Theme Park Soil-Geology-Nature: A Case Study for the Evaluation of New Concepts of Environmental Information Systems for the General Public

Abstract

Sustainable development requires increased public awareness of environmental issues, which can only be achieved by making environmental information accessible and comprehensible to the public. However, in order to meet the public’s right to freely access environmental information in compliance with international and national legislation, it is not enough to simply grant the public access to environmental information originally designed for use by experts only. Presenting environmental information to the public to enhance understanding of the environment and promote awareness of issues related to its use and protection requires dedicated environmental information systems with special ways of implementation technology, content presentation and preparation. This paper presents concepts of the structure, contents, and implementation of the “Theme Park Soil-Geology- Nature”, an environmental information system specially developed for the general public. In addition to presenting and discussing technical implementation and content structure concepts, the paper also presents some first results of public evaluation of the system completed by the end of June 2005.