Saturday, December 20, 2008

Workshop: Towards Shared Environmental Information in Europe: Opportunities and Challenges for Integrated Research

On January 28 and 29, 2009, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford (UK) will host a workshop on SEIS titled:

“Towards Shared Environmental Information in Europe:
Opportunities and Challenges for Integrated Research”


The overall aim of the workshop is to discuss the opportunities and challenges for research that are posed by the development of European-wide environmental information systems such as SEIS. The workshop will brainstorm on how research institutes and higher education institutions - either in their role as data holders or as science providers - can help making environmental information sharing in Europe a reality. The workshop aims at connecting the research community, sharing experiences and best practices and discussing the development of new tools and methodologies. Thus, the event will help researchers and practitioners get up to speed with the state-of-the-art in this fast-changing business, looking in a holistic way at the whole process from collecting and managing data to delivering and using environmental information. While it is not the intention to focus on the technical development or implementation of SEIS as such, the workshop will generate ideas which may add value to the SEIS concept.

The objectives of the workshop are:

To discuss the opportunities and challenges which systems for sharing environmental information in Europe offer to the research community, both in its role as data holder and science provider .
To share best practice, facilitate networking and open new integrated research avenues with the aim of adding value to initiatives such as SEIS.
To agree on joint activities to support systems for sharing environmental information from a research perspective.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Modelling environmental change in Europe: towards a model inventory (SEIS/Forward) Document Actions

EEA has published a technical report to provide a non-exhaustive overview of modelling tools currently available to simulate future environmental change at a European scale.
Modelling tools have become an important cornerstone of environmental assessments, and play an important role in providing the data and indicators needed to describe the state of, trends in and prospects of the environment. The report presents a general characterisation of environmental models based on the themes covered, the geographical coverage and the analytical structure of the respective models. A pool of some 80 models is introduced, many of which have been used by the European Environment Agency in its recent environmental assessments and reports, a limited number of which are described in more detail. This review identifies gaps in the availability, accessibility and applicability of current modelling tools, and stresses the need to further stimulate the development and application of environmental forecasting techniques.
One of the basic requirements for the efficient use of forward-looking assessments is to improve and further develop forward-looking components of environmental information systems and integrate these into existing information systems. Here, the EEA is seeking to fill a gap in this area by developing forward-looking components of environment that will ultimately contribute to a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS).
Such forward-looking information systems should include both purely quantitative information (such as projections) and combinations of qualitative and qualitative information (such as environmental scenarios). The objective of this forward-looking information system is not to produce better data to reflect a reality that has not yet unfolded, but to produce information that provides deeper understanding and insights into possible future developments.
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