Agenda item 4 including item 3 1 Institutional

Agenda item 4 (including item 3) 1

Institutional & coordination mechanisms for the production of state-of-the-environment reports Experiences in preparation of the national So. E report by the Environment Agency Austria UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Overview ■ Legal base §§…. ■ Mandated Insitution to draft national So. ER ■ Process & Organisation ■ Structure & content ■ Method(s) applied ■ Specifications of the Austrian So. ER ■ Current Status ■ Findings ■ Outlook UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Legal Base History ■ The Environment Agency Austria was established by an act of law (the Environmental Control Act) in 1985. ■ As such it is 100% owned by the Republic of Austria. So. E Reporting obligation Environmental Control Act (1985) Constitutional law: Federal Act for comprehensive protection of the environment § 1. (1984) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013 ■ In 1999 the Environment Agency Austria received the legal status of a limited liability company. ■ Represented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (“The Ministry of Life”)

State of the Environment Report in Austria – Mandated Institution Austrias national State of the Environment Report is drafted & published by the Environment Agency Austria (mandated body to conduct environmental control) Every 3 years the Report is - by federal law – to be deliverd by the Federal Ministry on Environment (BMLFUW) to the Austrian National Assembly Its 9 th Version (= 27 years of reporting) of the 2010 State of the Environment Report was delivered to the Austrian National Assembly on 01/07/2010 – Today we are in the process of „production“ of our 10 th report (around 30 years of environmental control & reporting in Austria) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

State of the Environment Report in Austria – Approach Ø Rationale: Offer target group of the national So. ER a quick and acurate overview on assessments of main developments leading to focused recommendations (concluding chapter) Ø Assessment-Approach based on expert judgement ü ü based on evironmental control activities has to be evidence driven connex to corresponding/underpinning topics the national report has to be indicated (referencing evidence in other chapters) to proof traceability of judgement UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

State of the Environment Report in Austria – Process – the 3 year-life cycle of the drafting process I-II I. „Storming“ Phase II. „Forming“ Phase • Stock taking of previous cycle • Chapter Concept • Constant Screening of relevant topics (e. g. supported by Issue trackers, Megatrends, expert interviews) • First Quality Assurance Sessions In. House • Delegation of Responsibilities (Internal Client, Head of Divisions, PM & PL, Chief Editor) • Teambuilding (Core Team =Editorial Team, Chapter responsible Head of departments) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013 7

State of the Environment Report in Austria – Process – the 3 year-life cycle of the drafting process III-IV III. Performing Phase IV. Transisitonal Phase • 1. Drafting Phase • Performing Lessons Learnt • 2 nd QA-Sessions In. House (2 -3 cycles) • First Lectorate & Layout • Balancing of Resources • 1. External Consultation (three cycles) • Revision (Sideletter) • 2. Draft • 2. Lectorate & Layout • External Consultation ( cycles) • Production • Publication & Distribution • Press conference (Synthesis Document) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013 • Budget Planning next consecutice cycle 8

Institutional Cooperation regarding the production of the Austrian Soe. R § Bearing in mind that the Agency is entitled by law of drafting the SOER - it is still favourable - to cooperate with relevant data owner (e. g Austrian Provincial Governments, Statistics Austria, Energy Agency Austria, ) § To ensure comprehensiveness, soundness and get a feeling of external appreciation/feedback before publishing: External Consultation with the Austrian Minsitry of Life § All Expertise in In. House (National Reference Centres of teh EIONET are wthout exeption located within the Agency § The only External Experitise needed: Biocides (Austrian Health Agency) § Sometimes an External Editor is contracted (Journalist) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

10 UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Some specific characteristics of the Austrian So. ER ■ Comprehensive Assessment & Outlook chapter for every topic -> guides (forces) the experts towards a conclusion/a statement ■ Specific recommendations: derived logical alongside from the line of arguments („red ribbon“ of evidence) – guarantees reliable & relevant informamtion ■ Targeted recommendations: Addressee´s of recommendations are named, who should do what ■ Main Focus on one Target Audience : high level politicians and Administration (National Assembly -> Environmental Delegates of the political parties) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Organisational Specifica: The Editorial Team § Interdisciplinary composition: UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Organisational Specifica : The Editorial Team § Consists of „Non“-Experts in the dsitinct discipline of the designated resoponsible chapter topic § Quality assurance contribution 1: Since we work in an evidenc driven, scientific surrounding with many experts from very specific disciplines -> Editorial Team members (Core team) must consist of members with different discilplines are entiteld to coordinate a set of chapters – they can ensure by their own scientific background: the common understanding -> supports an understandable text § Quality assurance contribution 2: Entitled to ask additional questions for a chapter check without in charge of scientific argument since the must not know. UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Thank you…. . Contact & Information EEA/EIONET National Reference Centre for State of the Environment Reproting in Austria & Deputy Chief Editor 10 th Report Environmental Situation in Austria Florian Wolf-Ott florian. ott@umweltbundesamt. at Project Manager 10 th Report Environmental Situation in Austria Erik Obersteiner erik. obersteiner@umweltbundesamt. at EEA/EIONET National Reference Centre for Forward Looking Information in Austria Alexander Storch alexander. storch@umweltbundesamt. at EEA/EIONET National Focal Point for Austria- Austria Johannes Mayer johannes. mayer@umweltbundesamt. at http: //www. umweltbundesamt. at/en/soer/ UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Agenda item 5 15

State of the Environment Report in Austria – Structure ONE Structure of all chapters on environmental toics since 4 versions (12 years) which ensures continuity & enables comparability: Environmental Targets (International, EU, National) Situation & Trends (Status of compliance with targets - in Austria: Assessments und time series, NO country compraisons performed ) Analysis (what has to be done, have benn measures taken sucessful) Including the chapter of „ Comprehensive Assessment and Outlook“ Recommendations (Targeting and refering to distinct Adressees - in Austria) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

State of the Environment Report in Austria – Content 18 Chapters (Environmental Media and Acitivities) - covering all relevant national environmental topics AND stable chapter topics since 12 years for most of the topics: o Sustainable Development o Environment & Health o Water and Water Management o Air o Soil o Climate protection and climate change o Climate change adaptation o Agriculture & Forestry o Biological diversity and nature protection o Noise o Waste Management o Contaminated Sites o Chemicals o Energy o Industrial Plants o Transport o Tourism o Spatial planning UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

„Side event“ -> National State of the Environment Report vs. EEA-SOER 2010 offers „comparable“ country reports – addressed in the EEASOER, - not in our national So. E report EEA-SOER 2010 offers direct country comparisons Which is complex due to limited comparability Different framework conditions for limitation of indicator application: e. g CSI Connection rate to sewage systems, Heating demand, Available water resources for Austria Part B EEA-SOER 2010 Assessment: eg. WFD und Lake Neusiedl (which is by means a steppe-sea with high content of suspended particles - or the case of salinisation of Austrias soils in a SOER – especially at the Lake Neusiedel area – NO problem at all – on the contrary- highly welcomed – since representing rare ecosystems in Austria In general Good progress by illustration by EEA, but proper interpretation of assessment is needed These informations serve in addition to national SOERs and stipulate inputs to the European Legislation UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Current under „Production“: 10 th So. E report (published on 01/July 2013) ■ Incudes new topics like Chapter on Environment & Health 19 UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Agenda item 8 20

What was/is it good for? Some impacts of a national So. E Reporting So. E Report is currently employed by the Regional Policy for shaping the environmental strand of the Structural Funds for the period 2014 -2020 in Austria Serves as THE National Reference on the Environmental Situation in Austria (e. g. by NGOs to strenghten argumentation for measures) Is currently the for the Environmental Specific recommendations are taken into action based on the repeated reporting of shortcomings UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Agenda item 9 22

Challenges v Demanded comprehensiveness of he compilation of environmental topics vs. demanded continuity (increase of information) v Beeing representative with the information provided while not covering all topics (according to priorisation of relevance) v Inderdisciplinary cooperation & coordination vs. time saving project management v Declining public budgets – also the specific budget for the national So. ER v And on the same time to still improve (technical, visualisation, user friendlyness, …. . ) and add new topics, not neglecting still relevant ones v Challenge of future of online (“Life“)-Reporting with existing/to be developed IT-tools UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Looking back to look forward – Lesssons learnt from our national So. ER Moderated Lessons Learnt from last national report- source of information Consideration: Questions for reflection Ø Advantages of the selected approach essential to give framework (= chapter structure) to guide experts on their conclusions at the time being of the evidence reported in previous chapters on the state of the environment Ø Limitations on chapter extent to exclude insufficient information (missing quality, missing representative capability) not appropriate to base recommendations on it Documented Lessons Learnt is always included in discussions on our strategy/concept for the forthcoming 10 th reports (work in progress) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Findings • Every second/third year specific expertise have to be compiled – ressource intensive activity • Challenge of financing reporting activities: constraints of budget • Same structure – still adaptable to new topics (e. g in our case new chapter on environment & health) • Structure is compatible to: Policy aims/measurable targets (D)->State & Trends (similar to D, P, S, I of DPSIR) Comprehensive Assessment & Outlook (R)-> Recommendations • Use Lectorate (editorial office) & Layout as additonal QA UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Conclusions • Continuity by a 3 years period sufficent, same structure concept • Use of Manuals, Templates Guidelines and Writing Style documents: they inform (communcation on same level of information for all), serve as reference to settle some dispute, they structure ideas and text, document (store knowledge) and • Experienced So. ER Core Team Members + but always extending the core team to new members (gives the project broader basis on scientific disciplines, get´s new ideas, aproaches • Stable elements: as Experts: NRCs (thematic. NRCs & NRC So. ER) as Editorial Team: PM, PL, designated experts • Specific Advantage: All experts under one roof UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Recommendations (e. g. towards 11 th Austrian SOER) ■ Stay tuned with latest european/worldwide developments in the field of Environmental Assessment & Reporting (e. g. EEA-SOER 2015, FLIS, SENSE III, EEA-SOER 2020, EEA-Ao. A, UNEP, OECD, UNECE processes…. . ) – but our Focus probably stays on 1. National, 2. European 3. Worldwide developments – since we are dedicated to the report on the Austrian Environmental Situation and our report serves as compilation on the most relevant issues for Austria ■ Develop and keep a uniform structure that still provides opportunites for improvements / new topics / innvoation – easy comparisons are enabled ■ Evaluate the Impact of your So. E Report from time to time = information source for constant improvements UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Quick Outlook on possible futures for the national So. ER Ø Scenario 1: business as usual = paper version, internet publication every 3 years Ø Scenario 2: keep paper versions but align with more less online „Life“- reporting Ø Scenario 2 + n: add SENSE-compatible linkages to our hosted indicators (URL-based, CMS-feed, Data. Warehouse connection) Ø Scenarios nn: change legal base e. g report every year/every fifth year, …. Ø Structural changes: only according to relevant, sufficiently underpinned by data -> new topics (e. g. Environment & Health) Ø Increase on demanding wording in chapter „Comprehensive Assessmen“t (example: Austrian Court of Audit ans its report on management on public finances) Ø Outlook part to be strengthened (e. g employ scenario techniques, intensify use of Ø Select more forward looking indicators, enhance options for model driven judgement)- ? UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Agenda item 5 (d) 29

Use of modern technologies for data presentation SENSEible sharing of environmental information Shared European National State of the Environment Pilot activities 30 A country perspective UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

State of play SENSE-RDF Feeds Implementation Source: EEA UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Overview SENSE in Austria Current Implementation SENSE I & Experiences Outlook Beyond - Making more SEIS SENSE II ? SENSE III UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

SENSE I Implementation in Austria SENSE provision has been integrated into our Typo 3 = our CMS System Structured information on State Of the Environment can be entered by domain experts in web interface English version of State Of the Environment Report can be accessed via www. umweltbundesamt. at/en/soer Information can be harvested by the EEA via RDF Allows for reuse of EEA-SOER country part C building blocks in different contexts UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

Typo 3 Makes SENSE UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

SENSE I in Austria - Topics General Flexibility Air Pollution Transport Climate Change Mitigation Sustainable Tourism Nature Protection and Renewable Energy Biodiversity Indoor Air Pollution Land Use Multi-country Approach Waste – Alpine Countries Freshwater Climate Change: Impacts and Adaptation in the Alps UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

SENSE I in Austria UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

SENSE Outlook in Austria New english language portal for Umweltbundesamt EEA-SOER C-Part texts central part Next step: determine how to reuse SENSE process for next EEA-SOER 2015 UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

SENSE I – Links SOER Austria: http: //www. umweltbundesamt. at/en/soer/ RDF Link for SOER Austria: www. umweltbundesamt. at/rdf_eea Multi-country Approach – Alpine Countries: http: //www. sense. sinanet. isprambiente. it/Plone/flexibility-alps UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

SENSE I and So. ER contribution EAA SENSE provision has been integrated into our Typo 3 CMS System Structured information on State Of the Environment can be entered by domain experts in web interface English version of State Of the Environment Report can be accessed via www. umweltbundesamt. at Information can be harvested by the EEA via RDF Allows for reuse of SOER building blocks in different contexts 39 UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013

SENSE II (Indicator Pilot) in Austria - Topics Provided Test-indicators Air Pollution (emissions) Greenhouse Gas emissions Nature Protection and Biodiversity (area protected) UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013 Contribution to EEA- Technical Report on SENSE

What we used for SENSE II (Shared European National State of the Environment) - Pilot Project 2 Harvesting engine at EEA Mapping file Language Turtle Format. txt UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013 Service Running localy as. bat and in Tomcat/ Appache Small ORACLE database

Thank you…. . Contact & Information EEA/EIONET National Reference Centre for State of the Environment Reproting in Austria & Deputy Chief Editor 10 th Report Environmental Situation in Austria Florian Wolf-Ott florian. ott@umweltbundesamt. at Project Manager 10 th Report Environmental Situation in Austria Erik Obersteiner erik. obersteiner@umweltbundesamt. at EEA/EIONET National Reference Centre for Environmental Information Systems in Austria Herbert Schentz hebert. schentz@umweltbundesam. at EEA/EIONET National Reference Centre for Forward Looking Information in Austria Alexander Storch alexander. storch@umweltbundesamt. at EEA/EIONET National Focal Point for Austria- Austria Johannes Mayer johannes. mayer@umweltbundesamt. at http: //www. umweltbundesamt. at/en/soer/ UNECE WGEMA ■ Meeting on Environmental Assessments Geneva ■ 16. -17. April 2013