Building bridges: experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of INSPIRE and e-reporting of air quality data in Europe

The collection, exchange and use of air quality data require diverse monitoring, processing and dissemination systems to work together. They should supply data, which can afterwards be used in different contexts such as planning, population exposure and environmental impact assessment. As air quality is not dependant on national borders this would only be feasible on an international level. This manuscript reports on the lessons learned from using the world’s largest data harmonization effort for environmental information infrastructure - INSPIRE as a backbone of a European wide spatial data reporting system which involves an unprecedented number of actors and volumes of data. It is important in the context of Digital Earth, and the establishment of a global SDI through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), as the quality of ambient air is among the pressing environmental problems of today. We summarize our findings from the perspective of national public authorities, obliged by law to transmit spatio-temporal data in order to streamline reporting and facilitate the use of information, while keeping public expenditure at minimum. To identify what works in this type of reporting we established a cross-border case study, looking at the process of harmonization and exchange of data in Belgium and the Netherlands based on interoperable standards. Our results cover the legal, semantic, technological and organizational aspects of reporting. They are relevant to a cross-thematic audience, having to undergo similar processes of reporting, such as climate change, but also environmental noise, marine, biodiversity, and water management.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

EULF Energy Pilot - Final Report Phase 1

The European Union is giving more and more emphasis to its energy policies, reinforcing a political commitment to very high energy savings, with the aim to achieve a more competitive, secure and sustainable European energy system. Increased energy efficiency is vital to achieve the challenging goals set for the future and energy efficiency constitutes one of the five dimensions of the European Commission's Energy Union Package, designed to enhance energy security, sustainability and competitiveness. Within this policy context, this report focused on the 2010/31/EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings and the 2012/27/EU Directive on Energy Efficiency, describing an initial set of pilot activities undertaken to enable and test the use of geospatial technologies in Digital Government processes and services related to energy efficiency EU policies, aiming to show, through a set of use cases, that accurate and interoperable location-based information can lower the barriers faced by government, companies and citizens involved in the energy efficiency policies’ lifecycle. The approach adopted is based on the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support Community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment, such as energy policies. The enabling role played by INSPIRE consists in the provision of common data models and common data access rules adopted by all EU MS and a roadmap to provide interoperable datasets of high relevance with energy efficiency. The report has identified a series of next steps to be undertaken to achieve the expected benefits deriving from the use of interoperable location-based information within the analysed energy policy instruments and to solve the issues encountered.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

From Sensor to Observation Web with Environmental Enablers in the Future Internet

This paper outlines the grand challenges in global sustainability research and the objectives of the FP7 Future Internet PPP program within the Digital Agenda for Europe. Large user communities are generating significant amounts of valuable environmental observations at local and regional scales using the devices and services of the Future Internet. These communities’ environmental observations represent a wealth of information which is currently hardly used or used only in isolation and therefore in need of integration with other information sources. Indeed, this very integration will lead to a paradigm shift from a mere Sensor Web to an Observation Web with semantically enriched content emanating from sensors, environmental simulations and citizens. The paper also describes the research challenges to realize the Observation Web and the associated environmental enablers for the Future Internet. Such an environmental enabler could for instance be an electronic sensing device, a web-service application, or even a social networking group affording or facilitating the capability of the Future Internet applications to consume, produce, and use environmental observations in cross-domain applications. The term ?envirofied? Future Internet is coined to describe this overall target that forms a cornerstone of work in the Environmental Usage Area within the Future Internet PPP program. Relevant trends described in the paper are the usage of ubiquitous sensors (anywhere), the provision and generation of information by citizens, and the convergence of real and virtual realities to convey understanding of environmental observations. The paper addresses the technical challenges in the Environmental Usage Area and the need for designing multi-style service oriented architecture. Key topics are the mapping of requirements to capabilities, providing scalability and robustness with implementing context aware information retrieval. Another essential research topic is handling data fusion and model based computation, and the related propagation of information uncertainty. Approaches to security, standardization and harmonization, all essential for sustainable solutions, are summarized from the perspective of the Environmental Usage Area. The paper concludes with an overview of emerging, high impact applications in the environmental areas concerning land ecosystems (biodiversity), air quality (atmospheric conditions) and water ecosystems (marine asset management)

Smart Emission - Building a Spatial Data Infrastructure for an Environmental Citizen Sensor Network

Item does not contain fulltextSmart Emission is a citizen sensor network using low-cost sensors that enables citizens to gather data about environmental quality, like air quality, noise load, vibrations, light intensities and heat stress. This paper introduces the design and development of the data infrastructure for the Smart Emission initiative and discusses challenges for the future. The Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is open and accessible on the Internet using open geospatial standards and (Web-) client applications. Smart Emission as a citizen sensor network offers several possibilities for heterogonous applications, from health determination to spatial planning purposes, environmental monitoring for sustainable traffic management, climate adaptation in cities and city planning.Geospatial Sensor Webs Conference 2016 (GSW 2016), 29 augustus 201

Environmental Decision-making utilizing a Web GIS to Monitor Hazardous Industrial Emissions in the Valencian community of Spain

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.Air pollution is a critical issue in contemporary times. For this reason, officials and environmental managers are in need of suitable tools for visualization, manipulation and analysis of environmental data. Environmental concerns in Europe have encouraged the European Environmental Agency (EEA) to create the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). The E-PRTR is vital and valuable because society will benefit if the data are used to improve monitoring and consequently advance environmental management. However, the data are not accessible in an interoperable way, which complicates their use and does not allow for a contribution to environmental monitoring. This paper describes a Web GIS system developed for the monitoring of industrial emissions using environmental data released by the EEA. Four research objectives are addressed: (1) design and create an interoperable spatial database to store environmental data, (2) develop a Web GIS to manipulate the spatial database, facilitate air pollution monitoring and enhance risk assessment, (3) implement OGC standards to provide data interoperability and integration into a Web GIS, (4) create a model to simulate distribution of air pollutants and assess a population’s exposure to industrial emissions. The proposed approach towards interoperability is an adoption of servicebased architecture for implementation of a three-tier Web GIS application. This system’s prototype is developed using open source tools for the Valencian Community of Spain

Civic Monitoring for Environmental Law Enforcement

This book presents a thought-provoking inquiry demonstrating how civic environmental monitoring can support law enforcement. It provides an in-depth analysis of applicable legal frameworks and conventions such as the Aarhus Convention, with an enlightening discussion on the civic right to contribute environmental information. Civic Monitoring for Environmental Law Enforcement discusses multi- and interdisciplinary research into how civil society uses monitoring techniques to gather evidence of environmental issues. The book argues that civic monitoring is a constructive approach for finding evidence of environmental wrongdoings and for leveraging this evidence in different institutional fora, including judicial proceedings and official reporting for environmental protection agencies. It also reveals the challenges and implications associated with a greater reliance on civic monitoring practices by institutions and society at large. Adopting original methodological approaches to drive inspiration for further research, this book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of environmental governance and regulation, environmental law, politics and policy, and science and technology studies. It is also beneficial to civil society actors, civic initiatives, legal practitioners, and policymakers working in institutions engaged in the application of environmental law