Subject: DEIA-Europe: Environmantal Information Networking
Greetings Colleagues,
For your reference please see Number 5 in the Series of Briefing
Notes which explain our activities within UNEPs Division of
Environmental Information and Assessment. Environmental
Information Networking (EIN) in Europe.
_____________________________________________________________
Briefing Note: Feb 14 1997
Activities in Europe:
UNEP/DEIA's environmental information networking activities in Europe cover
all three of UNEP's GRID, INFOTERRA and ENRIN programme elements:
- GRID (the Global Resource Information Database) is a network of
collaborating data centres facilitating the generation and dissemination of
key geo-referenced and statistical data sets, and information
products focusing on environmental and natural resource issues.
- ENRIN (Environment and Natural Resources Information Networks) is a
programme instituted to promote development of national and sub-regional
capacities in environmental data and information management to support
State-of-the-Environment (SoE) and issue-based assessments by partner
institutions in developing countries and countries with economies
in transition.
- INFOTERRA is The Global Environmental Information Exchange Network,
including referral system, of scientific, technical and bibliographic
materials and institutional sources, operating through a network of
174 government designated national focal points (NFPs).
The focus of activities in Europe is mainly environmental information
networking, capacity building and data management. A significant part of the
programme is carried out by two GRID centres located in Geneva, Switzerland
and Arendal, Norway.
Information Networking Activities / Partnerships:
One of the most vital European partners for UNEP is the European Environment
Agency (EEA) and its series of European Topic Centres (ETCs) for data and
information collection and dissemination. UNEP/DEIA's partnership with the
EEA has been further strengthened by the publication of a new State of
Environment (SoE) message on "Fresh Water Stress in Europe - can the
challenge be met?", through the harmonisation of our capacity building
programmes, outreach activities, and the exchange of information on
meta-database development.
UNEP/DEIA is in the process of brokering a number of agreements with
regional and national partners, which will expand UNEP's data and
information network and make relevant information more widely available. In
Europe, these include:
- data exchange agreement with RIVM's Department for Environmental
Information Systems (CIM) in the Netherlands;
- a similar agreement proposed with the European Forest Institute (EFI) in
Finland; discussions with the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) in
Cambridge, UK, with a view to it becoming a UNEP and GRID centre of
expertise for biodiversity-related data and information.
Other cooperating international organisations are the EU (EEA, PHARE,
TACIS), OECD, WHO/ECEH, UNDP, UN/DPCSD, UN/ECE, UNITAR, UNHCR, the World
Bank, GEF, Regional Environmental Centre, WCMC, University of Sussex, and
the regional bodies concerned with the Baltic Sea (HELCOM), the Danube, the
Black Sea, Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. The Central European Environmental
Data Request Faciltiy (CEDAR) in Vienna hosts the INFOTERRA and EIA list
servers on the Internet;UNEP/DEIA is involved in informal data partnerships
with UN and specialised agencies such as the DHA, UNHCR, IAEA, WHO and WMO.
UNEP therefore benefits from specialised sectoral data collected by these
agencies, and in exchange these agencies have direct access to and use of
all the new data/information collected and prepared by UNEP/DEIA.
Capacity Building and Servicing Activities:
At the sub-regional level UNEP/DEIA has a capacity building and servicing
project in which the two major European partners are the Istanbul-based
Black Sea Environmental Programme Coordination Unit (BSEPCU),
and the Environmental Programme of the Danube River Basin. In conjunction
with BSEPCU, DEIA has:
- created a comprehensive digital, geo-referenced environmental database for
the entire Black Sea drainage basin. helped to define the optimal GIS
capability for the BSEPCU, and obtained the related hardware and GIS
software. The delivery and installation of these in 1997, accompanied by
relevant training, will render the BSEPCU "GIS-capable". Assistance will
also be provided to the BSEPCU to help them improve their World Wide Web
site and put up much of the environmental data and information for more
global on-line access.
At the national level, UNEP/DEIA has generated substantial environmental
information networking interest in the CEE region, with 17 out of 27
countries actively participating, specifically:
- assessments of the environmental information systems have been carried out
for 12 countries, with three more in the pipeline; one GRID collaborating
centre has been established in Warsaw, with seven more planned (Budapest,
Moscow, Tibilisi, Kiev and the three Baltic States); technical assistance
has been provided to INFOTERRA NFPs in Estonia and Bulgaria to establish
national environmental information centres, and to NFPs in five CEE
countries to facilitate access to the Internet; the INFOTERRA Thesaurus
of Environmental Terms was revised and integrated with the EU/EEA
multi-lingual thesaurus, with assistance from the Italian NFP;
international cooperation has been catalyzed, with joint activities
with 8 international organizations, 4 regional bodies, 7 international NGOs,
private and academic institutions, and 7 bilateral donors.
Data Management Activities:
The preparation, value-adding and provision of global and European digital
environmental databases is an important activity for UNEP/DEIA. The data
sets are obtained from public domain sources, and a number of new data sets
are created.
All of the digital, geo-referenced data and related meta-information can be
accessed either 'on-line' through the Internet, or provided on electronic
media and/or in printed format.
The WWWebsite http://www.grid.unep.ch/gridhome.html)
summarises these data, and lists project activities. Some new European
databases and SOE Reports created and now available include:
- a new, digital version of the European Forest and Vegetation Map Database,
which contains information on more than 250 such maps from over 50 source
organisations, as a stand-alone MS-Access (classical) database product; an
updated version of the global Nuclear Power Plant Sites GIS database, with
new information furnished by the International Atomic Enegy Agency (IAEA);
through cooperating partners, easily understandable and accessible
environmental information has been compiled, including seven countries with
Internet versions of their SOE reports (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Hungary, Ukraine and Georgia); Human Population Density and Distribution
data sets for continental Asia, as part of an overall effort by GRID to
compile up-to-date and increasingly accurate data on the spatial
distribution of population at a global scale.
For more information please contact:
Ron Witt, Regional Coordinator
UNEP / GRID-Geneva
Geneva Executive Centre
N-4801 Arendal
1219 Chatelaine, SWITZERLAND
Tel: (41-22) 979-9294
Fax: (41-22) 979-9029
E-mail: rgwitt@gridi.unep.ch
WWW: http://www.grid.unep.ch/gridhome.html
or
Otto Simonett, Programme Manager
UNEP/GRID-Arendal
P.O. Box 1602 Myrene
11 chemin des Anemones
NORWAY
Tel: (47-370) 35650
Fax: (47-370) 35050
E-mail: simonett@grida.no
WWW: http://www.grida.no
Beth Ingraham (Ms.) ingrahab@unep.org
or infotinf@unep.org
Information Officer
INFOTERRA/PAC, UNEP
P.O. Box 47074, Nairobi INFOTERRA/PAC
Kenya The Global Environmental
Tel:(254-2) 624299; Information Exchange
Fax: (254-2)624269 or 226949 Network
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