Description (short summary):
The White paper of eEnvironment (Electronic access to environmental information) was elaborated by the Ad hoc Committee on eDemocracy of the Council of Europe (CAHDE) in 2007. Now, eEnvironment is a member in the eFamily like eParticipation and eGovernment and is one of the fundaments of eDemocracy.

In 2008 the Commission proposed a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) which provides the basis for eEnvironment. The objective is that any citizen can be informed about environmental matters and can use this information for active participation in decision making and environmental protection.

During the preparation of European Union’s 7th Framework Programme, the Directorate-General Information Society & Media of the European Commission proposed the development of a Single Information Space in Europe for the Environment (SISE). The development of SISE would be essential for the support of the development of implementation tools for the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS).

Both proposals, SEIS and SISE are aiming at a single integrated information space and a shared environmental information system in which environmental data and information will be combined with knowledge for decision support to foster environmental protection and sustainable development.

In this paper, an outline of SEIS and SISE is given and problems and challenges of these two development directions are analyzed. Today the development intensity of SEIS dominates compared to SISE developments. This paper outlines the background of SEIS and SISE, and identifies similarities and disparities in their objectives. The paper stresses clearly that collaboration between SEIS and SISE in the sense of a partnership would be ecologically worthwhile. However, any parallel development, divergence or antagonism would mean a dissipation of valuable resources and a drawback for sustainable development.

Number of pages:
12

Nature of documentation: Conference-seminar-meeting proceeding