From Århus to Inspire: Putting Environmental Information on the Map

Abstract

Every environmental assessment relies on data and information and the availability thereof. Without data, science would be mere guesswork and environmental monitoring would be impossible. While not long ago, data where exclusively used by the scientists that collected them for their own work, a globalisation of data and information availability can be observed recently. On the European Scale environmental monitoring relies on data and information sharing throughout the community. The European Commission has, in the last 4 years, passed a number of directives to further public access to and awareness of environmental information. The fundamental idea of this legislation is that increased public access to environmental information and the dissemination of such information will contribute to a greater awareness of environmental matters, a free exchange of views, more effective participation by the public in environmental decision-making and, eventually, to a better environment. This paper draws up the legal thematic space and correlations of the environmental information directive within the community legislation.