The ENVIBASE-Project

Documentation / Online Handbook

Instruments

The environmental information systems examined were set up over a ten year period. The digital recording of fundamental environmental potential, impact and pollution pressure began in Berlin and Milan in the mid-eighties. The other three systems in Moscow, Athens and Rome are newer; their development began in the mid-nineties. With regard to content, in these ten years the objective area has not changed. Environmentally-related fundamental information for all levels of spatial planning within urban space has an increasing importance.

From a technical viewpoint, certainly very much has been achieved in the past ten years. During the mid-eighties, the application of geographical information systems was still based on mainframe computers and the implementation of this required extensive GIS knowledge of the software; PC-based systems are in use today and the user circles of environmental information have expanded considerably.

Perhaps this development also allows one to see that in those cities where the system creation commenced during the mid-eighties, many GIS experts are still necessary for data maintenance and further development of the system. On the other hand, creation of this "older" EIS has a readily established organisational structure within the administration and, to a large extent, a quality-secured "information product". With this, a bigger distribution of information for other users and for the general public is allowed.

Experiences and Recommendations: Positive Experiences

The potential of the GIS application for environmental and city planning was very highly evaluated, without exception, by all those asked. For various aspects and views, as well as for an overall view, of environmental and city planning, EIS/GIS are "visible databases", in fact for "real" as for "virtual" situations. Digital maps can fulfil ones scientific, administrative and the general public requirements to give a "picture" of the environmental situation and changes. This potential can be effectively exhausted depending on the right preconditions created on the organisational and technical levels:

• GIS products (on screens, paper, CD-ROM’s and on the Internet) must be acknowledged politically as the standard products of the administration and may not keep to a project time limit.
• Digital geographical data and related expert data must be regularly up-dated.
• The data basis of the GIS/EIS must be permanently upgraded through the connection with additional numerical data from other units.

Overview of Negative Experiences

The GIS application in the administration is personnel-wise and educationally intensive. A permanent set-up for the further training of involved employees is absolutely necessary. There are not enough standards for the application from GIS in environmental areas. The functionality of the GIS software is platform dependent (UNIX, PC). Often, for different processing states (recording, analysis, enquiry, representation, visualisation), the further education times and costs were increased when different software products were used. The graded application of different software products in the GIS area increased the main problem anyway, that of the data interface between different GIS products in the most concrete user cases often function only unsatisfactory and demand much additional work. The expansion of the GIS software around new functions is not without problems, in that it is mostly version dependent and with the change to a new version, the expansions also have to be revised. This increases the development and maintenance costs.

Overview of the Recommendations for "New Beginners"

The recommendations for new beginners are derived from the experiences of all the EIS/GIS personnel responsible within the five European cities. It is striking that the same recommendations, as well as being given by the people involved in the EIS/GIS system who have had long experience with it, are also given by others who have only shortly started using it. In spite of the enormous technical developments in the previous ten years that have generally made things easier and less costly, there are still the decisive preconditions for an effective and, by others, a recognised application of an EIS. These preconditions concern the right choice (in the sense of suitable) and the correct application of the GIS as well as the system of quality safeguarding from data and information and the right team mix of software experts, specialists and cartographers/geographers.

The choice of the correct GIS software should follow from the following criteria:

• Which functionality is actually necessary?
• Are all the basic functions that are necessary for all users compatible to all platforms (UNIX, PC) with the same user interface?
• Is the handling of these basic functions over all platforms extensively standardised?
• Has the GIS software a simple interface to standard data banks?
• Is the further development of the GIS software through the manufacturer safeguarded?

For the running applications of the EIS/GIS the following framework conditions are to be safeguarded:

• Separation of the geographical data (GIS software) and the numerical and alphanumerical data (standard data bank).
• Settlement of the standardisation and standards through the administration for data recording (especially for data recording through others), geographical referencing, data supplies through others (interface standards) and cartographical representations.
• Formation of a team from GIS experts/computer scientists, specialist users and cartographers/geographers.

The following advice is given for the further development of the GIS software:

• Settlement of the standards for (external as well as internal) development instructions (e.g. sufficient commentary on the programme codes).
• The programming of the modules, where possible, should be preferred outside the GIS, connected across the interfaces to the GIS independence with version changes or flexibility with module exchanges.

Permanent accompaniment of the development instructions through the instruction giver.