Envirogrids

The Black Sea Basin is internationally recognized for its ecologically unsustainable development and inadequate resource management leading to severe environmental, social and economical problems. The EnviroGRIDS @ Black Sea Basin project is addressing these issues by bringing several new emerging information technologies that are totally revolutionizing the way we will be looking at our planet in the future. The Group on Earth Observation Systems of Systems (GEOSS) is indeed building a data-driven vision of our planet that is feeding into models and scenarios to explore our past, our present and our future. EnviroGRIDS is aiming at building the capacity of scientist to assemble such a system in the Black Sea Basin, the capacity of decision makers to use it, and the capacity of the general public to understand the important environmental, social and economical issues at stake.

EnviroGRIDS @ Black Sea Basin aims at building capacities in the Black Sea region on new international standard to gather, store, distribute, analyze, visualize and disseminate crucial information on past, present and future states of this region in order to assess its sustainability and vulnerability. In order to achieve its objectives, EnviroGRIDS will build an ultra-modern Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) that will be able to become one of the integral systems in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), and will be compatible with the new EU directive on Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Union (INSPIRE).

The scientific aim of the EnviroGRIDS @ Black Sea Basin project is to start building an Observation System that will address several GEO Societal Benefit Areas within a changing climate framework. This system will incorporate a shared information system that operates on the boundary of scientific/technical partners, stakeholders and the public. It will contain an early warning system that will inform in advance decision makers and the public about risks to human health, biodiversity and ecosystems integrity, agriculture production or energy supply provoked by climatic, demographic and land cover changes on a 50 year time horizon.

Deliverables and outcomes

a gap analysis on existing regional observation systems to prepare recommendations for improvement of networks of data acquisition in each region/country,
building capacity on observation systems in the Black Sea basin,
improving regional network to coordinate the efforts of partners active in observation systems
linking, gathering, storing, managing and distributing key environmental data,
developing the access to real time data from sensors and satellites,
creating spatially explicit scenarios of key changes in land cover, climate and demography,
distributing large calculations and datasets on large computer clusters,
streamlining the production of indicators on sustainability and vulnerability of societal benefits,
providing a standard for integrating data, models and information and communication tools,
providing policy-makers and citizens with early warning and decision support tools at regional, national and local levels.
producing innovative tools to visualize and interpret data and results of integrated models,
alerting citizens concerning exposure to environmental risks,
distributing data, open source software, demonstration cases and training materials in distributed web environment and on DVD,
building capacities in the implementation of many new SDI frameworks (INSPIRE, GEOSS, UNSDI,..).

Activities

Analysis of the legislation regulating the information exchange between the state subjects
Feasibility study of the information needs of the main target groups
Establishment of the communication between all stakeholders and owners of the information
Establishment of the system of information exchange involving Kiev, Odessa, Chornovtsy, Ivano-Frankovsk, Vinnitsa, Lviv, Khmelnitski, Ternopol, Chisinau, Tiraspol regions
Inventory of the existing information resources
Development of the structure of the information resource
Data collection on the territorial and national levels
Harmonization of the data sets
Creation and testing of the pilot GIS database
Training of national water authorities in the use of the GIS
Development of the internet-based interactive resource
Assessment of the available funding opportunities, creation of the marketing plan and development of the draft project proposal
Dissemination of the information to main stakeholders’ groups

Main target groups

Black Sea Commission (BSC) and International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR)
National governmental and their environment ministries
Local, regional and national authorities involved in water resource management

National and international NGOs,
Scientific institutions and
General public