ECUISINE

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E-CUISINE
European Competence Centre for Users of
Information Systems on the Environment
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Motivation
The core of the E-CUISINE network is formed by
representatives of environmental ministries and
agencies of EU related countries together with
their international counterparts.

• Policy developers have become fully aware of the
  necessity to base their decisions on complete,
  reliable and comparable data, as well as sound
  extrapolations based on sophisticated models.
• The agencies that have to provide the data are
  faced with a multitude of demands that are to a
  certain extent un-co-ordinated (EU reporting,
  ...), inconsistent and insufficiently making use
  of the impressive IST potential.
• The agencies may partly be unaware of this
  potential themselves, whereas the subjects,
  results and potential applications of
  EU-supported and other research and development
  reach them with considerable delay
• The researchers and developers are often not
  fully aware about the current and future needs of
  the decision makers and their data providers, let
  alone of the rapidly increasing needs of civic
  society and its citizens.

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Objective
To establish a (thematic) network of the main
institutional users of Systems for Environmental
Information (SEI) in Europe, with the aim to
start a continuous discussion and exchange of
ideas and visions on environmental problem,
products and solutions in the area of SEI and
with the intention to continue its existence
after the 2,5 years for which EU-support is
available.
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Sub-Objectives

• To improve networking at national and between
  national, EU
• and other international levels.
• To contribute towards a coherent RTD strategy in
  the domain of
• IST environment applications.
• To define and promote common user needs for IT
  solutions of SEI.
• To improve compliance with policy by adoption of
  appropriate
• IST tools and technologies.
• To propose and validate options for actions,
  ideas and needs
• for national implementation plans of innovative
  IST technologies
• and applications.
• To support and link to initiatives on national
  levels.
• To contribute, where possible and necessary, to
  the definition
• phase of GMES (Global Monitoring for Envrionment
  and Security).
• To develop a self-sustained network that can
  have a continuous
• existence beyond the planned period of this
  accompanying measure.

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Members

• Member States of the EU
• Accession Countries
• Associated Countries
• CEC (DG IS, DG ENV)
• EEA
• UNEP
• OECD

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Support for Proposal
National Institute of Public Health and
Environment (RIVM) Netherlands National Agency
for the Protection of the Environment
Italy Environment Agency United
Kingdom Department of the Environment and Local
Government Ireland Swiss Agency for the
Environment, Forests and Landscapes Environmental
Agency Austria Agency for Forests, Nature and
Landscapes Liechtenstein Ministry of Environment
of the Czech Republic Ministry of the Environment
Poland Slovak Environmental Agency Estonia
Environmental Information Centre Federal
Environmental Ministry Germany Federal
Environmental Agency Germany OECD UNEP
Geneva Regional Environment Centre REC
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Organization

• Umweltbundesamt
• FG Z 2.1, Dr. Thomas Schütz
• Project co-ordinator, project management
• Institute for European Environmental Policy
  Brussels
• Director Professor Dr. Gerrit Vonkeman
• Scientific and technical co-ordinator
• Dr. Lippke und Dr. Wagner GmbH
• Dr. Andreas Lippke
• Secretariat
• European Commission, DG Information Society
• Section C.5, Transport and Environment,
• Dr. Irmgard Heiber

Consortium
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Meetings

• 5 meetings in member countries.
• Each meeting is around a major topic. This topic
  is prepared by an expert in the specific field. A
  report will be compiled from the experts paper,
  the discussions at the meeting and some follow up
  activities.
• The topics are chosen from the panel, a group of
  five representatives (GB, GR, NO, HU, DG IS).
• Each meeting consists of different parts
• more policy- and problem-oriented discussions
  (strategic level),
• more technical and practical discussions
  (techncial level) and
• presentations of ongoing RD-projects (FP5 and
  members).
• Therefore it is foreseen that each member can
  delegate two representatives.
• The hosting country will also have the
  opportunity to present its own developments.

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Topics

• The topics of the meetings will be selected by
  the members.
• Possible issues are
• EU legislation in different domains (IPPC, Water
  Framework Directive, etc.) demands for reporting
  and data provision
• Classical (ground based) Monitoring system vs.
  Earth observation data (GMES), ...
• Public information rights (e.g. UN-ECE Århus
  Convention, FoAtEI, Brundtland report)
• Quota system, probably combined with emission
  trading, will ultimately be put in place for
  CO2-emissions
• Best available ICT and SEI for political decision
  maker (indicators)
• Risk management and emergency management systems
  for the environment
• A European market for decision support software
  (licensing and public participation procedures,
  Environmental Impact Assessment, lifecycle
  analysis, risk assessment and communication,
  habitat protection and coastal zone management,
  etc.)

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Panel

• The consortium believes that the panel could
  support the project in
• preparation of the meetings,
• conducting the definition of the topics for each
  meeting,
• finding hosting countries and venues for the
  meetings,
• suggestions for experts and (international and
  national)
• projects to be invited to the meetings,
• promoting the ideas of E-CUISINE,
• finding new members for the network and
• playing an active role by dissemination of
  results

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Topic WFD I

• In the first step the Member States have
• to identify individual (national) river basins,
  to
• assign them to River Basin Districts (RBD) and
• to identify component authorities (2003)
• to characterise RBD (p, I, economics of water
• uses, register of protected areas) (2004)
• to intercalibrate the ecological status
• classification systems (2006)
• to make monitoring networks operational (2006)

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Topic WFD II

• The following steps are
• based on sound monitoring and the analysis
• of the characteristics of the river basin, to
  identify
• a programme of measures (2009)
• to produce and publish River Basin Management
• Plans (RBMPs) for each RBD (2009)
• to implement water pricing policies that enhance
  
• the sustainability of water resources (2010)
• to make the measures of the programme
• operational (2012)
• to implement the programmes of measures and
• achieve the environmental objectives (2015)

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Topic WFD III

• WFD is a challenge for EIS
• New organisational structures (RBD)
• Integration of different types of data
• and information from different sources
• New monitoring activities necessary
• Intercalibration of classification systems
• Maintenance of new monitoring networks

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Topic Public Information Rights

• Freedom of Access to Environmental Information
• Today the citizen can ask for data
• Practice agencies are presenting data via
• media and internet (90 of information needs)
• Future citizen will have the right to get even
• raw and non verified data or plans
• Broader thematic coverage (e.g. health data)
• What are the consequences for EIS?