Design of the shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) and development of a web-based GIS interface

Chapter 5The Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) is a collaborative initiative of the European Commission (EC) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) aimed to establish an integrated and shared EU-wide environmental information system together with the Member States. SEIS presents the European vision on environmental information interoperability. It is a set of high-level principles & workflow-processes that organize the collection, exchange, and use of environmental data & information aimed to: • Modernise the way in which information required by environmental legislation is made available to member states or EC instruments; • Streamline reporting processes and repeal overlaps or obsolete reporting obligations; • Stimulate similar developments at international conventions; • Standardise according to INSPIRE when possible; and • Introduce the SDI (spatial database infrastructure) principle EU-wide. SEIS is a system and workflow of operations that offers technical capabilities geared to meet concept expectations. In that respect, SEIS shows the way and sets up the workflow effectively in a standardise way (e.g, INSPIRE) to: • Collect Data from Spatial Databases, in situ sensors, statistical databases, earth observation readings (e.g., EOS, GMES), marine observation using standard data transfer protocols (ODBC, SOS, ft p, etc). • Harmonise collected data (including data check/data integrity) according to best practices proven to perform well, according to the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC (1) Annexes I: II: III: plus INSPIRE Implementation Rules for data not specified in above mentioned Annexes. • Harmonise collected data according to WISE (Water Information System from Europe) or Ozone-web. • Process, aggregate harmonise data so to extract information in a format understandable by wider audiences (e.g., Eurostat, enviro-indicators). • Document information to fulfi l national reporting obligations towards EU bodies (e.g., the JRC, EEA, DGENV, Eurostat) • Store and publish information for authorised end-users (e.g., citizens, institutions). This paper presents the development and integration of the SEIS-Malta Geoportal. The first section outlines EU Regulations on INSPIRE and Aarhus Directives. The second covers the architecture and the implementation of SEIS-Malta Geoportal. The third discusses the results and successful implementation of the Geoportal.peer-reviewe

Emergent realities for social wellbeing : environmental, spatial and social pathways

As the emergency management paradigm shifted from response to prevention in the 1980s (Auf Der Heide, 1989), risk assessment progressively turned into a key requirement for civil protection authorities (Schwab, Eschelbach, and Brower, 2007). The European Commission Directorate-General launched the Risk Assessment and Mapping Guidelines for Disaster Management in 2010, whilst the European Parliament and Council Decision 1313/2013/EU on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism requires Member-States to develop risk assessments at national or appropriate sub-national level by 2015 (FIAU, 2013). In parallel, the development of national risk assessments (NRA) became an ex ante conditionality (Baubion, 2013) of the EU Cohesion Policy 2014-2020.peer-reviewe

Pathways to spatial cognition : a multi-domain approach SpatialTrain I

“Opening a window into the future is not an easy task. Attempting to open one in a generation after the initial launching step might seemed either idealistic, naïve or with hindsight plain driven” (Formosa, 2017, p35). The drive to introduce Spatial Information integration across the Maltese Islands was an ideal, one that brought in technology, methodologies and results. However, as in the classic GIS evolution through the decades pointers on what constitutes a spatial information system were the subject of extensive debate Initially this was driven by the Push – Pull factor where entities using the primitive systems were being pushed by the availability of a mapping system and provision of base maps and hence creating data to fit the system. Initiated in the 1960s through military use, porting the processes to the physical and urban domains in the 1980s and 1990s, further takeup was made in the environmental domains in the 1990s to 2000s and eventually to the social domain in the 2000 to 2010s. Jumping through the decades, the global explosion of GIS and Spatial awareness as well as software, methods and integrative constructs morphed GIS into an availability that made it all possible, particularly through online and web-enabled GIS. This Pull – Push factor caused entities and private organisations to finally break through by creating their own data and then going for the mapping systems that fit their needs, systems that have evolved beyond recognition, both in the proprietary and open-source/open-access arenas. [Excerpt from the Introduction by Prof. Saviour Formosa]peer-reviewe

The water-land-food-energy-climate nexus for a resource efficient Europe.

Α novel methodology for addressing policy inconsistencies and knowledge gaps that hinder the transition to a greater resource efficiency Europe is proposed. We focus on the integration of all different sectors that interact and influence each other, namely the “water- energy- food- land use- climate nexus” and we develop tools for identifying and quantifying their complex interlinkages under the influence of climate change. In order to achieve this, we employ a series of sophisticated models (referred to as “thematic models”), each of which addresses a different nexus dimension, or a combination of a few, while none addresses all nexus dimensions in an integrative manner. We use dynamic systems modeling and other complexity science techniques in order to “merge” different thematic model outputs in a single coherent result, which is presented to the user in an easyto-comprehend Serious Game environment. This way, the effect of policies that are designed to affect one field (nexus dimension) on others can be quantified and simulated, thus informing policy-makers for the unintended consequences of their policies, reducing uncertainties, covering knowledge gaps and leading to a resource efficient Europe faste

Use of the INSPIRE EF data specifications to develop the SEIS-Malta geodatabase for the air quality data management

SEIS-Malta system (Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) and web-based GIS interface) forms part of a global project on environmental monitoring funded under the 2007- 2013 Structural Funds Programme for Malta. • The project “Developing national environmental infrastructure and capacity”, is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) which provides 85% of the project’s funding and the Government of Malta, which finances the rest under Malta’s Operational Programme I - Cohesion Policy 2007- 2013 “Investing in Competitiveness for a Better Quality of Life”.peer-reviewe

SEIS-MALTA Geoportal: Malta’s Shared Enviromental INSPIRE GeoInformation System

The SEIS Geodatabase includes INSPIRE elements for which a correspondence with the source data has-been found as well as additional elements not existing in the INSPIRE data model but present in the source data. The article covers INSPIRE elements not existing in the source data and all elements existing in the EEA reporting schemas.peer-reviewe

The water-land-food-energy-climate nexus for a resource efficient Europe.

Α novel methodology for addressing policy inconsistencies and knowledge gaps that hinder the transition to a greater resource efficiency Europe is proposed. We focus on the integration of all different sectors that interact and influence each other, namely the “water- energy- food- land use- climate nexus” and we develop tools for identifying and quantifying their complex interlinkages under the influence of climate change. In order to achieve this, we employ a series of sophisticated models (referred to as “thematic models”), each of which addresses a different nexus dimension, or a combination of a few, while none addresses all nexus dimensions in an integrative manner. We use dynamic systems modeling and other complexity science techniques in order to “merge” different thematic model outputs in a single coherent result, which is presented to the user in an easyto-comprehend Serious Game environment. This way, the effect of policies that are designed to affect one field (nexus dimension) on others can be quantified and simulated, thus informing policy-makers for the unintended consequences of their policies, reducing uncertainties, covering knowledge gaps and leading to a resource efficient Europe faste

Advanced Ultraviolet Radiation and Ozone Retrieval for Applications (AURORA): A Project Overview

With the launch of the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S-5P, lifted-off on 13 October 2017), Sentinel-4 (S-4) and Sentinel-5 (S-5)(from 2021 and 2023 onwards, respectively) operational missions of the ESA/EU Copernicus program, a massive amount of atmospheric composition data with unprecedented quality will become available from geostationary (GEO) and low Earth orbit (LEO) observations. Enhanced observational capabilities are expected to foster deeper insight than ever before on key issues relevant for air quality, stratospheric ozone, solar radiation, and climate. A major potential strength of the Sentinel observations lies in the exploitation of complementary information that originates from simultaneous and independent satellite measurements of the same air mass. The core purpose of the AURORA (Advanced Ultraviolet Radiation and Ozone Retrieval for Applications) project is to investigate this exploitation from a novel approach for merging data acquired in different spectral regions from on board the GEO and LEO platforms. A data processing chain is implemented and tested on synthetic observations. A new data algorithm combines the ultraviolet, visible and thermal infrared ozone products into S-4 and S-5(P) fused profiles. These fused products are then ingested into state-of-the-art data assimilation systems to obtain a unique ozone profile in analyses and forecasts mode. A comparative evaluation and validation of fused products assimilation versus the assimilation of the operational products will seek to demonstrate the improvements achieved by the proposed approach. This contribution provides a first general overview of the project, and discusses both the challenges of developing a technological infrastructure for implementing the AURORA concept, and the potential for applications of AURORA derived products, such as tropospheric ozone and UV surface radiation, in sectors such as air quality monitoring and health