1. Art. 17 reporting process Using the IT tool Art. 17 reporting process Using the IT tool Miruna Bădescu Sheila Cryan Søren Roug Rania Spyropoulou 17 October 2006

2. About this presentation This presentation is regularly updated New text added to the presentation since the version distributed in July 2006 is shown in red New text added to the presentation since the version distributed in September 2006 is shown in orange

3. Contents Background General concepts IT Tool Specifications A delivery example Test Plan Feedback from testing status : Oct 2006 IT Tool development status: Oct 2006 Procedures for reporting under Article 17

4. Background 1/ 2 April 2005: Framework for 2 nd reporting round under Article 17 of Habitats Directive adopted by Habitats Committee. Consequently the Guidelines for reporting were elaborated by ETC-BD and discussed in the Habitats Committee. Reporting deadline: 20 th June 2007 DG ENV requirement to develop an electronic format to be provided to MS. WHY? Need to get a European synthesis on the basis of national report information

5. Background 2/ 2 EEA is developing the tool for electronic reporting (IT tool) under its 2006 management plan (a request of DG ENV). ETC BD is providing the thematic expertise in close contact with DG ENV (B2 and F3 units), has elaborated the technical specifications. Member States are kept informed continuously– Habitats Scientific Working group/ Habitats Committee. 7 Volunteer MS are involved actively in the development of the tool, more are welcome to join (test plan, demonstration site, see slides 34-38). IT Tool development completed by end of 2006.

6. Contents Background General concepts IT Tool Specifications A delivery example Test Plan Feedback from testing status : Oct 2006 IT Tool development status: Oct 2006 Procedures for reporting under Article 17

7. General Concepts 1/4 The purpose of the IT tool is to support national reporting of information that can be rapidly processed for compiling the European synthesis report by the Commission. IT tool follows the Explanatory notes and guidelines adopted by the Habitats Committee.

8. General Concepts 2/4 The reporting tool uses XML based ‘factsheets’ for habitat types and species, including GML geographical data. WHY? Such a vast compilation of information needs to be comprehensive to humans but also to machines, in order to be rapidly processed.

9. General Concepts 3/4 A choice of national approaches: Countries can bulk upload their collected information in xml format from their national systems OR they can compile it on line OR use both options for different parts of their report including GIS data. A nominated delegate from each MS will be given authorisation to start and complete the delivery of the national report on the web. Upon his/ her request more people can be authorised as contributors within each MS, who can work on different parts in parallel. Authorised persons can inspect, validate and edit their national draft report via a web application – They can create/delete fact sheets online- They will be able to keep the draft for themselves until submission of the official version – all online.

10. General Concepts 4/4 Quality assessment (QA)- It is very important that QA during the drafting phase is covered in the national approach because mistakes are inevitable. During the drafting phase: QA script(s) will be available to be manually triggered on a given fact sheet of species or habitats by the contributors of each MS. It will also be possible to simulate the post delivery checks and obtain a feedback report. After submission by MS: All QA script(s) will be applied automatically to each national report, when the MS authorised delegate makes the submission (releases the envelope). The automated response (feedback report) will be posted to the delivery envelope and is immediately accessible to MS. The authorised delegate must decide whether to return to the drafting stage or finalize the submission process. This process is illustrated in the following slide. Manual inspection on submitted national reports will be done by the authorised delegate of DG ENV who posts feedback in the envelope. This feedback is then accessible to all users.

11. Workflow cycle in IT tool for a National Report Draft National Report Finish or go back to draft? Complete (Final Submission) Automatic QA Release (Submission) Create envelope      Feedback report Notification to other users Notification to other users

12. Contents Background General concepts IT Tool Specifications A delivery example Test Plan Feedback from testing status: Oct 2006 IT Tool development status: Oct 2006 Procedures for reporting under Article 17

13. IT Tool Specifications 1/7 They are available on the EIONET SVN: https://svn.eionet.europa.eu/repositories/Reportnet/G isTool/docs/Species and Habitats Directive/ https://svn.eionet.europa.eu/repositories/Reportnet/G isTool/docs/Species and Habitats Directive/ The IT tool will build on EEA experience with Reportnet: http://www.eionet.eu.int/rn/reportnet-brochure.doc http://www.eionet.eu.int/rn/reportnet-brochure.doc Main points and examples follow They are available on the EIONET SVN: https://svn.eionet.europa.eu/repositories/Reportnet/Gi sTool/docs/Species and Habitats Directive/ https://svn.eionet.europa.eu/repositories/Reportnet/Gi sTool/docs/Species and Habitats Directive/ The IT tool will build on EEA experience with Reportnet: http://www.eionet.eu.int/rn/reportnet-brochure.doc http://www.eionet.eu.int/rn/reportnet-brochure.doc Main points and examples follow

14. IT Tool Specifications 2/7: Lists Users will be offered pre-defined choices for reporting where these have been agreed in the Explanatory notes & guidelines. oExamples: biogeographic regions, Annex II species ….. Users will be able to select Natura 2000 site codes and names from the sites of community importance (SCIs) and special areas of conservation (SACs) lists at 31/12/2006 when reporting under Art. 6(1).

15. IT Tool Specifications 3/7 :free text Users will be able to write free text summaries where appropriate. oExample: Article 10 Users will be able to provide references to documentary material already published on-line in order to reduce the quantity of text reported. Users will be able to write text in their national language. However the IT tool and instructions will be in English Cyrillic and Greek alphabets will work

16. IT Tool Specifications 4/7 :GIS Countries will be able to make use of a geographical module within the IT tool for reporting on ranges, distributions and locations under Article 11. This module will provide the opportunity to enter geographical data directly on-line via a grid or to import from shape files via GML converter. The geographical data will be visible on selected standard backgrounds to allow quality controls. Geographical information will be included as images when the report is printed out.

17. Contents Background General concepts IT Tool Specifications Sample views of delivery process Test Plan Feedback from testing status : Oct 2006 IT Tool development status: Oct 2006 Procedures for reporting under Article 17

18. Starting the delivery the data provider (the nominated delegate from each MS) creates a delivery envelope in CDR this happens only once the envelope will contain all the files that make up the delivery of the national report under Article 17

19. Drafting the delivery the data provider opens the envelope and activates the “Draft” task the data provider and the appointed contributors start uploading files and/or using the questionnaire and GIS facilities according to their chosen national approach. each user working on a file locks the file to himself/herself

20. Example: delivering the information for factsheets through the web questionnaire The user creates a new habitat or species file and chooses initial attributes from the predefined list

21. What you see in the envelope after you start working on habitats fact sheets These files hold all the information for the fact sheet for habitat type 1110 You can quality check and edit the fact sheet until you are satisfied that the quality is correct

22. Delivering text information for a fact sheet 1.You can enter and edit text data through the web questionnaire for a habitat fact sheet. 2.You can also upload xml files directly from your system if this is your chosen national approach. See later slides “Delivering from national system”.

23. Delivering geographical data for a fact sheet 1.geographical data is entered using the online GIS editor. 2.Or you can also upload shape files compiled locally if this is your chosen national approach.

24. The online GIS editor will allow you to edit the attributes in your GIS files This is how the user edits This is what the GIS file looks like before and after the edit

25. The online GIS editor will allow you to visualize your GIS data on selected backgrounds to support quality checking GML entities are draped on top of the EEA map services. The geometry of the database information are stored inside GML dataset

26. The online GIS editor will allow you to edit the geometry in your GIS files Extract the GML entities from the background and edit the geometrical information

27. Delivering from national system (1) The system uses XML “factsheets” – one per species/habitat MS can generate these files from own database, validate them and upload them to CDR They can inspect files on CDR, and reupload or edit online if needed the XML schema has been defined by EEA

28. Delivering from national system (2) Delivering from national system (2) Excerpt from the xml file for a general report

29. Completing the drafting phase Once all the XML files and GIS files have been added to the envelope and the quality has been checked according to the national approach, the data provider releases the envelope this constitutes the submission to the Commission The envelope and the contained information is now publicly available

30. What happens when the envelope is released? The system sends out email notifications to those subscribed to receive information on this dataflow, informing about the new delivery The XML files are automatically quality assessed and feedback with the result is posted in the envelope The requester (European Commission) also manually verifies the delivery and may post additional feedback in the envelope

31. Viewing the delivery The delivery can be viewed in different formats (printed reports, export to relational databases, etc.) by using the converters the GIS converters (GML -> image, shape file, database records, Excel, etc.) will be integrated with the existing converters.

32. Display habitat xml file as a fact sheet Using the converters for a habitat XML, it can be displayed as a fact sheet with images - easy to read online and printer friendly

33. GIS files can be viewed in various formats PNG image with background GIS viewer PNG image without background

34. Finish or go back to drafting? Based on the Automatic QA result (feedback report) and on the requester’s (European Commission’s) feedback, the data provider decides to: revoke the envelope and update the files or complete the delivery ie finalize the submission of the national report

35. Contents Background General concepts IT Tool Specifications Sample views of delivery process Test Plan Feedback from testing status: Oct 2006 IT Tool development status: Oct 2006 Procedures for reporting under Article 17

36. Test Plan 1/4 Testing by volunteer MS is part of the development of the IT tool The test plan has been available since the end of July, the testing period will end by mid November The tool will be delivered by the end of DEC 2006

37. Test plan 2/4 Persons appointed by volunteering MS have been informed by email about the test plan and the procedures for testing Volunteers will be included in the mailing list and a user group has been established to have an organised feedback from users and questions from the software developers The comments, discussions and conclusions will be made public

38. The demonstration web site 3/4 The demonstration website replicates the Central Data Repository in presentation and functionality Users can see and test in real conditions the Art. 17 reporting tool in the testing period The website will be constantly updated based on approved feedback Upon final acceptance, this tool will be moved to the Central Data Repository URL: http://cdrtest.eionet.europa.euhttp://cdrtest.eionet.europa.eu

39. Test Plan 4/4 The entire reporting process will be covered, i.e.: data definition and submissions (general part, habitats and species) usability issues presentation of the fact sheets assessment For more information contact : Rania Spyropoulou and Carlos Romao (rania.spyropoulou@eea.europa.eu) (romao@mnhn.fr)rania.spyropoulou@eea.europa.euromao@mnhn.fr

40. Contents Background General concepts IT Tool Specifications Sample views of delivery process Test Plan Feedback from testing status : Oct 2006 IT Tool development status: Oct 2006 Procedures for reporting under Article 17

41. Feedback status October -2006 1/2 Feedback and comments from: Germany, Finland, France, Netherlands on: Upload and convert data from national repositories Data formats - XML schemas (XSD) Online editing of the reports - Web forms Creation of the empty files instances The reporting process usability Visualisation of the reports (converters)

42. Feedback status October-2006 2/2 Further Feedback still needed for: The on-line creation and editing of the data countries where national approach does not gather data in national repositories first Quality assessment rules for files (yet to be developed) GIS data upload and visualisation need to test on real data Reporting statistics after the release of the delivery to the public (yet to be developed)

43. Contents Background General concepts IT Tool Specifications Sample views of delivery process Test Plan Feedback from testing status : Oct 2006 IT Tool development status: Oct 2006 Procedures for reporting under Article 17

44. Developments status Oct-2006 1/5 The formats for the XML files (XML schemas) were released: General format (Annex A) Species (Annex B) Habitats (Annex D) Geographical maps – GML with metadata information Document issued explaining the “XML format description of instance files” for the generation of XML files from national databases The data formats are subject of improvement based on feedback Data formats

45. Developments status Oct-2006 2/5 Web forms created for the on-line editing of the reports corresponding to: annexes A, B and D GIS metadata Also completed : on-line GIS editor The Web forms are subject of improvement as result of feedback On-line editing

46. Developments status Oct-2006 3/5 Alternative presentations (conversion) of the XML files: Web factsheets for annexes A, B and D Maps: Image (PNG) GIS on-line viewer Google Earth format Metadata factsheet Waiting for feedback on the usefulness of the converters in order to examine, upload and download of the data Converters

47. Developments status Oct-2006 4/5 The software support created Need of feedback for the creation of QA scripts for the: Reports for annexes A, B and D GIS data assessment (in preparation) Quality assessment

48. Developments status Oct-2006 5/5 The reporting workflow for Art. 17 is based on the standard Reportnet workflow, customised to fit specific needs: display of large amount of files and feedback handling of GIS data statistics on the delivery Developments in progress: special upload and validation forms for XML files improvements in display and search of the files uploaded reporting statistics Reporting process

49. Contents Background General concepts IT Tool Specifications Sample views of delivery process Test Plan Feedback from testing status : Sep. 2006 IT Tool development status: Sep. 2006 Procedures for reporting under Article 17

50. Procedures needed for: MS nominations of delegates for the role of data provider Comm. nomination of expert review team Granting of privileges in CDR Official submission Post submission review (automated and manual) Official resubmission