Environmental informatics

The International Forum on Environmental Information defined environmental information in 1991 as “data, statistics and other quantitative and qualitative data required by decision-making bodies to assess the state and trends of environmental changes, to formulate and guide environmental policy and for purposeful use resources.”

 

Environmental informatics deals with the entire process of environmental information administration, from its processing to its presentation: 

• database data collection, 
• development of information systems,
• data analysis and data  modelling,
• Communication and presentation of results.

 

Environmental informatics at SEA 

The Directorate for Environmental Informatics is performing tasks in the field of environmental informatics at the national and international levels within SEA in close cooperation with the Directorate of Environmental Sciences.

IT specialists and professional guarantors of SEA ensure the management of environmental information by operating public administration information systems for specialized environmental agendas, as well as by operating numerous registers, applications and websites..

SEA operates public administration information systems with the following agendas:

• Environmental impact assessment IS (EIA/SEA) (code MetaIS: isvs_294) contains all publicly accessible documents, decisions and information on the status of assessment of planned investment intentions and strategic documents,
• IS prevention of serious industrial accidents (code MetaIS: isvs_296) collects information on those companies in Slovakia that use dangerous substances in production,
• IS integrated prevention and control of environmental pollution (code MetaIS: isvs_297) contains information on operators, operations, issued integrated permits, inspection results and best available techniques,
• IS environmental burdens (code MetaIS: isvs_300) contains a register of probable environmental burdens, environmental loads and rehabilitated and reclaimed sites,
• IS prevention and remediation of environmental damage (MetaIS code: isvs_304) collects information on environmental damage or its immediate threats, responsible operators and preventive or corrective measures taken to mitigate environmental damage,
• IS on authorized persons and their permanent subcontractors (code MetaIS: isvs_7331) contains comprehensive information on authorized persons for performing authorized technical activities in the field of air protection,
• Mining waste management IS (code MetaIS: isvs_7423) collects data and information on mining waste management for the needs of public administration bodies, to inform the public and its participation in the permitting of mining waste storage facilities.

 

According to Article 45 of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, "everyone has the right to timely and complete information about the state of the environment and about the causes and consequences of this state". The public's right to access information about the environment and public participation in the decision-making process in environmental matters is also enshrined in the Aarhus Convention. A crucial task of environmental informatics is therefore communication and appropriate presentation of environmental information to the public.

SEA fulfils this important role by operating the information portal enviroportal.sk. The portal presents verified information about the environment and is an access point to the above-mentioned public administration information systems managed by SEA. 

Enviroportál also provides the public with access to data, statistics, quantitative and qualitative data on the state and development of the environment in Slovakia. It presents mentioned environmental information through these following services: 

• Electronic versions of Reports on the State of the Environment in Slovakia (since 1992),
• Environmental indicators
  • The comprehensive source of information about the state and development of the environment and its related aspects for the public.. Different sets of indicators are evaluated: key indicators of environment, sectoral indicators, indicators of the state and protection of biodiversity and circular economy indicators.
• Envidat – the database of environmental indicators
  • The interactive application makes available numerical database data, structured as a time series of environmental indicators on the national or international level.