The ENVIBASE-Project

Documentation / Online Handbook

Instruments

The application of Environmental Information Systems (EIS) and especially of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to environmental planning, environmental politics and in the successful control of environmental policy has become undeniably useful. The construction, maintenance and further development of the EIS and GIS in public administration is also connected with technical, personnel and organisational resources. The progress in, and development of, information technology within the past ten years has been enormous; the amount of financial investment required in software and hardware for EIS and GIS has gratifyingly shrunk, and the operation of the software has become easier, so that it is not only experts that have the exclusive opportunity to use this new technology.

However, the use of EIS and GIS in public environmental administration is a complex subject. The correct technical tools must be selected with respect to the type of problem and they must have the potential to be developed further, the necessary data must be selected from a variety of sources (geographical data and data for spatial urban potential, for impact and limitations), and with the same and comparable quality be collected, recorded and permanently updated and an organisational structure for the transfer and maintenance of the data be established and continued. EIS and GIS must simultaneously manage high quality data on a qualitative basis and react quickly to changeable problem areas

In Athens, Berlin, Milan, Moscow and Rome, where EIS and GIS systems were applied to environmental planning, although with different points of emphasis and under different basic conditions. From the surveys of these systems, the general experiences and recommendations of large European cities to environmental data approach, use and publication are available. This survey can offer other large cities help with their potential use for EIS and GIS and with the optimisation of this background perhaps reduce mistakes arising from planning and daily use.

What did we want to know?

A questionnaire was developed for the survey of the EIS/GIS systems, with the most important EIS/GIS parameters in the application asked of the five European cities. This questionnaire was presented and discussed within a variety of workshops between the respective experts in Athens, Berlin, Milan, Moscow and Rome.

In the conditions of application, the following parameters were considered the most important:

• For which purposes would the EIS/GIS be used and how good does the user structure look?
• Which products would be used and how and by whom would it be further developed, should the situation arise?
• How good are the technical surroundings (Client/Server, individual place etc.)?
• Which functions give the solution to the EIS/GIS tasks?
• Where are the sources for the basic and thematic data?
• How would the data be published and would the given data be of further use to others?
• Perhaps modules that have interest for other users have been developed?
• Which financial and personnel resources were needed for the construction and use of the EIS/GIS?

The results of the questionnaires will be summarised in the following section of the document. The enquiry took place in the autumn of 1997.