention Task Force on Electronic Information Tools Sofia, Bulgaria 23-24 June 2003 Chris Jarvis Information Policy Manager.

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Aarhus Convention Task Force on Electronic Information Tools

Sofia, Bulgaria23-24 June 2003

Chris Jarvis

Information Policy Manager

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Introduction

1. EA Experience

2. EA/UNEP Project

3. Information Delivery Framework

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Environment Agency

•Non Departmental Public Body responsible to Department of the Environment

•Wide range of duties and powers relating to environmental management

•11,000 staff across England and Wales

•8 Regional Offices, 26 Area Offices

•~100 staff respond to >350,000 requests

•We place a high priority on the provision of information in achieving environmental goals

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1. EA Experience

•What’s in Your Backyard?

• Information Services

•Public Participation

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EA Experience


What’s in your backyard?

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EA Experience


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EA Experience



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Information Services: property search

•Providing Environmental Information of direct importance to a decision-making situation

•Highly tailored service

•Developed to meet a specific need

•User led development

•Environmental benefit

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request

Customer Contact

Log +track

Acknowledge

Distribute for answers

Up

to

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functions

Compileresponse

Sendout and log

cheque

Area/ Regional Finance

reconciliation

exceptionsRe-allocation of resources

ReceiptConfirmation of payment

• it costs us a lot of time and money

• to provide different information

•at the wrong time

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Electronic transaction

Solicitor Prints ReportWeb Service

Nationally maintained data layers


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But not quite that easy...

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EA Experience



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EA Experience



•Public Participation

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Public Participation:Public Registers

Application Advert ConsultationResponses

Licence Monitoring Action ...

Public Register

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Public Participation:Does it Work?

• Are people aware?

• Are paper files convenient?

• Is the information presented meaningfully?

• Is location in offices convenient?

• Do we reach a wide cross-section of society?

• Could we do better?!

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Engaging Citizens

•Make information relevant to everyday lives

•Link Information Systems to Participation Systems

•Provide access without effort, where and when required

•Use novel techniques to reach all of society

• (Please tell us how to do it!)

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Our Way Forward:

•Electronic access to actual documents

•Real time ‘flagging’ of live decisions

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Public Participation:Public Registers

Application Advert ConsultationResponses

Licence Monitoring Action ...

Public Register

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Our Way Forward:

•Research into social aspects of engagement

•Partnerships with local community groups

•Electronic ‘open forums’

•Record interests and provide relevant information

•Assess impacts on our own organisation

•Electronic access to actual documents

•Real time ‘flagging’ of live decisions

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DEFRA EC

VARs WIYBY V2

Documents

eRegisters

Education

What’s happening/have your say, local data to analyse, etc.

Communities

e.g. libraries - what’s happening in your area

Individuals

FoI Scheme

Local Government

Registers, planning etc.

Insurance, Consultancies and other spin offs

Land Development

Commercial

Residential

Data

Property Search

+ Environmental Messages

+ SIC Specific Guidance

+ SIC Specific Guidance

Business Info.

DUNS No.

Financial Investment

Financial Services

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2. EA/UNEP Project: Backgound

•EA/UNEP collaboration since 2000

•Building upon experience

•Senior Support

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Project: Current Status

• ‘Seedcorn’ funding

•Bid to UK FCO funding

•Seeking Partners

•… and advice, comments, information ...

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Project Proposal

•Capacity Building

•Develop pilots/proof of concepts

•Deliver a framework

– common requirements

– engender consistency

– identification of funding streams

– identification of user needs

… linked to EU ‘INSPIRE’ initiative

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Environments do not respect political boundaries

INSPIRE

Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe

The INSPIRE objective:

The preparation of a framework legislative act aimed at making available relevant, harmonised and quality geographic information for the purpose of the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Community environmental policy-making

Complementary

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Public

Sector

Info

rmati

on

Environmental

Information

INSPIREEnabled Access

Copyright

Databases

Data Protection

Ratification of Aarhus

WFD

Habitats

Noise

INSPIRE


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INSPIRE Principles (1)

• Data should be collected once and maintained at a level where this can be done most efficiently

• It should be possible to combine spatial information from different sources across Europe in a seamless way, and to share it amongst many users and applications

• It should be possible for information collected at one level to be shared with other levels

INSPIRE


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INSPIRE Principles (2)

• Geographic information needed for good governance at all levels should be readily available

• It should be simple to discover which geographic information is available and under what conditions it can be acquired and used

• Geographic data should be easy to understand and interpret, i.e. user-friendly

INSPIRE


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3. EA/UNEP Project Framework

From Inspiration to practice ...

• Reference Data and Metadata

• Architecture & Standards

• Environmental Thematic Data

• Implementation Structures & Funding

• Impact Analysis

• Data Policy & Legal Issues

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Architecture and Standards

Interoperability

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What is interoperability?

• Interoperability:

– ‘capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that requires the user to have little knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units’ [ISO 2382-1]

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What is interoperability?

• In other words:

– ‘the ability of systems to talk to one another in an agreed manner’

•Adoption of standards is the keystone to interoperability (SOAP, WMS, WFS, SQL, HTML, XML)

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Interoperable GIS?

• Interoperable GIS

– Spatial components and standards that allow the communication described above.

•A standardised manner of discovering, querying, retrieving, and disseminating digital geographic information

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But what does this mean?

Routes and Timetables(MapInfo)

Local Maps(ESRI SDE)

Registers(ORACLE)

Mobile

Work

Home

Hazards(Intergraph)

Local Government

Environment

al Services

Transport

Services

Central

Government

School

Standar

ds

Standar

ds

Standar

ds

Standar

ds

Network

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Why do we want interoperable GIS?

•Greater access to decision support information

– Opening-up isolated data islands

•Better customer/citizen service

– Real-time access and delivery of a wider range of data sources and services

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Why do we want interoperable GIS?

•More efficient system implementations

– No re-invention of the wheel

•Reduced reliance on proprietary/vendor specific platforms, data sources, and components

– Ability to swap-out components in best-of-breed architectures

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Drivers - Simple Accessibility• Interoperability can be the glue that binds multiple,

complex resources into more simple views

Data ProvidersCommercial

ServicesN.G.O’sSchools

ServiceAgencies

GovernmentDepartments

Local Authorities

Interoperability SOAP - XML - GML - WFS - WMS - HTTP - ISO Interoperability

Planning

Portal

INSPIREGI Gateway

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Data - Standards•Data interfaces that conform to

defined model standards allow diverse systems to...

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Finally ...

… Semantic Interoperability

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Data ?

• Raw Data

• Basic Data

• Primary Data

• Operating Data

• Core Data

• Non-core Data

• Key Data

• Essential Data

• Fundamental Data

• Reference Data

• Framework Data

• Core Reference Data

• Thematic Data

• Core Thematic Data

• Product Data

• Statistical Data

• Catalogue Data

• Temporal Data

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Oh, yes . . . well

• Spatio-temporal Data

• Value-added Data

• Public Data

• Personal Data

• Private Data

• Commercial Data

• Tradable Data

• Business Data

• Cadastral Data

• Metadata

• Spatial Data

• Geospatial Data

• Topographic Data

• Geodetic Data

• Map Data

• Raster Data

• Vector Data

• Territorial Data

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. . . it all depends.

• Geodata

• Quality Data

• Processed Data

• Geoinformatic Data

• Census Data

• Large scale Data

• Small scale Data

• Environmental Data

• Event Data

• Archive Data

• Re-usable Data

• Geomatic Data

• Heritage Data

• Sectoral Data

• Public Sector Data

• Library Data

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I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise

that what you heard is not what I meant.

Alan Greenspan

Chair of the US Federal Reserve

… who happily admits that since he became a central banker, he has learnt to mumble with

great incoherence