Infrastructure and Tools for a European Environmental Information System – The Contribution through Reportnet

Abstract

Streamlining of reporting systems is currently a priority for the EU under the 6th Environmental Action Programme. The paper describes an approach to improve the current practices in environmental reporting on the European level by creating a new dimension of cooperation between member countries, EU institutions, OECD and the various conventions. Under the umbrella of this European Environmental Information System (EEIS), a shared information infrastructure should allow better use and reuse of the reporting information leading to reduction of the reporting burden at the national level, while providing the international reporting community with better, faster and more policy-relevant information. A practical implementation of the information infrastructure framework through an application suite called Reportnet is described. It would have components for reporting obligations, metadata, directory services, data repositories, and process monitoring, and would be built using and contribute to European Unions common tools and techniques. Reportnet is an implementation of a data collection network in a situation where data volumes vary (but are usually low) and the frequencies of reporting are typically once a year; where users are widely distributed but committed to a network solution to data flows and dissemination and where there is generally public access to data.