About us

DEWA/GRID-Europe is part of UNEP's global network of environmental information centres, known as the Global Resource Information Database (GRID). GRIDs-Europe and Nairobi were the first centres to be launched in mid-1985. GRID aims to provide and facilitate access to environmental data and information for decision-making and policy setting, and to underpin UNEP's review of the state of the world's environment and provide early warning on emerging environmental threats.

Since its foundation, the Geneva office received considerable support from Swiss and local authorities. This supporting was significantly reinforced, and GRID-Europe's institutional base broadened, with the signing of a "Partnership Agreement" between UNEP, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and the University of Geneva in June 1998. Over the years, the European Union and many governments such as Denmark, France, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA have provided personnel and technical support. Commercial products and services have also been provided to GRID-Europe by the ESRI Corporation, DEC, ERDAS, IBM and PCI, among others.



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Focus of work

The principal aim of DEWA/GRID-Europe is to support environmental decision-making within UNEP, and the UN system as a whole, by generating and disseminating information about the state of the world's environment in a timely and understandable manner. To provide reliable environmental assessments, GRID-Europe specialises in handling and analysing spatial and statistical data on environmental and natural resource issues through computerised Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remotely-sensed imagery. Over the years, GRID-Europe has compiled an archive of global, European and other geo-spatial databases as part of its information management function. These data, which are typically in digital format, include maps, satellite imagery, statistical tables and reports.

In response to UNEP's new priorities for action as laid down in the "Nairobi Declaration" (1998), GRID-Europe has sharpened its focus to provide "early warning" on emerging environmental stresses and threats, mobilising environmental information to backstop international action in crisis situations, and providing value-added information products. GRID-Europe also closely monitors developments in Information Technologies and examines their utility to environmental monitoring and policy formulation, and creates client-specific databases and Internet websites.

Regional Coordination

The GRID-Europe office is responsible for coordinating the European programme of UNEP's Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA) and serves as its main contact point with European (mostly Geneva) based UN agencies, and with various regional institutions such as the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (EC/JRC). Its major tasks at the regional level include:

facilitating environmental information networking activities between European GRID centres;
support to environmental assessment and reporting including the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) process and related thematic reports;
increasing access to environmental information through new systems and tools; for example, the global environmental information network 'UNEP.net'.

In addition, the office also carries out capacity building activities, and collaborates on specific projects with sub-regional organisations in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Central and Eastern European and Mediterranean regions.

In November 1998, GRID-Europe initiated the "Euro-GRID" process by hosting a regional meeting that brought together all seven European GRID centres. These meetings are organised annually for the purposes of exchanging information, co-ordinating plans and launching joint projects, and discussing such key topics as a European-wide GRID network strategy.

Global Activities

At the global level, GRID-Europe activities include:

extensive support to UNEP's flagship publication, the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) reporting series, through collection and dissemination of core data sets, networking with international partner organizations and on-line dissemination of the final report.
acquisition or creation, documentation, archival and dissemination of global digital geo-referenced environmental data.
provision of "early warning" on global environmental threats such as wildfires and biodiversity loss, as well as generate information relevant to environmentally-related emergencies.
develop and strengthen environmental information capacities (data management, remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems) and participate in environmental assessment studies in francophone Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region and West Asia.
participate and provide technical backstopping to various international environmental conventions and programmes such as the Basel Convention, CITES, the Caspian Environment Programme and the Cities Environment Report on the Internet (CEROI).