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 aims to support sustainable development 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’” The EEA mission and tasks EEA was established with the Council Regulation 1210/90 in May 1990. It started its operations in Copenhagen in July 1994. The Regulation defines the tasks and the mandate of the Agency; and it is currently being reviewed in the light of the assessment of the work done during the first 4 years. The EEA mission is to contribute to the improvement of the environment in Europe and to support sustainable development through the provision of reliable, targeted, relevant and timely information to policy makers and the general public. While the EEA mandate is to provide information to Community institutions and Member states required “ to frame, identify, prepare, implement and evaluate … sound and effective policies” on the environment and to assure that the public is properly informed.

EEA members and participating countries Old members New members Cooperating countries 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 Therefore the EEA is not a regulatory body, it has not been created to control the implementation of environmental policies in Europe, these roles being the responsibility of the European Commission. Given all that, the EEA main tasks are: to report on the state and trends of the environment to establish, develop and make use of the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (EIONET) to facilitate access to data and information supplied to, maintained and emanating from EEA and EIONET, together with access to other relevant environmental information developed by other national and international sources (one stop shop)

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 Source: EEA ROD

Current situation: Overlapping data flows Eurostat EC EEA OECD UNEP The Public and Decision-Makers ETC DG NFP and other National Authorities NRC Other

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) other countries Users EIONET Information Infrastructure European Union EEA, Eurostat EEA Member countries Policy makers, Env. experts, Media, Informed public User access shared tools e.g. Reportnet tools EECCA International Organisations, Conventions e.g. UNEP, UNECE, OECD, Basel Conv.

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”

Regions: e.g. Coastal zones, basins, , River Urban areas Risk zones Integrated “spatial” assessments Environmental media Water Air Soil Flora & fauna Transport Regions: e.g. Coastal zones, basins, , Agriculture River Sectors Urban areas Risk zones Fisheries …

Example: PRospective Environmental analysis of Land Use Development in Europe: PRELUDE Scenarios (1) How much? (2) Where? (3) Environmental impacts? High density of use Medium density of use Low density of use Status to date

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 DEVELOPMENT OF AN ACTION PLAN FOR SOIL INFORMATION (This will be led by the EEA) RATIONALE [Explanation of why soil information is needed] REFERENCE DATA SETS (BASIC) [Definition of which variables are relevant / priorities, at which scales, etc, etc] INFORMATION SERVICES [Definition of scope of soil information infrastructure requirements THE OUTPUT WILL BE A REPORT COVERING ·  AN INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION ·  AN ACTION PLAN FOR COMPLETION OF TECHNICAL OPTIONS FOR MONITORING ·  PROPOSALS FOR ORGANISATIONAL SETTINGS FOR MONITORING DIGITAL SOIL FUNCTION MAPPING (This will be led by the JRC) TECHNICAL REVIEW                                                                i.      Current state of the art                                                              ii.      Scope of future needs                                                             iii.      Technical feasibility THE OUTPUT WILL BE A TECHNICAL REPORT COVERING ·  A SPECIFICATION FOR SYSTEM DESIGN ·  REQUIREMENTS FOR DIGITAL FUNCTION MAPPING INFRASTRUCTURE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT                                                                i.      PROTOCOLS AND PROCESSES                                                              ii.      DATA ASSEMBLY                                                             iii.      SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION ENHANCING BUSINESS AS USUAL (This comprises the relevant, continuing activities of both the EEA and the JRC) IMPROVING SOIL DATA AVAILABILITY AND QUALITY UPGRADING EUSIS MOVING TO OPEN ACCESS

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 DEVELOPMENT OF AN ACTION PLAN FOR SOIL INFORMATION (This will be led by the EEA) RATIONALE [Explanation of why soil information is needed] REFERENCE DATA SETS (BASIC) [Definition of which variables are relevant / priorities, at which scales, etc, etc] INFORMATION SERVICES [Definition of scope of soil information infrastructure requirements THE OUTPUT WILL BE A REPORT COVERING ·  AN INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION ·  AN ACTION PLAN FOR COMPLETION OF TECHNICAL OPTIONS FOR MONITORING ·  PROPOSALS FOR ORGANISATIONAL SETTINGS FOR MONITORING DIGITAL SOIL FUNCTION MAPPING (This will be led by the JRC) TECHNICAL REVIEW                                                                i.      Current state of the art                                                              ii.      Scope of future needs                                                             iii.      Technical feasibility THE OUTPUT WILL BE A TECHNICAL REPORT COVERING ·  A SPECIFICATION FOR SYSTEM DESIGN ·  REQUIREMENTS FOR DIGITAL FUNCTION MAPPING INFRASTRUCTURE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT                                                                i.      PROTOCOLS AND PROCESSES                                                              ii.      DATA ASSEMBLY                                                             iii.      SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION ENHANCING BUSINESS AS USUAL (This comprises the relevant, continuing activities of both the EEA and the JRC) IMPROVING SOIL DATA AVAILABILITY AND QUALITY UPGRADING EUSIS MOVING TO OPEN ACCESS

Enhancing business as usual (JRC and EEA) 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

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