Jiří Hřebíček
email: hrebicek@iba.muni.cz

Werner Pillmann
email: pillmann@isep.at

eEnvironment : Reality and Challenges for eEnvironment Implementation in Europe

Keywords: Reality and Challenges for eEnvironment Implementation in Europe eEnvironment, eGovernment, eDemocracy, SISE, SEIS, GMES, GEOSS, Europe 2020, Digital Agenda for Europe, European eGovernment Action Plan

ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction

The White Paper on eEnvironment1 introduced the content of eEnvironment at the Ad hoc Committee on eDemocracy of the Council of Europe in 2007. This paper outlines eEnvironment as the part of eDemocracy2 [1], a framework of Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) [START_REF] Pillmann | Information Sources for a European Integrated Environmental Information Space[END_REF] [2], Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) [START_REF] Pillmann | ICT for Public Access to Environmental Information[END_REF] and Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) [START_REF] Hrebicek | eDemocracy & eEnvironment: Reality and challenges for eEnvironment implementation in Europe[END_REF] [3], [4] and the important part of the Single Information Space in Europe for the Environment (SISE) [START_REF]Indicators and fact sheets about Europe's environment[END_REF] [2], [5] and introduces current trends in the European Union (EU). Both the visions and challenges of eEnvironment and its potential for further sustainable development of the Environment are discussed. It takes into account tasks and roles of a Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE), cross-border eEnvironment services, the SEIS as a part of the Europe 2020 strategy and the European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 (COM(2010) 743). To accomplish the goals of the EU 2020 Strategy and its flagship initiatives, Innovation Union 7 and DAE, we need advanced communication infrastructures, information technologies, smart applications and services that should be based on a new generation of networks, on the Internet of the Future [START_REF]Proceedings of European conference of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU: Towards eEnvironment -Opportunities of SEIS and SISE: Integrating Environmental Knowledge in Europe[END_REF] .

Therefore, shared environmental data, information and services will be combined in eEnvironment with environmental knowledge for public in order to participate and support government decisions to foster environmental protection and sustainable development in the EU. 87. eEnvironment includes the use of ICT-based systems for access to and the dissemination of environmental data and information as well as the establishment of ICT-supported monitoring systems and repositories for environmental knowledge. eEnvironment thus makes it possible to forecast and monitor the impact of natural and man-made factors and other pressures on the environment, and to determine the current state of the environment, which in turn makes it easier to formulate potential responses because it is possible to draw on a broader, more widely disseminated knowledge base. 88. Spatial planning and spatial cohesion are both basic components of the eEnvironment field, and as such constitute major challenges for nation states and regional and local authorities. In May 2008, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe adopted a report and recommendation on "Electronic democracy and deliberative consultation on urban projects." [START_REF]NESIS: Deliverable 6.2 -Towards the ICT implementation of SEIS[END_REF] . 89. The Aarhus Convention10 includes provisions calling on contracting parties to use electronic information tools to provide public access to environmental information. To this end, the Parties to the Aarhus Convention set up a task force to facilitate its implementation through the effective use of ICT tools (Aarhus Clearing house11 ) designed to provide public access to environmental information. The above eDemocracy principles for eEnvironment were reflected in European legislation and influence the idea of the SISE and particularly for the SEIS [4], [5], where very important role had recent development which has been the entering in force of the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC in May 2007 12 supporting the 88. principle. This established an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support environmental policies in EU, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment 13 . It is supported by the prototype INSPIRE geoportal14 for discovery and viewing of spatial data sets and services. The prototype INSPIRE geoportal currently accesses a limited number of discovery and view services and therefore only a few metadata for spatial data sets and services can be found and viewed. These will increase as more services become available from the EU Member States.

Development of eEnvironment infrastructure

The development of an ICT infrastructure for the SISE and the SEIS (generally for eEnvironment) started during the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6)15 2002 -2006. The majority of funding under the respective actions in ICT went into technical preparation of the SISE (architectures, concepts, services, reference models etc). It has continued in the Seven Framework Programme (FP7) 16 2007 -2013, particularly in the last two years to permit an easy discovery of European environmental service nodes on the web and their adaptive chaining (or composition) on demand.

The EU actively supports the concept of SEIS and SISE through its research programmes. In previous (e.g. FP6) and the currently active (FP7) framework programme, there is a multitude of research projects (DIADEM, DIVINE, EarthLookCZ, GEM-CON-BIO, GENESIS, GIGAS, HUMBOLDT, ICT-ENSURE, INTAMAP, LENVIS, ORCHESTRA, SANY, TESS,)17 that address key aspects of a common environmental information system supporting the 87. and 89 principles of eDemocracy. The same is also true for the CIP18 umbrella programme and especially its ICT-PSP programme 19 .

It took full advantage of international open standards including the program Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA) 20 . It capitalizes on the experience gained since 1999 with the two previous programmes IDA II (Interchange of Data between Administrations) and IDABC (Interoperable Delivery of pan-European eGovernment services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens). ISA will run from 2010 to 2015 with a financial funding of 164 million Euros.

The development of the SISE in FP7 included generic semantics frameworks and dynamic ontology services for the discovery of and access to distributed environmental resources in a multilingual multi-domain context.

Challenges and new tasks of eEnvironment were summarised by authors of [5] in 2010:

• Establish eEnvironment national/regional environmental information web centres in the Member States of EU or equivalent sources of information as the part of the SEIS that will stimulate and promote public access to information and public participation in environmental decision-making; promote access to electronically stored environmental information by establishing and maintaining community web access points; • Establish one-stop access point(s) for citizen and related eGovernment services 21 , with coordinated input from the relevant public authorities and/or linkages to other similar sites; • Develop human capacity for the use of ICT tools of SISE, SEIS, GMES and GEOSS to promote the implementation of eEnvironment through comprehensive and forward-looking training and education strategies for public officials; • Promote the European Commission's efforts to develop the institutional capacities of public authorities to monitor, collect, organize, store and disseminate environmental data, information, services and knowledge in an easily accessible and user-friendly manner in GMES; • Ensure the availability of commonly readable, user-friendly and easily transferable formats (as standards) of SISE, SEIS, GMES and GEOSS for environment-related data, information, services and knowledge. Develop and apply comprehensive ICT tools of eEnvironment, including specific training programmes linking the use of ICT tools to the promotion of good environmental governance in EU member states; • Promote the involvement of different stakeholders representing both SEIS, GMES and GEOSS providers and its users, including civil society and private sector institutions, in the development and use of ICT tools with a view to improving the accessibility, as well as the availability, of environmental information and knowledge to the public; • Maintain a national SEIS web site with data and information related to the nationwide implementation of eEnvironment, which will serve also as the national node of the SEIS clearing-house mechanism; • Designate national/regional contact points in SEIS and GMES responsible for collecting, managing and updating the information contained in the national node and for providing the necessary information for the central node of the SEIS clearing-house mechanism at EEA, and undertake to disseminate information to the public on the clearing-house mechanism; and • Develop capacity for public officials managing and updating information for the national node of SEIS in the Shared European National State of the Environment22 (SENSE) project, and for providing the necessary information for the central node of the clearing-house mechanism at European Environment Agency (EEA). • Develop methods and protocols for service chaining in SISE and for the management of the effects of uncertainty propagation through service chaining, which will be included into the ICT infrastructure for eEnvironment.

The eEnvironment implementation through SEIS and the "State of Environment Report" (SOER) 2010 23 has contributed to high quality information and services provision and it will thus provide Europe's backbone infrastructure for eGovernment / eParticipation24 / eDemocracy services in the Environment Matters; it will also provide a powerful ICT tools to support rapid knowledge-based decision making for sustainable development at all levels (national, regional, local), as integrated information from various environmental impacts (related with economic and social items) will be available on real-time.

It will boost competiveness and innovation of European ICT industry. Finally, SOER 2010 is a substantial contribution of EU to global ICT tools under development (in Digital Agenda for Europe goals implementation) in order to support global governance for sustainable development, such as is done in the GEOSS.

eEnvironment and Digital Agenda for Europe

The Digital Agenda for Europe (COM (2010) 245) 25 is one of the seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy (COM(2010) 2020 final) 26 , that set out to define the key enabling role that the use of ICTs will have to play if Europe wants to succeed in its ambitions for 2020. It outlines seven priority areas for action, namely:

1. Creating a Digital Single Market to deliver the benefits of the digital era.

2. Improving the framework conditions for interoperability between ICT products. 3. Enhancing Internet trust and security. 4. Increasing access to fast and ultra fast Internet. 5. Boosting cutting-edge research and innovation in ICTs. 6. Enhancing digital literacy, skills and social inclusion. 7. Applying ICTs to address social challenges such as climate change, rising healthcare costs and the ageing population. In its Key Action 16 and other actions the Digital Agenda for Europe proposes a Council and Parliament Decision by 2012 to ensure mutual recognition of eidentification and e-authentication across the EU, based on online "authentication services" to be offered in all Member States (which may use the most appropriate official citizen documents -issued by the public or the private sector).

The Digital Agenda for Europe sets eGovernment within a comprehensive set of measures aimed at exploiting the benefits of ICT across Europe. At a time of highly constrained public resources, ICT can help the public sector develop innovative ways of delivering its services to citizens while unleashing efficiencies and driving down costs.

The availability of innovative technologies such as social networks has increased the expectations of citizens in terms of responsiveness when accessing all kinds of services on line. However, cross-border eGovernment services are few and, even where eGovernment services are offered, the majority of EU citizens are reluctant to use them. There is clearly a need to move towards a more open model of design, production and delivery of online services, taking advantage of the possibility offered by collaboration between citizens, entrepreneurs and civil society. Agree by 2011 on a common list of key cross-border public services that correspond to well-defined needs -enabling entrepreneurs to set up and run a business anywhere in Europe independent of their original location, and allowing citizens to study, work, reside and retire anywhere in the EU. These key services should be available online by 2015.

eEnvironment services in the Digital Agenda for Europe

The term "eEnvironment services" in the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) includes all computer-based tools that support the environment conservation process and encompasses services ranging from the simple provision of environmental information to sophisticated reporting and information processing.

According to the DAE eEnvironment services that focus on ICT development in the environment domain are somewhat underdeveloped or "fragmented along national borders".

The current approach to these challenges is embedded in the SEIS Communication (COM/2008/0046 final) 30 and some recent projects (Reportnet 31 , PortalU 32 and WISE 33 ). The SEIS recognises the need to address several key steps in the ways data are created and shared, where the notion of centralised systems for reporting "are progressively replaced by systems based on access, sharing and interoperability".

The eEnvironment services can be a valuable tool for interested persons, researchers, and decision makers. They can address general policy-related subjects, or specific environmental study areas [6]. These areas can be grouped as follows:

• Air quality.

• Ozone depletion.

• Climate change.

• Biodiversity.

• Terrestrial.

• Water.

• Waste.

• Agriculture.

• Energy.

• Fishery.

• Transport. eEnvironment services, as a category of eGovernment services, are either still under-developed, or fragmented along national borders 34 . This is a challenge that the digitalization of public services is facing as a whole. In extension to overcome these barriers, firstly the EU law in this area among others should be reviewed and modernized. Secondly, innovative solutions such as advanced sensor networks can help fill gaps in the required environmental data.

The project NESIS 35 has identified requirements and ICT solutions for environmental information sharing, refers to the European ICT policy context (topdown approach), as well as to the specific needs and related solutions of environmental data-sharing, as dealt by (bottom-up approach) in recent projects and initiatives.

The top-down approach grounds on the political context/evolution and refers to the priorities of the current EC initiatives. Overall, concerns about information-sharing in public agencies and government in the EU are grounded in the activities of eGovernment. At the EU level, the European Interoperability Strategy (EIS) 36 was devised to ensure appropriate governance, organisation and processes in line with the EU policies and objectives, together with trusted information exchange. The ISA carry forward the European eGovernment Action Plan from 2010 to 2015 37 , with a particular focus on "back-office" solutions that support EU policies and activities and avoid barriers to interoperability across borders.

The EIS suggested that a top-down view and definition of criteria and contents should be accompanied by actions supporting concrete projects at a grassroots level (bottom-up approach), with similar considerations present in the ISA. By addressing real examples, that test existing guidelines against concrete needs, it is hoped that new and possibly reusable services/tools can be produced to meet these demands in a range of contexts.

This brings an impulse for new progress in the area of eEnvironment. The plan to provide eEnvironment communication to all citizens of the EU in the DAE will enable citizens to be informed about environmental matters and to use monitored, collected, processed, evaluated and visualized data, information and knowledge, and thus allow an active participation of citizens in decision making in environmental protection and sustainable growth.

SEIS proposed the set of principles on the basis of which the collection, exchange and use of environmental data and information should be organised in the future:

• Manage information close to source.

•

Base IT on open source. A key step in the implementation of the SEIS (eEnvironment services) approach will be to modernise the way in which information required in various pieces of environmental legislation is made available, through a legislative instrument that should follow the SEIS Communication and probably revise the current "Standardised reporting directive" No. 91/692/EC 38 . Such a revision should also provide an http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/action_plan_2011_2015/inde x_en.htm 38 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/consleg/1991/L/01991L0692-20031120-en.pdf immediate opportunity to repeal a limited number of obsolete reporting requirements, and lead to further simplification and modernization along the following lines [9]:

• to help to stimulate further streamlining of information requirements in thematic environmental legislation, with a coherent and up-to-date overall framework; • to stimulate similar developments in international conventions, which according to estimates are responsible for around 70% of environmental reporting requirements to which EU Member States are subject; • to encourage improvements in the way that data collection and exchange within EU Member States is organized.

eEnvironment services and European Neighbourhood

The EEA was assigned by EC Directorate-General EuropeAid Co-operation Office (EC/DG AIDCO) 39 to carry out a project for gradually extending the SEIS principles (eEnvironment services) to the European Neighbourhood Policy 40 to South and East neighbours and the Russian Federation (ENP). The ENPI-SEIS project 41 aims to improve environmental monitoring and data and information sharing by gradually extending the SEIS principles to the European neighbourhood. The project will run over the period 2010-2014. The overall goal of the ENPI-SEIS project is to promote the protection of the environment in the countries of the ENP area. In order to achieve this, the project aims towards a set of measurable and specific objectives:

• to identify or further develop environmental indicators and scorecards suitable for the design and review of environmental policies, supporting the monitoring and compliance with various national, regional and international obligations and targets; • to improve capacities in the field of monitoring, collection, storage, assessment, and reporting of environmental data in the relevant environmental authorities including the national statistical systems, in compliance with reporting obligations to international agreements and in coordination with relevant regional initiatives; • to set up national and regional environmental information systems in the countries of the ENP area that are in line with the SEIS, and • to track progress of the regional environmental initiatives (ENP, Eastern Partnership, Horizon 2020) 42 . The main outcomes of the ENPI-SEIS project will address the three SEIS components -cooperation, content and infrastructure -through enhanced networking with the national capacities on environmental information. Furthermore, it will promote open, public access to information through compatible and freely available exchange tools. 39 http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/index_en.htm 40 http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/index_en.htm 41 http://enpi-seis.ew.eea.europa.eu/ 42 http://www.h2020.net/en/review-monitoring-and-research/the-project-enpi-seis.html

eEnvironment and Open Government Data Initiative

Many projects supporting the ambitious efforts of SISE and SEIS (including eEnvironment services), which are now in progress, were presented during the European conference of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU: Towards eEnvironment -Opportunities of SEIS and SISE: Integrating Environmental Knowledge in Europe 43 in Prague on March 25-27, 2009 [8].

The Conference Sharing Environmental Information 44 was held in Brussels on November 29,2010 -December 1,2010 and brought in its Conclusion a new initiative connected to Open Government data: "8. Initiatives towards enhancing the availability of data and information produced or commissioned by government or government controlled entities such as the Open Government data initiative 45

is welcomed."

This conference brought together representatives from the EEA member and cooperating countries, EEA and the European Commission (EC). The participants reflected mainly on the implementation of the SEIS. In the conference conclusions, the participants encouraged the EC to publish the SEIS Implementation Plan as soon as possible.

They also emphasised the benefits of mutually supportive interaction between SEIS, INSPIRE and GMES processes. The participants also recommended that SEIS, through the use of relevant ICT, should be closely connected to the Digital Agenda for Europe as part of the EU strategy 2020.

The public sector holds a gold mine of environmental information. Much of environmental data that public authorities gather are not used or serve only a limited purpose. The release of non personal public data (environmental, geographical, demographic, statistical data etc…) in particular when provided in a machine readable format allows citizens, and businesses to find new ways to use it and to create new innovative products and services.

The European eGovernment Action Plan 2011 -2015 has given the central role of national governments in the implementation of this action plan the EC's main responsibility is to improve the conditions for development of cross-border eGovernment services provided to citizens and businesses regardless of their country of origin. This includes establishing pre-conditions, such as interoperability, eSignatures 46 and eIdentification 47 . These services strengthen the internal market and complement EU legislative acts and their effectiveness [START_REF]), the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC), the public access to environmental information Directive[END_REF] in a number of domains where ICT can improve delivery of services; such as in procurement, justice, health,

Conclusion

This paper outlined some reality and challenges for eEnvironment implementation in Europe, which are required by the DAE and its implementation plan.

Fig 1 .

 1 Fig 1. eEnvironment as the subset of a Digital Agenda for Europe, SISE, SEIS, GMES and GEOSS

2.1 eEnvironment and eDemocracy

  The Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member states on electronic democracy (eDemocracy) of 18 February 2009 settled out recommendations, principles and guidelines concerning eDemocracy which are designed to apply to eDemocracy the democracy and human rights It also includes Principle 40 of eDemocracy, where is officially specified eEnvironment as: "eEnvironment is the use and promotion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the purposes of environmental assessment and protection, spatial planning, and the sustainable use of natural resources, and includes public participation. Using ICT to introduce or enhance public participation can improve democratic governance in respect of environmental issues."This principle was specified in the Explanatory memorandum to Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on eDemocracy, where it is described in the Sectors on eDemocracy as items 87-89:

	principles established, inter alia, by existing Council of Europe instruments and other
	international instruments.
	It determined 72 principles, rules and regulatory frameworks of eDemocracy in the
	Appendix to Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1.
	Digital Agenda for Europe
	SISE
	SEIS
	GMES
	GEOSS	eEnvironment
	6 http://ict-ensure.tugraz.at/en/index.php/ensure/Content2/SISE
	7 http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm
	8 http://www.future-internet.eu/

  The combination of new technologies, open specifications, innovative architectures and the availability of public sector information can deliver greater value to citizens with fewer resources.

	Furthermore the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) proposes:
	•	Support by 2012 seamless cross-border eGovernment services in the single
		market through the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme and
		Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA)
		Programme 27 issued from the ISA;
	•	Review by 2011 of Directive 2003/4/EC "Public Access to Environmental
		Information";

• Work with Member States and stakeholders to implement cross-border e-Environment services, notably advanced sensor networks; • Define by 2011 concrete steps in a White Paper on how to inter-connect eprocurement capacity across the single market; and • Set an example of open and transparent eGovernment by creating and implementing an ambitious eCommission 2011-2015 action plan 28 including full electronic procurement. Member States of the EU should follow these tasks formulated by the DAE i.e.: • Make eGovernment services fully interoperable, overcoming organizational, technical or semantic barriers and supporting communication protocol IPv6 29 ; • Ensure that the Points of Single Contact function as fully fledged eGovernment centres beyond the requirements and areas covered by the Services Directive [7]; •

http://www.bmeia.gv.at/fileadmin/user_upload/bmeia/media/AOes/ e-Democracy/4575_18___eacces_to_environm___info.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-democracy

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/seis/index.htm

http://www.gmes.info/

http://www.earthobservations.org/gci_gci.shtml

http://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1278871&Site=Congress&BackColorInternet=e0cee1&B ackColorIntranet=e0cee1&BackColorLogged=FFC679

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

http://aarhusclearinghouse.unece.org/

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32007L0002:EN:NOT

http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm

http://www.inspire-geoportal.eu/index.cfm

http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp6/index_en.cfm

http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/index_en.cfm

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/seis/related_projects.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/cip/

http://ec.europa.eu/cip/ict-psp/index_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/isa/

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/index_en.htm

http://svn.eionet.europa.eu/projects/Zope/wiki/SENSE

SOER 2010, http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer, was the fourth State and Outlook Report on the European environment produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA). This "report" produced by the EEA for 2010, covered 38 countries, on the current state of the environment, how we got to that state, what that state might be by 2020, what is being done and what could be done to improve that state.

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/policy/eparticipation/ index_en.htm

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0245:FIN:EN:PDF

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:2020:FIN:EN:PDF

http://ec.europa.eu/isa/

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/action_plan_2011_2015/ docs/action_plan_en_act_part1_v2.pdf

http://ipv6.com/

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7772.html

Acknowledgments. The above results have been developed during the ICT-ENSURE project "European ICT Environmental Sustainability Research". ICT-ENSURE was financed under the grant agreement number 224017 of the European Commission's 7 th framework programme, by DG-INFSO Unit "ICT for Sustainable Growth".

environment, mobility and social security, and support the implementation of citizens' initiatives with ICT tools .

The vision Open Government data is fulfilled by the European Open Government data initiative (OGDI) 49 that is a free, open-source, cloud-based collection of software assets that government organizations can take advantage of. They can load and store public data using the Microsoft Cloud 50 , using the Windows Azure Platform 51 .

eEnvironment legislative background -Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information (PSI Directive) -sets the legislative framework for the re-use of public information. It has introduced a common legislative framework regulating how public sector bodies should make their information available for re-use in order to remove barriers such as discriminatory practices, monopoly markets and a lack of transparency. All 27 EU Member States have implemented the PSI Directive into their national legal orders 52 .

But Open Government is so much more than a legal requirement. Better access to Public Sector Information (PSI) can improve people's quality of life and make how they interface with government much easier. Plus, it can create new businesses and jobs while giving consumers more choice and greater value for money.

PSI is the single largest source of environmental information in Europe. It is produced and collected by public bodies and includes digital maps, meteorological, environmental, legal, traffic, financial, economic and other data. Most of this raw data could be re-used or integrated into new products and services, which we use on a daily basis, such as car navigation systems, weather forecasts, financial and insurance services.

Re-use of PSI means using it in new ways by adding value to it, combining information from different sources, making mash-ups and new applications, both for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Examples include real time traffic information and bus timetables together with maps downloaded to smart phones.

The Directive PSI has introduced a common legislative framework regulating how public sector bodies should make their information available for re-use in order to remove barriers such as discriminatory practices, monopoly markets and a lack of transparency. All 27 EU Member States have implemented the PSI Directive into their national legal orders.

OGDI uses the Windows Azure Platform for Windows Azure Platform to make it easier to publish and use a wide variety of public data from government agencies. OGDI is also a free, open source "starter kit" with code 53 that can be used to publish data on the Internet in a Web-friendly format with easy-to-use, open Application Program Interfaces (API's) 54 . OGDI-based web API's can be accessed from a variety of client technologies such as Silverlight, Flash, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, mapping web sites, etc. 49 http://www.govdata.eu/en/europeanopen.aspx 50 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud/1/home.aspx?fbid=vL9l-4EikW6 51 http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/ 52 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/rules/ms/index_en.htm 53 http://ogdi.codeplex.com/ 54 Application program interface is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications.

Whether citizen wishing to use government data (e.g. environmental data), a government developer, or a "citizen developer", these open API's will enable citizen to build innovative applications, visualizations and mash-ups that empower people through access to government information. This site is built using the OGDI starter kit software assets and provides interactive access to some publicly-available data sets along with sample code and resources for writing applications using the OGDI API's.

Vision for Extending eEnvironment to a Single Information Space in Europe for the Environment

The idea to integrate the immense pan-European diversity of environmental information is a vision. A first step to foster the free flow of environmental information is done by eEnvironment, making distributed information sources available in the Web which meets the needs of administration, politics, research, business and the public. The objective of the implementation of a Single Information Space in Europe for the Environment (SISE) is only conceivable in the medium term for selected areas of environmental relevance. Requirements and demands for such areas can be found in multiple sources, e.g. in the EU's 6th Environmental Action Plan, the Environmental Policy Reviews and in the Digital Agenda for Europe. Currently the idea of SISE is promoted by list of European projects as ICT-ENSURE 55 , EnviroGrid BlackSee 56 , GENESIS 57 , NaturNet plus 58 ,TaToo 59 and ENVIROFI 60 .

We see SISE as complementary activity to INSPIRE, GMES and SEIS, supporting mainly bottom up building ICT infrastructure for environment. First steps in the design and conceptual detailing of such an information space are done in the FP7 project ICT-ENSURE. The emphasis was put on some focus areas, where ICT are applied in control of Energy Consumption, increasing Energy Efficiency, analyses Climate Change, improve Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, monitor Biodiversity and use ICT for Industrial Ecology and for Sustainable Urban Development.

The FP7 ENVIROFI Future Internet project will address such important issues by specifying the requirements, and building conceptual prototypes, of the specific enablers of the environmental usage area in the Future Internet. It will bring these diverse stakeholder communities together to understand environmentally observed processes with higher spatial resolutions and contextual situation awareness at an unprecedented scale.

The SISE is seen as further step after eEnvironment services are fully implemented for "Public access to Environmental Information" in Europe". A structural design of the SISE including eEnvironment as an essential element can be found in [10].


Thomas Usländer
email: thomas.uslaender@iosb.fraunhofer.de

Thomas Batz
email: thomas.batz@iosb.fraunhofer.de

How to Analyse User Requirements for Service-Oriented Environmental Information Systems

Keywords: Service-oriented architecture, service-oriented analysis and design, requirements analysis, environmental information system, SERVUS

Environmental Information Systems (EIS) allow the user to store, query and process environmental information and visualize it in thematic maps, diagrams and reports. Although service-orientation is the predominant architectural style of EIS there is no design methodology that brings together the requirements and the expert knowledge of EIS users with the services and information offerings of existing EIS, and, in addition, explicitly obeys the guidelines and constraints of geospatial standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) as side-conditions. This paper focuses on the analysis phase as a prelude to service-oriented design. It proposes a way of gathering, describing and documenting user requirements in terms of extended use cases which may then be used to perform the abstract design step following SERVUS which denotes aa Design Methodology for Information Systems based upon Geospatial Service-oriented Architectures and the Modelling of Use Cases and Capabilities as Resources.

Introduction

Environmental Information Systems (EIS) allow the user to store, query and process environmental information and visualize it in thematic maps, diagrams and reports [START_REF] Usländer | Service-oriented Design of Environmental Information Systems[END_REF]. More advanced functions cover advanced mapping functions of environmental data such as geospatial predictions and simulations (e.g. the family of Kriging algorithms) or geospatial visual analytics techniques by combining data mining and information visualization techniques. In order to cope with this variety of functions, EIS are inherently componentized and distributed. This trend is also due to the need for collaboration between the various public and private stakeholders involved and various environmental science disciplines [START_REF] Schimak | Environmental Knowledge and Information Systems[END_REF].

From the technological point of view EIS are information systems that deal with geospatial information and services with a reference to a location on the Earth. EIS are associated with heterogeneous sensors and/or environmental models that deliver measured or calculated observations about environmental phenomena. Basically, EIS provide a restricted view upon the environment which is limited by temporal, spatial and thematic boundaries. Information fusion is then enabled by a loose coupling of EIS whereby the actual configuration of the resulting system-of-systems is dependent upon the environmental question to be answered.

These system requirements are best met by the principles of Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) [START_REF] Usländer | Service-oriented Design of Environmental Information Systems[END_REF] as a "framework for integrating business processes and supporting IT infrastructure as secure, standardized components -services -that can be reused and combined to address changing business priorities" [START_REF] Bieberstein | R: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Compass -Business Value, Planning and Enterprise Roadmap[END_REF]:

-SOA principles enable the sharing of geospatial information and services and their composition across organizational and administrative boundaries in a loosely-coupled but controlled manner. This is essential for EIS as environmental phenomena are not limited to boundaries drawn by humans. -Effective and flexible interactions between EIS require an agreement within the developer community about the syntax and semantics of service interfaces and information models. Thus, as a crucial side-condition in the design of infrastructures for EIS, geospatial interoperability standards of ISO and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) have to be considered.

There are several initiatives on national, European and world-wide scale that define geospatial SOAs as an underlying foundation for EIS, e.g. the Sensor Service Architecture (SensorSA) as a result of the European research project SANY [START_REF]Specification of the Sensor Service Architecture, Version 3.0[END_REF]. However, one of the challenges is the design of applications that exploit the potential and the capabilities of such geospatial service networks. Software service engineering emerges as an own research discipline, strongly inheriting from the principles of software engineering, but enhancing them towards the open-world assumption of the SOA approach, i.e. a world of "unforeseen clients, execution contexts and usage" of services operating in "highly complex, distributed, unpredictable, and heterogeneous execution environments" [START_REF] Van Den Heuvel | Software Service Engineering: Tenets and Challenges[END_REF]. Numerous methodologies for service-oriented analysis and design have been described in the literature and partly embedded in software development tools [START_REF] Kohlborn | Service Analysis -A Critical Assessment of the State of the Art[END_REF].

The deficiency today is that there is no design methodology that brings together the requirements and the expert knowledge of EIS users with the capabilities (i.e. services and information offerings) of existing EIS, and, in addition, explicitly obeys the guidelines and constraints of geospatial standards as side-conditions, which are, for the design of EIS, the reference model [START_REF] Percivall | OGC Reference Model Version 2.0[END_REF] and derived geospatial architectures of the OGC such as the SensorSA [START_REF]Specification of the Sensor Service Architecture, Version 3.0[END_REF]. This paper describes a method for the requirements analysis phase of EIS as a necessary prelude for a service-oriented design of EIS.

Co-development of requirements and capabilities

Taking requirements and capabilities as a conceptual foundation, the kernel challenge for a service-oriented design of EIS boils down to the question of how the requirements of the user can be assessed against the already existing capabilities of service platforms [START_REF] Usländer | Service-oriented Design of Environmental Information Systems[END_REF]. Basically, functional, informational and qualitative requirements at one abstraction layer (A) have to be semantically matched to capabilities of another abstraction layer (B) taking side conditions into account (figure 1).

Fig. 1. Mapping of Requirements to Capabilities [3]

A pre-requisite to the matching is the discovery of possible capabilities which may fulfill the requirements. These are called candidate capabilities. The matching activity selects among the candidate capabilities those who fit best to the requirements, taking side conditions, such as the need to deliver standards-compliant services, explicitly into account. Discovery and matching need some associated semantic description of both requirements and capabilities in order to be effective. Such semantic descriptions give meanings to the terms used in the specifications. Their representation forms range from text in combination with a glossary in which all important terms are defined up to specifications in formal logics.

The discovery and matching problem repeatedly occurs when user requirements are broken down into multiple steps across several abstraction layers. In fact, capabilities turn into requirements for the next design step. Furthermore, there is a widely recognized need to package the development of requirement artifacts on a higher abstraction level and the development of architectural artifacts on a lower level into one single design step, leading to a so-called co-development of requirement and architectural artifacts [START_REF] Pohl | The Co-Development of System Requirements and Functional Architecture[END_REF]. Such a co-development requires a step-wise refinement of the design artifacts: In the following a method for the analysis step is presented as a prelude of the SERVUS Design Methodology [START_REF] Usländer | Service-oriented Design of Environmental Information Systems[END_REF]. SERVUS focuses on the abstract design step as presented in the following section.

The SERVUS design methodology

SERVUS denotes a Design Methodology for Information Systems based upon Geospatial Service-oriented Architectures and the Modelling of Use Cases and Capabilities as Resources (SERVUS). SERVUS describes individual design activities that are interconnected by a common modelling environment interconnecting the Enterprise, Information and Service Viewpoint of geospatial architectures [START_REF] Percivall | OGC Reference Model Version 2.0[END_REF].

SERVUS relies upon a semantic resource model (see its illustration in figure 3) as a common modelling language to which both use cases and capabilities may be mapped. Hereby, a resource is an information object that is uniquely identified, may be represented in one or more representational forms (e.g. as a diagram, XML document or a map layer) and support resource methods that are taken from a limited set of operations whose semantics are well-known (uniform interface). A resource has own characteristics (attributes) and is linked to other resources forming a resource network. Furthermore, resource descriptions may refer to concepts of the domain model (design ontology) using the principle of semantic annotation, yielding so-called semantic resources. The basic idea of the SERVUS resource model is derived from the Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems as conceived by Fielding [START_REF] Fielding | Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-Based Software Architectures[END_REF].

Fig. 3. SERVUS Semantic Resource Model [3]

The abstract design step is then understood to be an iterative discovery and matching activity: requested resources derived from user requirements have to be mapped to fitting offered resources that represent the information objects being accessed and manipulated by geospatial services.

Hence, in the analysis step the set of requested resources has to be identified. This paper illustrates how user requirements may be captured through the identification and description of extended application uses cases.

Analysis of user requirements

Figure 5 illustrates the analysis phase as a prelude of the SERVUS Design Methodology. As part of the project planning there needs to be some agreement of how to document use cases. For this continuous activity a project space has to be created which preferably should be supported by a project management server that is accessible by all participants of the analysis process.

As a first step of an analysis iteration loop a set of preliminary use cases (UC) is identified, mostly be those thematic experts who drive the project. For each of them an entry in the project space has to be generated. The methodology proposes that use cases are initially described in structured natural language but already contain the list of requested resources. This small extension with respect to the approach of Cockburn [START_REF] Cockburn | Writing Effective Use Cases[END_REF] heavily facilitates the transition to the abstract design step (here: the specification of the information model in UML) but is still very easy to understand by thematic experts. Hence, this description is the language which is used in the UC discussion that takes place in workshops that are facilitated by the system analyst. Depending on the level of agreement that can be reached the iteration loop is entered again in order to refine or add new use cases.

In order to identify inconsistencies and check the completeness of the UC model, the system analyst may transform the semi-structural UC description into formal specifications in the Unified Modelling Language (UML). However, these UML diagrams should still be on a high abstraction level such that a discussion with the end-user is possible. However, in addition to the usual UML use cases they already comprise the links to the set of requested (information) resources, their representation forms and the requirements to create, read, write or delete them. An example of such a use case diagram is contained in these proceedings [START_REF] Usländer | Towards User Requirements for an Information System of the Integrated Rhine Programme[END_REF].

Once an agreement is reached about the set of use case descriptions and related UML specifications it is then up to the system analyst to specify the resulting information model taking the (semantic) resource model (see above) as a modeling framework.

Fig. 5. Analysis phase of the SERVUS Methodology

Conclusion and outlook

The usability of the analysis method presented in this paper as a prelude to the SERVUS Design Methodology [START_REF] Usländer | Service-oriented Design of Environmental Information Systems[END_REF] has been validated in various user workshops when analyzing user requirements extending the EIS of the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg [START_REF] Keitel | Framework Conception for the Environmental Information System of Baden-Württemberg (Germany)[END_REF]. It is now applied to a related project that aims at analyzing the requirements for an information system that shall support the implementation and documentation of the Integrated Rhine Programme along the Upper Rhine valley in Germany [START_REF] Usländer | Towards User Requirements for an Information System of the Integrated Rhine Programme[END_REF]. These interdisciplinary projects comprise a multitude of stakeholders of different organizations. It can be stated that the application of this methodology heavily facilitates the discussion with the thematic experts and accelerates the consensus finding process. As a positive side effect, especially when being supported by a dedicated Web-based information management server, it decreases the burden of editing requirements analysis documents and helps in ensuring their consistency.

Service-orientation will be the major design paradigm for newly developed and future environmental information systems. However, in order to exploit its potential, it must be accompanied by powerful service-oriented design methodologies as a tool for system designer but also by adequate service-oriented analysis methodologies for system analysts that are tailored to the expertise and language of the thematic experts. It is the goal of the resource-oriented paradigm of the SERVUS Design Methodology to provide a modelling bridge between these two worlds of thinking.

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig.4. Discovery and matching of requested and offered resources[START_REF] Usländer | Service-oriented Design of Environmental Information Systems[END_REF]

  1. The Analysis step in which the user analyses the problem and expresses the outcome in the form of user requirements. Example: A use case that requests to "get a diagram containing the average nitrate concentration of the groundwater bodies in the Upper Rhine Valley of the last 10 years". 2. The Abstract Design step in which the user requirements are transformed by the system designer into system requirements which then have to be matched with the capabilities of an abstract service platform, i.e. a service platform that abstracts from the peculiarities of service platform technologies. Example: Provide a service that enables to "get observation values with a sampling time in the interval [2000-01-01, 2009-12-31] for the environmental parameter "nitrate" for all groundwater monitoring stations that are located in the Upper Rhine Valley". 3. The Concrete Design step in which the capabilities of the abstract service platform turn into requirements for the design of the concrete service platform and finally result in a specification of its capabilities. Example: The getObservation operation request of the OGC Sensor Observation Service. 4. The Engineering step in which the specified capabilities of the concrete service platform have to be implemented as service components and deployed in the context of a service network.

		Problem Problem
		analysis
		Requirements
	abstract design	F	I	Q
		Abstract Service Platform	Requirements F: Functional
	concrete				I: Informational
	design				Q: Qualitative
		Concrete Service Platform
	engineering
		Geospatial Service Networks

refinement Fig.

2

. Analysis, Design and Engineering Steps

[START_REF] Usländer | Service-oriented Design of Environmental Information Systems[END_REF]


Wolfgang Loibl
email: wolfgang.loibl@ait.ac.at

Tanja Tötzer
email: tanja.toetzer@ait.ac.at

Mario Köstl
email: mario.koestl@ait.ac.at

Hans Züger

Markus Knoflacher
email: markus.knoflacher@ait.ac.at

Modelling micro-climate characteristics for urban planning and building design

Keywords: future climate, urban climate, regional climate simulation, microclimate simulation, transfer function, synthetic weather records, Seestadt Aspern, Vienna

Climate sensitive urban planning and building design require detailed information on effects of a changing climate. To simulate thermal building performance appropriate data are required as "standardized weather files". But as historic weather records cannot be used to model building performance for future climate, synthetic "future weather" data are necessary. Here we present the steps to derive such data for the urban development project "Seestadt Aspern" in Vienna. We start with regional climate simulations with 10x10 km grid spacing, where hourly data for years of current and future climate have been extracted for the Aspern area. Microscale simulations at 5m-resolution have been carried out to consider local influences on urban micro-climate, taking regional simulation results as framework condition. As micro-simulation results are delivered only for single days, transfer functions have been developed to generate synthetic weather records, turning hourly regional climate simulation results into local climate characteristics.

Introduction

Climate conditions in urban environments -today and in the future -may differ distinctively from general climate conditions, depending on certain local properties which have effects on the urban microclimate -e.g. street orientation, building height and orientation, open space distribution and surface properties, either influencing irradiance, reflection and absorption, which accelerates heating, and influence shading, ventilation and evaporation, which supports cooling.

The "Seestadt Aspern" is the test case to examine the approach providing information on the expected future climate conditions. The Aspern area is a former airfield in the East of Vienna, which shall be developed as a new urban sub-centre in the coming years, providing a mix of residential, commercial and recreational areas for 20,000 inhabitants and 26,000 employees [START_REF] Hageneder | Aspern, Die Seestadt Wiens -nachhaltige Stadtentwicklung[END_REF]. Fig. 1 shows the general layout as planned by Tovard Architects & Planners. Sustainability criteria are a key issue to ensure high levels of energy efficiency for buildings, as well as the general adaptability of buildings and open space to a changing climate [START_REF]City of Vienna: Aspern Airfield Masterplan[END_REF]. The first input comes from regional climate simulations. Regional climate model results are extracted from AIT's reclip:century project [START_REF] Loibl | Reclip:century -a project conducting 21st century regional climate simulation runs focussing on the Greater Alpine Region[END_REF] applying COSMO CLM, a numerical regional climate model (RCM) delivering data on atmospheric dynamics for a century for the Greater Alpine Region with 10km grid-spacing as best possible spatial resolution. Urban microclimate simulations are the second input for the Aspern area. These are modelled applying ENVI-met 3.0 -a numerical model which calculates atmospheric dynamics at city block level, considering the influence of block layout and open space pattern on irradiance, ventilation, heat flux, heat storage, humidity and transpiration etc., based on the fundamental laws of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics [START_REF] Bruse | Simulating surface-air-plant interactions inside urban environments with a three dimensional numerical model[END_REF].

While regional climate simulations can be carried out for years, with a rather coarse resolution, the local climate simulations are conducted with a resolution of centimetres to meters, but only for single days. To deliver synthetic future weather records for years on an hourly basis, it is necessary to transfer the regional climate simulation results to microclimate conditions with the help of the micro-scale simulations. This will be carried out for selected receptor points inside the Aspern area considering specific urban environment characteristics, leading to a specific micro-climate which deviates distinctly from regional climate characteristics as simulated for the more rural east of Vienna.

To estimate the local deviations for the certain receptor points, transfer functions for these locations must be generated with the help of the microclimate simulation results, calculated for typical reference days. The applied weather records for building performance simulations contain temperature, wind speed and direction, solar radiation and humidity. While (horizontal) solar radiation and humidity show no or little changes within such small distances as observed in the Aspern region, temperature and wind characteristics data have to be transferred from regional scale to urban micro-scale to show the potential microclimate.

Applied regional climate simulations

A broad variety of climate simulations, following different assumptions, have been carried out by various institutions. As we need data with a high resolution and with hourly intervals we use our own simulations. AIT's reclip:century simulations, applied here, have been carried out with the COSMO CLM regional climate model, delivering data with the best available spatial resolution (10x10km grid spacing) for the entire Greater Alpine Area [START_REF] Loibl | Reclip:century -a project conducting 21st century regional climate simulation runs focussing on the Greater Alpine Region[END_REF]. The simulations have been carried out for the years 1961-2050 using ERA40 global climate re-analysis data as forcing for hindcast runs and 2 global climate simulations runs (GCMs) of current climate and of future climate using ECHAM5-and HADCM3-GCM results as forcing data based on two IPCC SRES greenhouse gas scenarios (A1B, B2) [START_REF]Climate Change: The Physical Science Basis. Final Report Working Group 1, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Assessment Report 4[END_REF].

The current results have been compared, e.g. regarding temperature variation, in order to examine effects of RCM forcing from different GCMs and from different SRES scenarios. Within the decades till 2050 there are no significant differences between the examined SRES scenarios. The two RCM results based on A1B forcing show also nearly the same annual mean temperatures, with some deviations during the seasons.

Uncertainty assessment of regional climate simulations

Modelling climate dynamics at regional scale let expect some uncertainties. To explore the uncertainty range climate scenarios have been carried out for current climate to compare the results with measurements. Regional climate simulations have been extracted from control runs for 3 current climate years (1998-2000) and compared with monitoring data. The following Fig. 2 shows this uncertainty exploration by comparing model results for climate model's raster cells where eastern Vienna (and the Aspern area) is embedded, with observation data. As the area is rather flat, the neighbouring raster cells show quite the same simulation results. This indicates that the raster cell's model results, covering Aspern, can be compared with weather records from the monitoring site Gross-Enzersdorf (located in near distance of 3 km to Aspern).

In general the diagram (Fig. 2) shows a high coincidence of both data sets: the correlation coefficient (R 2 = 0.84) lets expect little unexplained variance of around 15% between observations and model results. As the simulation results show high coincidence with the observations it can be expected that the simulations of the future climate with increasing greenhouse gas concentrations deliver similar plausible results for the decades till 2050. The wind speed and wind direction of model results and observations turn out to be rather similar. The diagram below (Fig. 3) depicts that the model under-estimates to some extend the number of hours with wind speed <1.5 m/s (500 hours less) und slightly over-estimates the number of hours with higher wind speed (<3 m/s, <5m/s: 200 hours more, <7m/s: 100 hours more). Such deviations can be observed in many climate simulations, because the surface roughness often turns out to be smooth, because of the climate model's coarse resolution land use model. In our simulations they are relatively small.

Future climate year selection

Regional climate simulation results of certain reference years have to be selected, which shall serve as basis for the generation of synthetic weather records representing the local weather characteristics. Objective is to select a hot and an average year, which makes it necessary to examine the occurrence of hot, cool and average years of prior and coming decades. The following Fig. 4 shows the range of the highest and lowest mean temperature of the years in each decade between 1991 and 2050 for the "Vienna South-East" grid cell as carried out through the COSMO CLM simulations: the highest yearly mean temperatures increase from around 10.5°C to 13.3°C, while the lowest yearly mean temperatures increase from 8.1°C to 10.6°C. The shifts show the distinct changes of the temperature regime to be expected during certain episodes of the coming years which will have much effect on the local micro-climate which really requires quantifying these effects with appropriate accuracy.

Urban microclimate simulations

The micro-simulations are carried out for the entire Aspern area with a spatial resolution of a few meters. The applied model, ENVI-met 3.0, is a micro-climate modelling tool, which is able to simulate and analyse small scale interactions between urban design and the immediate climatic surrounds, with high resolutions. The model simulates fluid dynamic and thermodynamic processes taking place at walls, roofs, ground surface, interacting with soil, plants and the atmospheric boundary conditions which deliver local atmosphere dynamics like wind flow, radiation, fluxes, temperature and humidity during one day or a few days at city block scale [START_REF] Bruse | Simulating surface-air-plant interactions inside urban environments with a three dimensional numerical model[END_REF].

To conduct the simulation, the study area has to be defined with its 2D-and 3D conditions by several input data sets using identical grid spacing: building shapes and heights, as well as properties of these structures such as heat storage capacity and irradiance reflection; plant sizes and characteristics relating to shading/wind protection; surface conditions of roads and open space including tree locations, surface roughness, moisture content etc. Therefore a virtual 3D-block model is introduced to consider these effects of building-, street-or plaza layout due to different spatial characteristics like street width and orientation, building orientation and height as well as open space layout and vegetation [START_REF] Loibl | Urban Streetscapes responding to changing climate conditions -Effects of street layout on Thermal Exposure[END_REF]. The 3D model for the Aspern development shows a 5 and 7 m cell resolution as input for the ENVI-met simulations which also defines the output resolution. The 3D-model has been carried out by exploring the preliminary Master plan and the related building height concept [START_REF]City of Vienna: Aspern Airfield Masterplan[END_REF]. Initial atmospheric framework conditions are integrated at the beginning of the model runs, requiring also data like geographical positioning, date and time (to calculate the solar angle), wind speed and wind direction at ground level, the initial temperature at ground level, the specific humidity at 2500m and the relative humidity at ground level. Meteorological information comes from a nearby monitoring site or is derived from climate model-outputs for the grid-cells covering the study area. A wide range of data is simulated by ENVI-met, and stored as 3D-fields which can be extracted and visualized for any section and direction (beside temperature indicators and wind, humidity, surface conditions, soil conditions, plant conditions and several others) [START_REF] Bruse | Simulating surface-air-plant interactions inside urban environments with a three dimensional numerical model[END_REF]. Fig. 7 shows some results for a detail of the Aspern development -the North-West quadrant: the increase of the potential temperature and local wind fields.

Development of transfer functions for temperature and wind characteristics

Transfer functions calculate the deviations of the micro-scale weather conditions from the regional weather conditions at certain receptor points for selected typical weather characteristics. Representative spots have been selected as receptor points to generate transfer functions generally representative for the urban environment properties. The occurrence of strong local influence from building walls and corners or special open space properties has been avoided by allocating the points in some distance to the buildings.

Fig. 8:

Receptor points (red circles) in the selected reference areas of Aspern where transfer functions shall be applied

Functions to transfer regional to local temperature

To derive transfer functions to estimate local temperature starting from the regional climate simulations, the regional climate model results have to be compared with the diurnal temperature dynamics as conducted by the ENVI-met model.

The variation of the local temperatures during a day are expected to be rather high because of changes in radiation, shading, surface properties in terms of reflection and as well as in terms of soil humidity supporting evaporation and thus cooling. As no actual air temperature is delivered by the model, the actual temperature (as observed by weather monitoring equipment) is estimated by taking the potential temperature and applying reverse equations to calculate the potential temperature out of relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and the gas constant.

Further the hourly temperatures of the 10 peak days of the year 2043 have to be extracted from the regional climate simulations. (Here shown for the "open space" receptor point d3 near the lake shore). Fig. 10 compares the temperature dynamics of these 10 hot days for receptor point d3. Finally the diurnal variation of the actual temperature at the receptor points will be compared with the day dynamics of the regional climate simulations. The basic assumptions are:

• The diurnal temperature variations of the regional climate simulations describe the daily weather around Aspern. • The local temperature variations for the 4 receptor points in Aspern as derived by ENVI-met (with 7 m resolution) for certain days take the regional climate simulation results as input, simulating the local effects, which occur at these specific days (certain temperature, wind, radiation, cloud cover), considering the local block and street layout and the open space properties. These day patterns and the differences between the regional climate and microclimate simulations are the reference to develop transfer functions for the receptor points to achieve daily weather records out for the regional simulation results. Depending on the climate situation, the transfer function sets are modified through different factors. The factors for receptor point i for one day will be derived in the following way:

F(h,tg y ,i) = (Tr(d x ,h)/Tp(h,i) + …+ T(d x+1 ,h,r)/(Tp(h,i) ) /n

(1) where: F(h,tg y ,i) = factor for hour h for day-type y at receptor point i Tr(d x ,h) = regional temperature for hour h at day d x ; x ={a,..,n}, n = number of selected days for averaging the hourly factors Tp(h,i) = receptor point temperature for hour h; at receptor point i

The local day-and hour-specific temperature at the receptor point -Tp(dx,h,i) -is carried out by: Tp(dx,h,i) = Tr(dx,h) * F(h,tgy,i),

(2) where factor set F() is selected, depending on the day type and the initial regional temperature at the respective day. The number of alternative day types depends on the intensity of differences between these types.

The diagrams in Fig. 11 show the results for all 4 receptor points for different summer days in the year 2043. The dotted coloured lines show the regional temperature variationon example of a warm and a really hot day. The dashed black line shows the local temperature as calculated by ENVI-met. The solid coloured lines show the temperature patterns as derived by the transfer functions. These lines reflect both temperature influences: those from the regional model and those from the micro-simulation (see the location specific variations in shape!).

Functions to transfer regional to local wind characteristics

The local wind direction change depends on the urban fabric characteristics of the respective receptor point and the initial regional wind speed. The intensity of wind speed change depends again on the urban fabric characteristics. Wind transfer-functions will be derived through comparison of the regional wind characteristics with the local ones derived by ENVI-met and extracted for the respective receptor points.

This has been carried out by simulating wind fields with predefined wind speed and wind direction taking 8 major wind direction classes. Transfer functions are estimated with the help of non-linear curve fitting models (log-, exponential-, polynomic functions) to calculate local wind-speed decline, depending on initial (regional) wind direction and regional wind-speeds, and to calculate the local wind direction deviations from the regional wind directions.

The following diagrams in Fig. 12 show the wind speed decline for one receptor point as example for two wind directions. The details are not relevant to describe the approach, but generally wind speed decline is different for different wind directions with respect to the urban fabric characteristics which serve -more or less -as barrier.

Fig. 12: Transfer-functions for local wind speed decline by initial regional wind speeds as example for two main wind directions at receptor point a3

Change of wind directions is different depending on the receptor point location (Fig. 13 presented for one point for 2 wind directions). The developed transfer functions do not deliver new local wind directions in degrees but deliver an either positive or negative deviation of the local wind direction from the regional one, to avoid < 360° / > 0° transitionproblems.

Fig. 13: Transfer-functions for local wind direction deviation by (initial) regional wind speeds as example for two main wind directions at receptor point a3

In general the wind direction deviations are rather small at the selected receptor points (which was expected because of the selection of receptor points in undisturbed environment). The highest deviations reach less than 10% which is 36 degrees. Often they are within a range of +/-2 % which is less than 10 degrees. Certainly the local wind direction deviations tend to diminish with declining (regional) wind speed.

Conclusions

The transfer functions turned out to be applicable to generate hourly data of temperature and wind characteristics for synthetic weather records for future climate which have been applied to simulate thermal building performance and to estimate the energy demand for different settings building properties, considering different surface conditions, different open space layout and different building orientations [START_REF] Orehounig | Maßnahmenkatalog für Bauträgerwettbewerbe betreffend Oberflächengestaltung von Fassaden und Freiräumen[END_REF]. Fig. 14 compares the energy demand for heating and cooling for a virtual test building to be erected at one of the receptor points in the Aspern area. In the future these methods will be applied to different urban fabric settings in order to explore the effects of these settings on micro-climate conditions systematically. It is finally planned to carry out a set of synthetic weather records for future climate for certain representative urban environments.

Fig. 1 :

 1 Fig. 1: The planned Aspern development, viewing north (Rendering: AIT)

Fig. 2 :

 2 Fig. 2: Comparison of modelled and observed temperature (in 1/10°C) in 6-hourly intervals for the years 1998-2000: COSMO-CLM simulation runs based on ERA40 forcing data for the 10x10km model cell "Vienna South-East" (Source: AIT) and Gross-Enzersdorf monitoring records (Source: ZAMG -Central Agency for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Vienna-Austria)

Fig. 3 :

 3 Fig. 3: Comparison of modelled and observed wind speed -hours by wind speed classes (years 1998 -2000): COSMO-CLM simulation results for the 10x10km model cell "Vienna South-East"(Source: AIT) versus observations from the Gross-Enzersdorf monitoring site (Source: ZAMG)

Fig. 4 :

 4 Fig. 4: Yearly temperature means of cool and hot years per decade -the range of the yearly temperature means between 1991 and 2050 for the eastern Vienna area For further simulations and investigations we take those years of the current decade and of the "last" decade 2041-2050 with highest mean temperatures as reference years to produce synthetic weather records. Fig. 5 depicts the temperature simulation results of the hottest years during the decades 1991-2000, 2001-2010 and 2041-2050 as number of hours with identical temperature. The hottest years 2007 and 2043 will be also compared with the hottest year of the initial simulation decade -which is 1997. Distinct shifts of the number of hours by temperature can be observed: the yellow bars start with hours of -12°C and range till hours of 28°C, the orange bars of the year 2007 start with hours of -8°C and range till hours of 32°C, while the red bars (of year 2043) start with hours of -3°C and range till hours of 34°C and above.The shifts show the distinct changes of the temperature regime to be expected during certain episodes of the coming years which will have much effect on the local micro-climate which really requires quantifying these effects with appropriate accuracy.

Fig. 5 :

 5 Fig. 5: Number of hours by temperature for 1997, 2007 and 2043 for the eastern Vienna area (hot reference years) (AIT)

Fig. 6 :

 6 Fig. 6: Block volumes and building heights transferred into a 7m resolution 3D-model compatible with ENVI-met formats. (Rendering of the central Aspern area and a detail of the ENVI-met 3Dmodel edit environment (AIT)

Fig. 7 :

 7 Fig. 7: Potential air temperature at 8h (top-left) and 12h (top-right) and initial windfield pattern (bottom) at 21st of June in the Aspern North-West quadrant (AIT)

Fig. 9

 9 compares different temperature indicators as modelled for the 4 receptor points during a day -the mean radiant temperature shows the highest peaks (left diagram) -due to full sunlight exposure and additional exposure from reflections from the surface and the surrounding facades. The surface temperature (centre diagram) shows still a high variation, depending on the surface properties: humid open grassland provides some cooling which lowers the amplitude. Concrete or asphalt surfaces (the blue line of receptor point a3) operate more as heat storage. (Both two indicators are influenced by temporal shades which provide some cooling around 14h). The potential temperature (right diagram) excludes all effects of direct solar radiation and reflection. The amplitude seems to be too low for all receptor points.

Fig. 9 :

 9 Fig. 9: Comparison of diurnal temperature dynamics (hourly data): mean radiant temperature (Temp_mrt), potential (air) temperature (Temp_air) and surface temperature (Temp_surf), for the 4 receptor points a3,b4,c1,d3 (as shown in Fig. 8)

Fig. 10 :

 10 Fig. 10: Diurnal temperature-variation extracted from the regional climate simulations for peak days in June and July 2043

Fig. 11 :

 11 Fig. 11: Temperature-variation for two different summer peak days in June und July 2043 (for all 4 receptor points / areas)

Fig. 14 :

 14 Fig. 14: Estimated changes in energy demand for heating and cooling for different climate situations for a defined building concept -an application example applying the synthetic weather records described above. (Source: Ohrehounig et al. [7])


Ondřej Mirovský
email: mirovsky@czechspace.cz

GMES -The EU Earth observation programme

Keywords: GMES, European Union, European Commission, European Space Agency, European Environmental Agency, services, data, environment, security

The paper describes evolution, recent development and structure of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, which is a European tool how to bring data produced within Earth Observation capacities closer to daily use for numerous international, national and even regional users. GMES will help to ensure sustainable flow of accurate and timely data to monitor changes of our environment and will be a helpful tool to manage and coordinate fast emergency response.

Introduction

The planet Earth is recently going through ages of rapid change of its surface, biosphere, atmosphere and climate, which has impact on both nature and people inhabiting this planet. In order to be able to monitor these changes, Earth Observation (EO) gives us powerful tool how to get detailed information on global scale in a short of time.

European Union (EU) is in terms of environmental issues global leader and needs accurate and timely information to fulfil all monitoring and reporting demands as well as data for quick emergency response. Therefore, Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) as the European Initiative for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation was launched.

GMES -from the GMES programme

A key driving element, having contributed to the establishment of GMES, was the paradox of having so much data produced within current Earth Observation systems on one hand and lack of good quality and timely data delivered to decisions makers on the other hand. Thus, in 1998 in Baveno (Italy) representatives of numerous institutions in this field concluded together with European Commission (EC) and European Space Agency (ESA) to establish European capacity for Earth Observation named GMES. However, it was not only need to ensure data for Europe, but GMES bears also greater geostrategic importance of having autonomous system not dependent on non-European systems, where still recently EU depends almost from 60% on foreign EO systems. EU commitment in this field is also a good tool to support European spaces industry, research and development while are all targeting to help to meet goals of the EU Lisbon strategy [START_REF]EU Lisbon strategy[END_REF] and also EU 2020 strategy [2].

During last few years GMES has received wider importance within EU and in 2004 GMES was recognized in the Communication from the Commission to the European parliament and the Council (COM 2004 65) [START_REF] Com | COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL, Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES): Establishing a GMES capacity by 2008 -(Action Plan[END_REF] followed by the resolution of the Parliament giving "green" light to further develop GMES.

Further on GMES found substantial basis to its development via finances from Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) in the domain of SPACE research. In the period 2007-2013, 1.2 billion EUR were made available to develop GMES. In 2010 key step forward to make GMES a real programme was taken by the adoption of the regulation No. 911/2010 (Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its initial operations 2011-13), which entered into force on 9th November 2010 [START_REF]Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its initial operations 2011-13[END_REF]. In accordance with the Regulation, the EU provides €107 million, of which €43 million are foreseen for the initial operation of GMES services and €64 million for the GMES Space Component [START_REF]ESA GMES[END_REF].

Architecture of GMES

The GMES federates a wide range of observational networks and data providers, exploiting the most recent observation techniques and technologies, for developing edge-cutting information products to end-users. In principle, the GMES observational infrastructure composes of two main components -space and in situ.

Space infrastructure

The space component shall ensure sustainable provision of satellite derived Earth observation data to all GMES services. The architecture of the component is derived from service requirements provided by the user communities. ESA and EUMETSAT are two main European actors in this area who should play the major role in coordination, implementation and operational running of the infrastructure [START_REF]GMES Observational Infrastructure[END_REF].

Key elements of this component will be sets of 6 satellites systems named Sentinels, which shall cover all space born data needs for all services. These satellites will acquire radar and optical data, information on atmospheric chemistry and many other needs. First satellites on the orbit are expected in 2013. It is also a key aspect of benefits of GMES programme that Sentinel satellite systems are synergic logical follow up of some already existing satellite systems widely used in Europe (e.g. SPOT and ENVISAT).

In-situ infrastructure

The in situ component is based on an observation infrastructure owned and operated by the large number of stakeholders coordinated, in some cases, in the frame of European or international networks. In situ observation activities and associated infrastructure derive from a range of national, EU and international regulatory requirements and agreements or form part of research processes. None was created to meet the needs of GMES, and they cover a much wider field than the GMES services. By this reason European Environmental Agency was appointed to co-ordinate the consolidation of in-situ networks for GMES purposes [7].

Users

Another key element of the GMES will be final users. Users are here to define their needs to both space and in-situ elements in order to get from the system such data they can instantly use for their daily needs. User-driven principle shall be applied in both elements -for the design of satellite systems as well as on in-situ data processing to final users. What European users need most are ready-made tailored data.

GMES services

Bringing GMES into reality of daily life involves sets of services, which are now in pilot phase with the future transition into operational services. Today we have six basic GMES services under development tackling most needed information for European users.

Land monitoring service is now being developed under GEOLAND 2 [7] project and it is dedicated to cover land monitoring needs for Europe including topics as land cover changes, agro-environmental issues, spatial planning, forest monitoring etc. For the domain of marine applications project MyOcean is now processed to cover monitoring of the ocean and seas in order to get better data on maritime security, natural recourses, oil spill prevention etc [START_REF] Myocean | [END_REF].

Emergency response service of GMES is covered by project SAFER [9], which gathers activities towards to a rapid mapping and provision of online information during emergency situations. The scope of this service goes even on global level, when this service has the potential to work worldwide. Atmosphere services of GMES are recently under MACC [START_REF] Macc | [END_REF] project, when core of this task is to deliver data on air quality, climate, monitor sand and dust storms, UV radiation risks etc. Lastly, G-MOSAIC project is now running to cover security GMES services. Core of activities is in the provision of geo-spatial information in support of EU external relation policies for Security related activities [START_REF][END_REF].

Recently, another service covering GMES climate change monitoring is prepared to be initiated in 2012.

GMES -operational EO service

After twelve years GMES has now entered its operational phase through many research projects financed by the EU, ESA and Member States aimed to develop future operational services and infrastructure. The services are being developed to meet the needs of a wide range of users who rely on accurate environmental and security data and information. Operational, continuous and sustainable delivery of information has not yet been achieved. Further investment is therefore necessary, in Space infrastructure in particular, in order to fill the remaining gaps in GMES services and to guarantee their long-term sustainability and reliability. In addition, a common approach between the various partners involved in the development of GMES needs to be further enhanced, to avoid the possibility of a duplication of efforts. GMES is also creating opportunities for increased private sector usage of new information sources. It will trigger partnerships between research and service providers, many of them small and medium enterprises. Thus, while not likely in the short to medium term, the development of market opportunities could eventually determine the proportion of public investment [START_REF] Kolar | The Czech EU presidency: a gateway to GMES for users from Central and Eastern Europe, Window on GMES[END_REF].

Conclusion

Earth Observation encompasses a powerful set of advanced technologies which in combination with in situ (ground-based, airborne etc.) measurements provides products and services supporting solutions to international challenges such as security threats, environmental degradation and climate change. The GMES initiative reflects the European decision to develop its own, independent observation capabilities. At this time GMES starts the transition into real operational services delivering data where needed and has a unique potential to be a very successful approach how to maintain our planet safe and healthy. For its success, future strong commitment of its main key players -European Commission and European Space Agency is needed together with the voice of member states of the EU and other international bodies.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. GMES Sentinel satellites [source ESA].

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. GMES architecture [source EC].