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- KonferenzbeitragTools for Earthquake Impact Estimations in Near Real Time(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Frolova, NinaThe paper addresses the methodological and practical issues of near real-time loss assessment following strong earthquakes at global scale. The reliability of loss estimations is analyzed for three global tools’ applications. The need for coordinated efforts and research at international level for compiling and maintaining of different data bases used in the tools, including impact data bases, is stressed if one wants to increase the reliability of loss estimation in “emergency” mode.
- KonferenzbeitragAnalysis and Use of Information and Communication Tools in Economics of Climate Change(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Chiabai, AlineThe use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the context of climate change is of great importance in the scientific community, but can also play an important role in the policy context. On the one hand, the results achievable for mitigation and adaptation are influencing the policy arena, and on the other hand these instruments represent an opportunity for decision-makers of applying innovative forms of public administration based on stakeholder’s involvement, which can reduce the existing gap between policy-makers and citizens (Oates, 2003). The paper provides an analysis of the main ICT tools and methods used in climate change economics by means of a questionnaire-based survey and focus groups discussion with specific experts in this context. The issues addressed are related with the use and relevance of ICT in the different research area of climate change, the perceived usefulness of these tools, and their importance in the scientific, economic and policy contexts. The main problems and limitations of ICT are investigated, together with the potentiality they can play in future research.
- KonferenzbeitragMonitoring and Environmental Information Sharing Regarding Climate Change(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Charvat, Karel; Vohnout, Premysl; Kafka, Stepan; Cepicky, Jachym; Jezek, Jan; Vlk, Martin; Horak, PetrNatural and manmade disasters pose considerable challenges to sustainable development in Europe today. The risks vary among regions in the EU as well as among Member States, and Member States are thus put in different "risk positions". Disastersin particular floodsare increasingly having trans-boundary impacts. Transboundary issues make a common approach essential. This paper describe how innovative ICT solutions and communication practices play a potentially important role in alleviating the impacts of climate change. Our focus is on collaborative ICT platforms, including less explored areas of Web 2.0 and sensors network, and their integration into existing environmental monitoring systems and practices. This paper describes technologies, based on implementing rules for INSPIRE and UN SDI and OGC standards. Described are three basic models: use free publish free, outsource your data services, use your own solution.
- KonferenzbeitragMarine climate change and environmental indicators from the Marine Core Service(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Coppini, Giovanni; Lyubartsev, Vladyslav; Pinardi, Nadia; Fratianni, Claudia; Tonani, Marina; Adani, Mario; Oddo, Paolo; Dobricic, Srdjan; Marullo, Salvatore; Loewe, Peter; Santoleri, Rosalia; Colella, Simone; Volpe, GianlucaIn the framework of the Mediterranean Operational Oceanography Network (MOON, http://www.moonoceanforecasting.eu) The Mediterranean Forecasting System (Pinardi et al., 2003) has started the design and development of services that include the routine production of environmental and climate indicators. A process of identifying user requirements has been started in collaboration with European Environment Agency and the indicators definition and implementation aim to take user requirements into account. The indicators are extensively used by EEA (EEA web page on indicators: http://themes.eea.europa.eu/indicators/). INGV has carried out an analysis on the possible improvements of existing indicators in use by EEA and on the development of new indicators based on Marine Core Services (MCS) products. The list of indicators includes: Temperature, Chlorophyll-a (from ocean colour), Ocean Currents and Transport, Salinity, Transparency, Sea Level, Sea Ice and Density. A critical analysis has been carried out to identify the relevance of the above-mentioned indicators for EU policies, their spatial and temporal coverage, their accuracy and their availability (Coppini et al., 2008). INGV in collaboration with CNR-ISAC are directly involved on the development of the indicators in the Mediterranean region and European Seas region the Temperature and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) products are the most suitable for an indicator development test phase. In particular the OO Chl-a product, deduced from satellite data, is able to contribute to the further development of the EEA Chl-a indicator on eutrohpication that is based on in-situ measurements (CSI023). For this indicator a development phase has been undertaken in 2008 and 2009 within the European Topic Center for Water (ETC-W) for EEA. The temperature indicators, developed with the support of MyOcean and Operational Oceanography community, consist of long time series (1870-Today) of SST anomaly able to describe ocean temperature increase due to climate change in the European Seas and on SST trends map of the last 25 years for the European Seas. These last two indicators have been included in the last 2008 EEA report on Impacts of Climate change in the European Seas (http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2008_4). Moreover MFS re-analysis have been produced for the Mediterranean Sea and it consists of daily output of MFS-OPA hydrodinamic model (1/16 of degree horizontal resolution) that assimilates all available in situ and satellite observation for 1985 to 2007. This reanalysis product is used to detect temperature anomalies over the last 20 years in the coastal zone that could be related with environmental stresses. In addition to that we have also identified a Density indicator that appears relevant for the ecosystem health assessment in the coastal waters.
- KonferenzbeitragSMART cities and protecting THE climate: URBAN SUSTAINABILITY AND governance(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Paskaleva, Krassimira; Curwell, SteveCities are a central part of local and global sustainability and environmental protection; a solution for climate change. As centers of innovation they can advance clean energy systems, sustainable transportation and waste management to reduce greenhouse gases. With access to up to date climate science, they can also work with scientists and experts to assess impacts and vulnerability, and with local stakeholders to design and implement effective adaptation strategies to respond to unavoidable impacts of climate change. This however, requires a dramatic shift from government to governance on multiple scales – from the local neighborhood, across urban areas and sectors and at the metropolitan level – as part of the strategic urban sustainability agenda. Building on the results of the Intelcity Roadmap Project, which built visions and scenarios of the intelligent European cities in 2030, the current paper presents the Environment City Scenario to show how current environmental and social problems can be gradually addressed, resolved or ameliorated with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Specifically, the important role of the ICTs is demonstrated through their integration into society in ways that are both enabling and contributing to the quality of life, with climate change being a key variable. Recent studies e-governance in Europe have found that ICTs can be a powerful tool for building the collaborative digital environment that enhances the intelligence capacity of localities that helps them become a ‘smart city’, one that takes advantages of the opportunities offered by ICTs in increasing local sustainability and competitiveness an approach which implies integrated urban development based on multi-actor, multi-sector, and multi-level governance. The current paper makes a step further and discusses how cities can protect the climate using governance approaches and ICTs in the context of sustainable urban development. The latter offer tremendous opportunities for structural shifts in society, replacing commuting with tele-work, shopping with eCommerce, air travel with teleconference, enabling digital transmission of many goods to help optimize resource use (energy, materials, space, etc.) and foster a high-tech, knowledge-based economy that is both cleaner and greener. ICTs have the potential to foster much more collaborative working and integration between stakeholders, thus boost governance. The possible democratization of the urban development process, in context of governance, is seen to offer enormous potential in terms of seeking a much more sustainable way of life that leads to reducing climate pollution. Based on these premises, the paper attempts to define the key challenges facing our cities and the strategic pathways to an integrated process of urban sustainable development through governance. Finally, the key research strategies towards the intelligent use of ICTs to reorganize the city for more effective eforms of governance that can ensure climate protection in European cities are outlined; this being done against strategic European ICTs challenges for mobility, environmental sustainability and energy efficiency aiming increased awareness for climate change impacts and the importance for sustaining urban quality of life.
- KonferenzbeitragClimate Change Adaptation: The Role of ICT in Facilitating the Application of Robust and Relevant Science(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Stainforth; Alan, DavidA wide variety of available information concerning the climate change impact on water resources is available in communication networks and the Internet. Researches of the climate change are very complicated since many factors are indefinite or unknown. Global change and its reasons are closely associated with regional characteristics. The evaluation of the past and future changes of Lithuanian rivers’ runoff and their consistent patterns during the XXI century was done using the accumulative database of meteorological and hydrological observation, ECHAM5 and HadCM3 global climate circulation models and A1B, A2 and B1 emission scenarios, statistical methods and hydrological modelling (HBV software). Changes of climate elements (temperature and precipitation) directly influence conditions of river runoff formation. The average annual temperature increased about 0.9 oC during the last decades in Lithuania. The most significant temperature increase was in the winter and spring seasons. The cycle change has been estimated in the long time period series of precipitation. Average durations of wet and dry periods are 14 and 13 years accordingly. Precipitation of the winter season increases only from 1961 till now in all territory of Lithuania. The cyclic wateriness change is characteristic of the river annual runoff. The increase of winter season runoff, decrease of spring season runoff and maximum discharges of the spring floods have been observed in the last decades. In the forecasted period (2010-2100) average annual temperature will increase to 4.6 oC. Significant tendencies are not estimated in the precipitation change. The average annual runoff of the biggest Lithuanian river Nemunas is forecasted to decrease to 14% during the century. Rapid flow of such kind of climate-change information from scientists to water managers would be useful and needful for solving many problems. Many sectors (water supply, agriculture, energy, industry, human health, transportation, infrastructure, tourism) are dependent on water resources and their possible variability due to climate change. Water managers, politicians and lower orders could get full-scale information concerning to impact of climate change on freshwater resources. New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) enable the users to search out a wide variety of available information. Unfortunately, the found papers, opinions and hypotheses could be not reliable and confidence. There is no official web-site concerning the climate change impact on the environment in Lithuania. The rubric “Climate Change” is in the web-site of Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania but the content of this rubric is related to the government activity in this field. The Environmental Protection Agency of Lithuania has a wide web-site regarding monitoring data of environment. There is no special rubric on climate change except some “references” to the web-sites of other organizations. In my point of view the official web-sites could be expanded with the wide and confident information from scientific community (papers, reports, projects et al.) concerning the climate change impact on environment.
- Konferenzbeitrage-Participation System on Climate Change in the Basque Autonomous Community: the Stop CO2 Euskadi Initiative(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Lanborena, Jaione; Barquín, MarianBasque Country approved a plan to fight against climate change in 2007. This plan proposes an objective to reduce Basque contribution to climate change and includes specific action, from different stakeholders (citizens, companies, administration). This challenge for reducing greenhouse gases emissions in the context of climate change is the main argument for the use of participatory systems. Collaborative work based in a transparent and effective communication process could be very useful and even necessary for an effective solution. In this context, www.stopco2euskadi.net is a regional initiative of the Basque Office on Climate Change, based on a e-participation system, that promotes and brings together the actions carried out by all the agents of the Basque Country, in order to reduce greenhouse gases causing climate change in the 2009-2012 period.
- KonferenzbeitragGreen IT in the current recession(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Melcher, KlaasThis paper deals with investment strategies in times of recession in general and with investment into Green IT in particular. One goal is to point out that it is preferable to invest in more efficient technology in the current situation, instead of cutting spendings and; furthermore, this paper intends prove that sustainable investments right now would be advantageous to companies concerning their long term development. The objective of this paper is to show that investment in Green IT is of critical business importance and that it could be dangerous in the long run to disband running projects for short-term cost efficiency. Energy prices may be falling at the moment due to the crisis, but will certainly rise in the future again when the economy recovers. Forecasts already predict that prices will reach ever new heights. However, the last year has shown that energy prices are unpredictable. In summary, the paper shall prove that Green IT is still a topic for every company to invest in right now, especially within the current economic downturn, given its large potential as a cost reducing instrument.
- KonferenzbeitragThe fuzzy consequences of the digital revolution − Exploring the link between Industrial Ecology and ICT(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Boons, FrankThis discussion paper provides reflections on the way in which the development and application of ICT based on digital technology intersects with attempts to intensify the linkages between firms in exchanging materials and energy. First, the consequences of the emergence of digital technology on industrialized societies are discussed. This leads to acknowledging the importance of human practices in shaping the impact of ICT. Finally, the way in which ICT intersects with the governance of industrial ecologies is explored. These reflections aim to contextualize the discussion on the potential contribution of ICT to intensified material and energy exchanges between firms.
- KonferenzbeitragTracking Stakeholder Perceptions on Climate Change(Environmental Informatics and Industrial Environmental Protection: Concepts, Methods and Tools, 2009) Scharl, ArnoThe Media Watch on Climate Change is a domain-specific news aggregation portal that combines a portfolio of semantic services with a visual information exploration and retrieval interface (www.ecoresearch.net/climate). It provides a comprehensive and continuously updated account of online media coverage on climate change and related issues. The portal aggregates, filters and visualizes environmental content from the Web sites of AngloAmerican news media sites, blogs, environmental organizations, and the Fortune 1000 companies. The heterogeneous sources reflect the perceptions of different stakeholders, who have a unique stance on environmental strategies and a varied means to promote and implement them. The system builds contextualized information spaces by enriching a content repository with geospatial, semantic and temporal annotations, and by applying semi-automated ontology learning to create a controlled vocabulary for structuring the stored information. Portlets visualize the different dimensions of the contextualized information spaces, providing the user with multiple views on the latest news media coverage. Context information facilitates access to complex datasets and helps users navigate large repositories of Web documents. Currently, the system synchronizes information landscapes, domain ontologies, geographic maps, tag clouds and just-in-time information retrieval agents that suggest similar topics and nearby locations. Acknowledgement. RAVEN (Relation Analysis and Visualization for Evolving Networks) is a research project within the strategic objective FIT-IT Semantic Systems (www.modul.ac.at/nmt/raven). The system been developed by S. Kamran Ali Ahmad (knowledge planet), A. Dickinger (usability), A. Hubmann-Haidvogel (frontend), H.-P. Lang (ontology map), W. Rafelsberger (tag cloud), A. Scharl (project lead), H. Stern (geotagging), A. Weichselbraun (technical lead), G. Wohlgenannt (system architecture), and D. Zibold (ontology map). The semantic map's force-directed placement algorithms have jointly been developed with V. Sabol and M. Muhr from Know-Center Graz.