1. 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

2. “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 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.

3. EEA members and participating countries
Old members
New members
Cooperating countries
16/03/2001

4. 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)

5. 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

6. European Topic Centres
Water
Terrestrial environment
Air and climate change
Biodiversity (new)
Sustainable use of natural resources (new)

7. 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

8. Nr. of reporting obligations per environmental theme
Source: EEA ROD

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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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”

13. 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 …

14. 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

15. SOIL ACTIVITIES IN EEA WORK PROGRAMME : 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.

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Thank you!