Integrated Analysis and Reporting of Environmental Data Through Cooperation and Technical Innovations – Despite Organisational Changes, Increasing Requirements and Decreasing Budgets

Abstract

Almost all state and federal level environmental authorities in Germany cooperate by joining their financial resources and competences, making new dimensions of software solutions for environmental protection possible. The cooperation was initiated in 1994 by Baden-Württemberg, a German state with an outstanding environmental information system. disy Informationssysteme GmbH is, among other companies, working in the related umbrella projects. disy is a spin-off of the Universität Karlsruhe, one of the leading universities in computer science worldwide. The knowhow and the platform disy Cadenza for data integration, analysis and reporting is a result of the ideas and requirements developed by the customers – German environmental authorities with very high standards – and of a top R&D and technical competence in information systems, geographic information systems, decision support, databases, human- computer interaction and software technology. This paper gives an overview of the two issues: the organisational background of the cooperation and the innovative technical solutions at disy.