Practical Steps on e-Environment: From e-Government to Open Government Update 2014

TFAI3 – Geneva, 3 - 5 Dec 2014 1

UNECE Aarhus Convention Third meeting of the Task Force on Access to Information under the Aarhus Convention

Rudolf Legat et al.

Introduction

“This treaty’s powerful twin protections for the environment

and human rights can help us respond to many challenges

facing our world, from climate change and the loss of

biodiversity to air and water pollution. And the Convention’s

critical focus on involving the public is helping to keep

governments accountable.”

Ban Ki-moon

Secretary-General

of the United Nations

Protecting your environment: The power is in your hands

Quick guide to the Aarhus Convention

Content

e-Environment meets e-Government

eGov PG Environmental Information (PG UI)

Cooperation OGD Austria

National Open Government Data Portal

Open Data Portal Austria

OGD Developments 2014

Awards

New Portals

Recommendations on the more effective use of electronic information tools (Decision II/3)

1. Formulate and implement national “e-government” strategies for the use of electronic tools to facilitate administrative processes and services, to make public administration more transparent and efficient in providing available environmental information and dealing with requests for such information from the public; ……. II. Priority Categories of information …….. 13. Establish one-stop access point(s) for citizen-oriented environment-related e-government services, with coordinated input from the relevant public authorities and/or linkages to other similar sites; ……… 19. Maintain a national web site with information related to the nationwide implementation of the Convention, which will serve as the national node of the Convention’s clearing-house mechanism;

http://www.unece.org/env/pp/electronictools.html

eGovernment in Austria | 5 |

Organisation

Federal Government

Digital Austria

Management CIO Spokesperson

Local and National Governments as well as Chamber Organisations and Industry

Digital Austria

Federal ICT Board

Digital Austria eCooperation Board

Provinces, Municipalities, Regions Ministries

Reg.-Program

m/ Klausur

ADK1

LänderAG IKT-BUND

BLSG - Schwerpunkte 2015

1 Aufgabenreform- und Deregulierungskommission 2 Open Government Data 3 Public Sector Information Richtlinie 4 Umweltinformation

Draft document

eGovernment Austria

Top Priority Program

2015

eGovernment Task Force EI

eGovernment Projektgruppe Umweltinformation PG UI

Goals:

Common approach to deal with the requirements of UIG 2004 in the

framework of cooperation BLSG (Plattform Digitales Österreich)

Development of a central EI Portal zentralen Umweltinformationsportals

(One-Stop-Shop) in line with the intentions of the European Commission

for a „Shared Environmental Information System“ Gemeinsamen

Umweltinformationssystem" (SEIS).

Umweltinformationsysteme in Bund und Ländern

Austria on the way to a European Shared Environmental Information

System

Member States report 2009 to European Commission on the experience

gained in the application of the Directive (Beiträge)

Coord. Centre @EAA

EEA

DG Env

INSPIRE

SEIS

GEOSS

GMES/Copernicus

Federal Ministries

Municipalities

Federal Provinces

Austrian Parliament

Politics

General Public

Private Sector

Communication Network

UNECE Aarhus

Convention

8

Plattform Digital Austria @BKA

Koop. BLSG PG UI

The Coordination Centre (KUI) provides information via webplatforms

KUI informs the public about its activities on the Internet at http://www.umweltbundesamt.at/koordinierungsstelle/

KUI also provides information on the Environmental Information

Act (EIA 2004, UIG 2004) at HELP.gv.at http://www.help.gv.at/Content.Node/166/Seite.1660000.html

The platform of the working group Environmental Information (PG

UI) on the eGov Reference Server at http://www.ref.gv.at/Umweltinformation.1024.0.html

Open Government Data - Let the sunshine in - Das Öffentlichkeitsprinzip

der Verwaltung

Unternehmensserviceportal USP https://www.usp.gv.at/Portal.Node/usp/public/content/umwelt_und_verke

hr/umweltinformation/Seite.1660000.html

Structure for EI - Recommendation https://www.ref.gv.at/uploads/media/PG_UI_Inforaster_20090430.pdf

National Open Government Data Portal http://data.gv.at/

11

Comprising „open documents“

data.gv.at

Austrian OGD-Portal

CKAN

OGD Metadata Standard Austria

Interface to publicdata.eu

32 data providing authorities

ca. 1.500 datasets overall

ca. 250 applications

ca. 180 environmental datasets

Video: 2014 UN Public Service Awards Category

1 Winner - Austria

OGD Metadata 2.3

https://www.ref.gv.at/Veroeffentlichte-Informationen.2774.0.html

Cooperation OGD Austria - Portals

14

On 13 July 2011, the Federal Chancellery and the cities of Vienna, Linz, Salzburg and Graz founded "Cooperation Open Government Data Austria", in short "Cooperation OGD Austria".

http://data.gv.at/offene-daten/cooperation-ogd-oesterreich/

BKA: Open Government Data Österreich – press conference at the BKA - Cooperation OGD Austria

Vienna: OGD – Open Data on Vienna – environmental data

Tyrol: Welcome to the Tyrolean Open Data Portal ! - Umweltdaten

Linz: Welcome to Linz Open Data

Vbg: Open Government Data Vorarlberg

Graz: Open Government Data Graz

U: OpenData Portal Umweltbundesamt – Press release

Sbg: Welcome to the Open Government Data on the city of Salzburg

Stmk: Open Government Data Land Steiermark - Umweltdaten

NÖ: Open Government Data Land Niederösterreich - Umweltdaten

OÖ: Open Government Data Land Oberösterreich - Umweltdaten

Ktn: Open Government Data Land Kärnten - Umweltdaten

National Structures – Secret of Success

National Strategy:

eGovernment Strategy Austria

Organisation:

Platform Digital Austria

Cooperation OGD Austria

Tools:

data.gv.at – National OGD Metadata Catalogue

Open Data Portal Österreich – Civil Society

Communities:

OKFN - Open Knowledge Foundation Austria

Open3 - OpenSociety, OpenGov & OpenData

Digitale Agenda Wien – Digital City Wien http://digitaleagenda.wien

Digitale Agenda Wien – Digital City Wien http://digitaleagenda.wien

CIO Ulrike Huemer

The idea generation

process for the Digital

Agenda for Vienna had

been successfully

finished.

172 ideas, 412 participants,

296 comments & 2451

votes speak for themselves.

Mindmap of 172 ideas

http://videolectures.net/dataforum2014_eccenca_award/

Open Data Portal Austria – Civil Society

https://www.opendataportal.at/

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIyCIFjZro

http://www.trinkwasserinfo.at/

http://www.ages.at/

Welcome to basemap.at – the Austrian OGD basemap

ESRI Special Achievement in GIS Award 2014:

Esri European User Conference in Split

https://www.data.gv.at/2014/10/23/esri-sag-award-fuer-basemap-at/

basemap.at is a high-performance web basemap

published under an OpenGovernmentData (OGD)

license.

It is based upon data provided by the nine Austrian

provinces and their partners.

Open Government Data conditions in Austria

http://www.basemap.at/

environmental accounting.at www.environmental-accounting.at

Environmental accounts

Describe interactions between economy, private households

and environment by

Comparing ecological data (e.g. use of raw materials,

energy, water, land, waste, air emissions) with economic

data (e.g. gross domestic product) to answer the main

questions

How substantial are the pressures and impacts on the environment?

What measures are taken to protect the environment?

What are the services that the environment provides to society?

environmental accounting.at www.environmental-accounting.at

Austria & Aarhus

• Umweltdatenkatalog Metadata Information (1993)

• eGovernment Task Force EI – eGov PG UI (2006)

• Common approach to deal with the requirements of UIG 2004 in the framework of National eGov Strategy (Plattform Digitales Österreich)

• Cooperation Open Government Data Austria (2011)

• National Open Government Data Portal (2012) Environment • United Nations Public Service Award 2014 for data.gv.at

• Video: 2014 UN Public Service Awards Category 1 Winner – Austria

• European Data Innovator Award 2014 • goes to Johann Mittheisz, former CIO of the City of Vienna & the Open

Government Team of Vienna (Athens, 19 March 2014)

• Ms VP EC Neelie Kroes awarding Johann Mittheisz - Video of award ceremony

• Open Data Portal Austria (2014) Research, NGO, Civil Society …

• Open Data Portal Umweltbundesamt – Naturschutz – OGD Kärnten

Barriers to Environmental Information

The following problems limit the access to environmental information:

The available environmental information is widely spread across different public authorities.

Information and data is managed very heterogeneously in different systems, especially on a

technical level.

The presentation of the information varies widely - e.g. on static web pages, via user

interfaces of database systems etc.

A standard internet search that includes all information sources is not possible.

Often it is difficult for the citizen to find out which public authority holds what

environmental information, especially if such information is not accessible via the internet.

The average citizen does not always know which public authority is responsible for the

environmental information in which he/she is interested.

Although users of the relevant web portals of the public authorities are sometimes provided

with complex information (e.g. geographic data), it is often not possible to combine this

information to create a significant whole.

A lot of data which exists in databases of the public authorities is not made available on the

internet for financial or technical reasons.

Conclusion

… eGovernment: It´s a journey,

not a destination

… eEnvironment: It´s a journey,

not a destination

… Aarhus Convention: It´s a journey,

not a destination

Contakt & Information

Johannes Mayer / Rudolf Legat / Andreas Berthold /

Umweltbundesamt GmbH

Spittelauer Lände 5

1090 Wien/Österreich

Tel.: +43-1-31304/0

umweltinformation@umweltbundesamt.at

opendata@umweltbundesamt.at

www.umweltbundesamt.at

• eGov Information by Roland Ledinger and Ferdinand Scheidbach, Austrian

Federal Chancellery

• openGov Information by Gregor Eibl, Austrian Federal Chancellery, CIO Ulrike Huemer and Brigitte Lutz, City of Vienna