Towards e-Environment
The conference "Towards e-Environment: Opportunities of SEIS and
SISE Integrating Environmental Knowledge in Europe", strongly
desired by the Czech EU presidency, in office until 30 June 2009,
was organized by the University of Masaryk, in collaboration with
the Czech Ministry of Environment, the European Commission, the
European Environment Agency, the European Space Agency and several
Czech research institutes including Czech Agency for Environmental
Information.
The conference saw over 400 participants as speakers, including the
presence of the distinguished Executive Director, Prof. Jacqueline
McGlade, director of programs for the ESA Earth observation, Mr.
Volker Liebig, representatives of the Joint Research Center and
also the GMES office of DG Enterprise and Industry. Underlying
theme of the conference was the integration of knowledge on
European environment and the deepening on the proposal of the
European Commission, in cooperation with EEA, to give birth to a
Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) to create, with all
the Member States, an integrated and shared system of environmental
information capable to collect data and environmental information
flows in real time, even making use of GMES (Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security) and to use Geographical Information
Systems (GIS) to display maps on the state of European environment
on issues such as quality and quantity of water, waste management
and air quality, monitoring of soil, protected areas and limits for
emissions.