Data collection for State of the Environment Reports at the EEA

1
Data collection for State of the Environment
Reports at the EEA

• Trine Christiansen

2
What does the EEA do?

• The EEA is mandated to provide the EU Member
  States, other European countries and the European
  Commission with objective, reliable and
  comparable information on the state pressures and
  sensitivities of the environment in the European
  union and its surroundings.

• The EEA aims to support sustainable development
  and to help achieve significant and measurable
  improvement in Europe's environment through the
  provision of timely, targeted, relevant and
  reliable information to policy making agents and
  the public.

Compliance checking is the responsibility of the
EU-Commission!
3
EEA main tasks
32 Member Countries 300 National agencies 900
Experts

• Networking - Development of a European
  Environmental Information and Observation Network
  (EIONET)
• Reporting on the state and trends of Europes
  environment
• Providing access to environmental information

www.eionet.europa.eu
www.eionet.europa.eu/reportnet.html
http//dataservice.eea.europa.eu/
4
Why do we care about indicators?

• Indicators are the basis of information held at
  the EEA
• They are used as the foundation for all EEA
  reports.
• Governs the information that we request from
  Member States
• Types of indicators
• Core set indicators (regularly updated
  indicators) that cover aspects of eutrophication,
  fisheries and chemical pollution and bathing
  water quality
• Specialized indicators to address oil pollution,
  climate change, and biodiversity

5
EEA definition An indicator is an analysis of a
data set designed to address a specific policy
question.
Example Is the use of commercial fish stocks
sustainable?

• Key messages
• In the NE Atlantic, about one third of assessed
  stocks are outside safe biological limits. 
• In the Mediterranean, about half of the
  assessed stocks are fished outside safe
  biological limits.
• In the Black Sea no stocks are assessed.

Key messages are followed by an assessment
6
To produce an indicator you need data!

• The data collection for some Core Set Indicators
  is organized through the Eionet and is based on
  the information provided voluntarily to EEA by
  the Member States.
• Data on chlorphyll-a, nutrients and hazardous
  substances in biota are reported through the
  Eionet

7
Eutrophication nutrients and chlorophyll-a (CSI
21 and 23)

• Highly relevant indicators linked to Nitrates,
  UWWT, WF and MSF Directives
• Poor temporal and spatial data coverage
• No targets implemented making it difficult to
  address severity of problems
• Only partial description of problems related to
  eutrophication

8
EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive

• Main legislation requiring Good Environmental
  Status of the entire ecosystem in all European
  Regional Seas by 2020 (agreed December 2007).
• MSFD is the environmental pillar of the Maritime
  Policy.
• General descriptors of Good Environmental
  Status included in the Directive. EC further
  develops it with Membe States, and enforces it.
• Annex III of MSFD lists the variables/determinants
  relevant for establishing the baseline for
  marine (initial) assessments.

9
Table 1, Annex III (State)
10
Annex III, Table 2 (pressures)
11
European Marine Monitoring and Assessment working
group (EMMA)

• MSFD monitoring and assessment requirements
  developed with contribution of the European
  Marine Monitoring and Assessment (EMMA) working
  group co-chaired by DG-ENV and EEA.
• EEA hosted a series of three workshops in
  2006/2007 under EMMA discussing the availability
  of data for the Annex III requirements.
• Follow-up work towards establishing a common
  pan-European set of marine indicators based on
  Annex III needs.

12
Water Information System for Europe (WISE and
WISE-Marine)
13
Purpose of Wise-Marine

• A common platform for all users that facilitates
  reporting and use of reported data and indicators
  specified in the Marine Strategy Framework
  Directive.
• Generate awareness of the benefits of streamlined
  reporting across large regional differences
  because it will make the environmental
  obligations more transparent to both users and
  citizens.

14
... And in more detail

• WISE-Marine will become the formal compliance
  reporting tool between the Member States and the
  Commission on the MSFD.
• WISE-Marine will provide access to marine data
  and data products available on the European level
  including data used by The European Environment
  Agency and European Marine Conventions in their
  State of the Environment assessments.
• WISE-Marine will provide access to marine data
  products developed at European level, through the
  EMMA process and the Marine Core Services under
  the Global Monitoring for the Environment and
  Security (GMES).
• Based on SEIS and INSPIRE Principles

15
SEIS Principles

• information should be managed as close as
  possible to its source
• information is provided once and shared with
  others for many purposes
• data and information should be readily accessible
  to end-users to enable them to access it timely
• information should be made available to the
  public after due consideration of the appropriate
  level of aggregation, given possible
  confidentiality constraints, and at national
  level in the national language(s)

16
WISE-Marine (part of an integrated spatial
information system)
EEA information services
National Data centres
Research projects
Sub-national Data Centres
Internet (Inspire)
Internet (Geonetwork Inspire)
User
GMES
Emissions data
International Conventions
Data from other Directives
Geo- Ref.
17
Wise-Marine will support MSFD by providing

• Reference data sets (relevant maps)
• Regularly updated data products on states,
  pressures, and impacts related to human
  activities, climate change, eutrophication, and
  to physical, biological and chemical stressors.
• Other relevant environmental information
  collected in the context of the marine strategies
  could also be introduced.

18
Data aggregation level?
Compliance reporting on environmental state
Commission need
Data that are aggregated by monitoring station
(delivered by Member States) Marine Core
Service products from satellites and models
(delivered by research institutions across Europe)
EEA pan- European State of the Environment
assessments
EEA needs
Marine Convention and Rearch Community needs
Scientific Papers and National and Regional
Assessments
Raw monitoring data Raw satellite data Raw model
output
EMODNET
19
Status of WISE-Marine

• Concept paper in country consultation
• Autumn 2008 implementation plan will be
  developed
• 2009 Finalize implementation plan and start
  implementation.

20
Summary

• EEA collaborates directly with representatives in
  Member States to collect data on the Marine
  Environment at the pan-European scale.
• Directives help making environmental data
  available
• EMODNET should provide data for in WISE-Marine.

21
GIS-facility
22
Article 8 Initial assessment

• Analysis of features, characteristics and
  environmental status based on elements in Table
  1, Annex III.
• Analysis of predominant pressures and impacts,
  including human activity on environmental status
  which
• Is based on Table 2, Annex III
• Covers main cummulative and synergetic effects
• Takes account of the relevant assessments which
  have been made pursuant to existing Community
  legislation.
• An economic and social analysis of those waters
  and the cost of degradation of the marine
  environment

23
Reference datasets (mentioned specifically)

• Bathymetry
• Habitat types
• Average water mass properties
• Climatologies

24
From data sharing
France
One European Website
EEA
Germany
UK
Investment
Return
25
From data sharing
France
EEA
Germany
web service
UK
26
... to sharing redistributing information
systems services
France
Potential 800,000 web pages
EEA
Germany
Potential 408,000 web pages
web service
UK
Potential 362,000 web pages
Investment
Return
27
EEA State of the Environment Reporting

• 5-year cycle of EEA reports on State of the
  Environment
• Indicator-based reporting
• Data Provided by Member States (voluntarily
  through EIONET and Marine Conventions) and
  International Organizations (e.g. FAO).
• Tracks effectiveness of legislation
• Reports on environmental status - also on issues
  that are not strictly demanded by legislation.

Example of EEA indicator on fishing outside
safe biological limits
28
Where are all the data coming from?
EEA Data Center
Data exchange
EEA Indicators And SoE reports
National monitoring programmes
logger
Waterbase
Annual data transfer
Public
national database
Compliance reporting
Regional database
transfer
29
Wise Marine functions

• Give access to Member State marine strategy
  elements (See Table 3-2) that contain
  environmental information
• Act as vehicle for submission of Member State
  report (information and underlying data) to
  European Commission
• Give access to thematical monitoring data that
  can be queried/selected
• Give access to monitoring observations
• Provide maps of commonly used features of the
  marine environment
• Provide (temporal) information whether the health
  of 'my sea' is improving
• Provide (spatial) information that allows me to
  compare the level of pollution of different parts
  of EU seas
• Provide modelled indicators, near real time
  information and ocean forecasts
• Provide scientific research results that can
  affect drafting of marine strategies

30
Wise-Marine users

• Member State authorities responsible for the
  quality of the marine environment (also potential
  data providers)
• Member State institutes active in the context of
  the MSFD (also potential data providers).
• European Environment Agency.
• Commission DGs responsible for policy relating to
  the quality of the marine environment.
• Other EU institutions.
• Regional Sea Conventions and European
  intergovernmental organisations dealing with
  marine environment.
• Non-governmental stakeholder organisations and
  members thereof.
• Policy makers (general).
• General public.
• Researchers (also potential data providers).
• Universities for educational purposes
• Third country authorities or institutes.

31
Input data

• Directly by Member States, for example through
  the Eionet, or into Eionet by international
  organisations commissioned to act on behalf of
  Member States, e.g. if mandated, via the ICES
  data centre
• By the service providers delivering observation
  data (in-situ and satellite observations) and
  model results to the MCS
• The parallel development of a European marine
  observation and data network (EMODNET).

32
Through EMODNET link to National Monitoring Data

• Physical and chemical vertical profile
  observations of water constituents in points
  (time series of concentrations)
• Biological point observations (time series of
  species (including fish))
• Biological spatial information (maps of species
  coverage )
• Concentrations of hazardous substances