eenviper: e-government solutions and environmental permits - an unlikely marriage?

1 Website: www.eEnviPer.eu | Twitter: @eEnviPer | LinkedIn: eEnviPer - Environmental Permits for the 21st Century

e-Government Solutions and Environmental Permits – an Unlikely Marriage?

eEnviPer Newsletter #1

October 2012

Contents I Why use e-government

tools for environmental permits?

II eEnviPer Technology: An Overview

III eEnviPer in Practice: Possible User Journeys

About eEnviPer eEnviPer is a cloud-based e-government solution for the application, administration and consultation of environmental permits across Europe.

eEnviPer is partially funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme by the European Community


Welcome! Since their introduction in the 1980s, environmental permits have helped public authorities to reduce the environmental impact of economic activities in their area. Citizens now also have an official opportunity to voice their concerns and participate in matters of concern in their community.

At the same time, however, the processes introduced substantial amounts of paperwork and often required multiple trips to the relevant administration; this could all delay the launch of much-needed projects. We think it’s high time to modernize the environmental permits process.

Environmental permits for the 21st century

Our mission here at eEnviPer is to bring the environmental permits process into the internet age. Together with five European regions and municipalities, we are pilot testing a cloud-based e-government solution for the online application, administration and consultation of environmental permits.

Through this Newsletter, we invite you to learn more about the need for such a platform, the specific technical solution we have in mind, and the benefits for different user groups. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on these issues: send us an email with your ideas, or link up with us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Here’s to a more efficiently managed environmentally-friendly future!

Grigoris Chatzikostas Project Coordinator DRAXIS Environmental Technologies

Grigoris Chatzikostas is based in Thessaloniki, Greece.


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At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, we are at a historical turning point in the development of e-government.

The idea of “e-environmental permits” was first discussed in the 1990s, and stressed the importance of IT security, subjective decision-making and negotiation and public participation in the process. Since then, a few notable e-government tools have been deployed in some countries. For most of Europe, however, this development is still in its infancy.

The European Commission admits that “e-Environment services, as a category of e-government services, are either still under-developed, or fragmented”. While there is a coordinated effort for the development and use of a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) – a collaborative initiative of the European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) – to establish an integrated and shared EU-wide environmental information system together with the EU Member States, environmental management and planning remains mostly paper-based.

At the same time, governments are today facing increasing demands to reduce overspending while citizens, enterprises and communities continue to insist on top performance, efficiency and proper accountability.

Launching the 2011-2015 e-government Action Plan for Europe, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes described its aim to ”help public authorities to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to offer better services at lower cost, while making life easier and better for citizens and businesses”. The plan reflects the need for e-government

Why use e-government tools for environmental permits? Marc Santos, STELLA Consulting

Neelie Kroes is helping ‘public authorities to use information and communication technologies to offer better services’.

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services to move away from ‘silo’ government approaches1 towards a more integrated and collaborative approach in the service of good governance and single points of contact for citizens and businesses.

The benefits of e-government tools for environmental permits imply the lowering of the effort involved in the environmental permits process for both public authorities and for operators: information is more easily accessible, and defined workflows increase the speed of the process. Therefore, the use of ICT tools represents the simplification of the permitting procedures to overcome bureaucratic burdens, perform the required tasks within the limited available resources (human and infrastructural), and ensure transparency in the permitting process and thus increase the engagement of citizens.

Countries around the world are taking on the challenge to revitalize their public administrations and to make them more proactive, efficient, transparent and service oriented. Thanks to government endorsements and technological progress, e-government tools and services in the EU are rapidly evolving in line with the provisions of the Digital Agenda for Europe. With the maturation of the technical solutions for information exchange, security and collaboration, governments worldwide have an enormous opportunity to invest both in the availability of infrastructure for the electronic provision of public services and the accompanying policy measures.

Why use e-government tools for environmental permits? (continued)

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References:

Joyce M. Martin and Michael J. Kelly, Electronic Environmental Permitting: Panacea or Pandora’s Box?, 23 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 547, 1996.

European Commission, A Digital Agenda for Europe: Communication from the Commission, 26/08/2010.


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Workflow Management: throughout its lifespan, an environmental permit application goes through defined stages, involving various experts and decision-makers. Workflow management software helps to move the process along and alert participants to outstanding tasks.

Participation System: public participation is at the core of each environmental permits process. A public portal can invite citizens to provide their knowledge and concerns to an on-going consultation process from the comfort of their living room.

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The EU co-funded project eEnviPer offers an e-government tool for providing basic environmental permits services to citizens as e-services. As we already know from existing software solutions, environmental permits processes require a set of modules to provide a comprehensive e-government approach. In the ideal case, these modules integrate existing data sources so as to avoid contributing to a further fragmentation of the public Information Technology (IT) landscape.

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Geographic Information System: environmental permits are linked to a particular place and its particular regulatory restrictions, related land use plans and ecosystems. Geographic Information Systems allow users to easily view applicable information for the permit process in hand.

eEnviPer Technology: An Overview Marc Santos, STELLA Consulting

Geographic Information System

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Knowledge Management System Workflow Management System

This group serves to connect experts and authorities interested in e-government solutions for environmental permits processes across Europe. We encourage you to bring your questions, experience and ideas to the table – and contribute to bringing the environmental permits process into the 21st century.

The eEnviPer project has started in April 2012, and now welcomes you to this community of practice. You'll find more information at www.eenviper.eu.

Participation System

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Knowledge Management: public officials, environmental experts and (to a certain degree) citizens and enterprises need access to relevant legislation and case law, existing permits and previously compiled environmental impact assessments.

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The standard modules proposed by eEnviPer include:


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A further advantage of the eEnviPer technology is that the SOA cloud computing platform is based on a mature software solution, DOTframework, which is already used in more than 20 small and medium enterprises and local governments in Greece. DOTframework builds on open source technology, including:

• PHP supplemented with smarty for the creation of HTML templates;

• JavaScript supplemented with jQuery and Ext JS to create interactive web applications; and

• MySQL as a powerful relational database system.

The eEnviPer system will be available as a hosted solution or installed in existing data centres. The system also offers the possibility for public administrations to easily deploy new services and existing procedures as shared services. Moreover, it uses XML as standards-compliant mark-up language for its data input and outputs.

The resulting software system will be available in early 2014 after intensive field tests in the five pilot communities (in Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Greece and Turkey).

eEnviPer will demonstrate the

benefits of SOA and cloud architecture.

eEnviPer Technology: An Overview (continued)

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One of the challenges that the project faces is to build open, flexible and collaborative e-government services while at the same time lowering Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure costs in deployment, upgrade and maintenance. To address this, the eEnviPer platform is developed using modern design principles: it relies on and benefits from innovative technical approaches, in particular cloud computing models and service-oriented architecture (SOA) which offer available, affordable and scalable e-government services.


Melina manages an environmental consultancy firm and her job consists of conducting environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies, and advising local SME clients during the environmental permits procedure. Her job is very challenging: clients complain continuously about time consuming

procedures. In addition, as she can only claim a fee once an environmental permit is issued, she also has a wait a long time to be paid.

Melina finds the eEnviPer platform very effective in reducing the need to actually go to the Environmental Agency, as well as automating application forms and procedures. She also has quick access to up-to-date environmental legislation, Best Available Techniques (BAT) in different sectors and spatial information. Her work is therefore completed faster and is better documented. eEnviPer also results in an acceleration of the environmental permitting process overall, making her clients happier and more eager to pay on time.

The Campaigner Jurg has always been zealous about environmental protection; he has been involved in wildlife conservation campaigns since he was a teenager. Today, despite long hours working as a nurse in the local hospital, he is still an active member in an NGO that works on environmental protection.

Jurg has registered himself with eEnviPer so as to take part in public consultations on the issues that interest him. He can now ensure that his views on investments that impact on the local environment will be heard by the policy makers. He has discovered that he can also establish contacts with other like-minded people and organizations via eEnviPer. More importantly, he has obtained access to environmental legislation to quickly identify the requirements of specific EU Directives, which have in several cases enabled his NGO to insist on law enforcement, and promote sustainable development and nature preservation.

eEnviPer in Practice: Possible User Journeys Valentina Villoria, STELLA Consulting

The Environmental Engineer

III


The Politician Mr Mavrogialouros is the Mayor of Elpida, a small Mediterranean city. Elpida’s principal economic activity is tourism and related recreational services that create steady, yet seasonal and low-paid jobs. Mr Mavrogialouros

believes that Elpida has the potential to attract investments in low disturbance manufacturing activities. One investor is planning to develop an industrial park to attract small manufacturers. The investor was attracted by the accelerated permitting processes in Elpida, achieved through the new eEnviPer system. However, although it will have a positive impact on employment in the area, the industrial park is likely to have a negative impact on the environment. Mr Mavrogialouros wants to ensure that this investment will be accepted by a majority of Elpida’s citizens. He therefore intends to use the Public Consultation module of eEnviPer, upload the results of the impact assessment studies and ask the Municipality GIS expert to visualize the proposed investments.

The Civil Servant Mr Bonatelli is the Head of the Environmental Permits Department at the Regional Environmental Agency. This year, his department’s budget has been cut by 15%, meaning 2 fewer people in his already busy team, and a close-to-zero budget for IT infrastructure. He is also now being asked to complete environmental permit procedures in 3 months rather than 2.

Using eEnviPer, Mr Bonatelli will not have to find a budget for data centres or user licenses. In addition, the eEnviPer workflow system will help him assign tasks to his team as well as monitor their work. The spatial visualization of pending applications will help him schedule on-site inspections more effectively. And last but not least, he hopes that junior team members will stop asking him questions about environmental legislation all the time, since eEnviPer provides a relevant Knowledge Management System, allowing him to focus on his management tasks.

eEnviPer in Practice: Possible User Journeys (continued)


Krapina-Zagorje County, Croatia

Region of Crete, Greece

Municipality of Indjija, Serbia

Apulia Region, Italy Niğde Province, Turkey

Pilot Projects One approach, five institutional settings

The eEnviPer Consortium

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