Research project AS/DD/02 (Research action AS)
1. General context (international, national, etc.)
Various bodies in Belgium as a whole and Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels individually are making efforts to collect data on the environment, notably within the context of sustainable development.
Despite all these data collection and compilation activities it still will not be possible in the relatively short term to provide the most important environmentally-relevant data in such a form as to be directly usable, without further processing, for the most demanding purposes, such as setting policies, conducting scientific research, and drafting reports for the European Union and international organisations.
This is due to a number of reasons, such as the following:
- While the work of the Environmental Data Steering Group has given rise to an overall view of most of the country’s information sources on both the federal and regional levels, this overview has not yet been systematised and thus is difficult to transfer to third parties.
- While many of the data required scientifically founded decision-making have been gathered, major gaps must still be filled to meet the needs of a number of crucial goals. These concern, amongst other things, data on soil pollution, noise, and environmental spending. The data available in other areas must also be mobilised more appropriately to meet the needs of various bodies.
- The data are scattered amongst a large number of bodies. The latter are making great efforts to set up rapid exchange mechanisms for these data, but some bugs must still be ironed out and additional mechanisms are required.
- Only a small number of the bodies concerned by this information can rely on models with sufficient scientific foundations and methods to turn the data that have been gathered into relevant information for decision-makers. The existing models can be perfected. New models are also greatly needed.
- The definitions, nomenclatures, methods, and models differ from one body to the next. As a result, we see marked differences amongst Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia, and the federal government and aggregating the data for the entire country remains difficult.
2. Project description and aims
The great efforts made by various bodies in the past and being made today must be supported in the future by a more structured, scientific approach. This project, with its specific proposals, makes a positive contribution to such an approach. Its major aims are as follows:
- Scientific study of the possibilities that are offered by existing environmental databanks and proposals to adapt or enlarge these databanks so that they are better suited to meeting the needs of the various authorities concerned by these matters in Belgium.
- The definition of one or more forms of presenting the information that can be extracted from these databanks to a broader audience (for example, in the form of a Belgian environment compendium along the lines of the OECD compendium, an Internet site, etc.).
- The stimulation of contact, discussions, and data exchanges amongst the various bodies responsible for environmental data management in Belgium.
The specific tasks of this project under the work of the Environmental Data Steering Group and the development of environmental data in the metadatabank (the OSTC’s Scientific Support Plan for a Sustainable Development Policy) are:
a) A description of the most pertinent environmental data sources in Belgium that is accessible to and usable by all of the bodies concerned, together with answers to questions such as,
- Which body collects which data?
- What methods are used to collect the data (administrative inventories, field measurements, estimates based on models)?
- Which people should be contacted within these bodies?
- In what form(s) are the data available (hardcopy, magnetic media, optical media, Internet, etc.)?
- Are the data confidential?
- Who may use the data?
- Is there a fee for using the data?
and so on.
b) A description (preferably in the form of a data dictionary) of the most pertinent databanks in which environmental data are stored to enable researchers to find what they need. This must be able to answer the following questions:
- How are the databanks structured?
- What tables do they contain?
- What fields are defined in the tables?
- What are the links between tables?
- What units, codes, definitions, and nomenclatures are used?
and so on.
c) A brief description and assessment of the methods and models (polls, evaluations, calculations) used by the various bodies to extrapolate from the data that have been collected or to complete them for a sector, region, etc.
When it comes to the descriptions of the data sources (data sheets), the sheets’ compatibility with the standard data sheet that is used in the OSTC’s Sustainable Development Information System and European Environment Agency’s (EEA) Catalogue of Data Sources will be ensured.
3. Expected results/outputs
This project’s tangible output will be the publication of the first Environmental Statistics Compendium for Belgium. This compendium will be available in 2000 and will be a reference report that presents the most important environmental information related to sustainable development comprehensively and in a format that is accessible to the authorities concerned as well as to a much broader public. Given that adapting or enlarging the existing databanks and methods takes a certain amount of time, the first version of the report will make only partial use of the proposals that are discussed in the scientific report. This report will also contribute to the ongoing examination of environmental performance in Belgium.
4. (Potential) users
The compendium is intended for a relatively large public in charge of or simply interested in environmental matters and related issues, namely, government policy-makers and their administrations, researchers, industry, NGOs, etc.
Environmental data compendium for Belgium: description of the datasources available for Belgium and the Brussels, Flemish and walloon regions: air, Inland waters, marine environment , land, forest, wildlife, waste and noise
Gommers, Liesbeth - Vermoesen, Frank Brussels: OSTC, 2000 (SP0616)
[Exhausted]
