Prague environmental information system (IOŽIP) and projects of the City

(the text below is based on the chapter Prague environmental information system (IOŽIP) and projects of the City published in yearbooks Prague Environment 2006, Prague Environment 2005 and Prague Environment 2004)

Scheme of the Prague Environmental Information System – activities, projects, and mutual relations

The Capital City of Prague has had many-year long traditions in processing and providing of information on the environment.

Prague Environmental Information System (IOŽIP) collects and process data on selected compartments of the environment on the territory of the Capital City of Prague. The System objectives are as follows:

• collecting and processing of data on status of individual environmental factors in Prague obtained by various organisations and institutions;
• evaluating of the scope of the data available and acquiring such data, which there is no other source thereof;
• providing information to the authorities of the City’s municipal administration, experts, and the public.

The beginnings of the Prague Environmental Information System can be found in the half of the 1980s when it was developed as one of theme dedicated circles of the City Information System. The established abbreviation IOŽIP come from that time, the onset of systematic monitoring of selected compartments of the environment and taking over data, which now constitute the base of the data resources of the System.

Over the time of its existence the System went through some organisational and technology changes (till 1994 it was under the responsibility of the PÚDIS, REL, ČEÚ; since 1994 to 2000 it was under IMIP). Since 2000 co-ordination of the operation and further development of the IOŽIP has been provided by the Department of Informatics of the Prague City Hall.

This Yearbook, regularly published in a printed form since 1989, and later also in the English version and in an electronic format, has become the most known output of the System. The present structure of information published was introduced in 2000. Since 1997 there were five CD-ROMs on Prague’s Environment published, each of which includes the latest Yearbook, Atlas of the Environment, Statistical Yearbook Numeri Pragenses (ČSÚ), Data and Information Sources (ÚEP), and potentially other specialised publications on issues of air pollution control (REZZO, ATEM), nature conservation (Vegetation Map, Birds, Butterflies, and Protected Areas in Prague), noise maps of Prague, etc.

The System development has been driven by efforts to follow the rapid development in information technology including GIS and the Internet. A series of the Yearbooks has been presented on the City web pages (www.praha-mesto.cz), the Atlas of the Environment (maps worked out as an interactive application under GIS software (www.premis.cz/atlaszp or www.wmap.cz/atlaszp) and other publications as well. In 2002 the Internet server ENVIS (envis.praha.eu, envis.prague-city.cz /English version/) was put under operation, which integrates applications for the providing of Prague environmental information (books of facts from the Yearbooks, information from Departments of Prague City Hall, maps, databases, air quality monitoring data, hot news, references, etc.) that had been previously developed as self-standing ones.

The IOŽIP System is nowadays taken as a broader set of activities following to other projects in the field of environmental informatics. Some of these projects are performed by the Department of Informatics in co-operation with other Departments of the Prague City Hall. These are, for example, the PREMIS Project (publication of operating data on air quality using model calculations from the ČHMÚ and weather conditions on the Internet a www.premis.cz), the air quality assessment employing model calculations (ATEM), the updating and administration of data on sources of air pollution (REZZO), and the development of calculated Noise Map, etc. Among these projects, there are data and technology relations and links, outputs are then presented in the Yearbook as well as in the Atlas of the Environment.

Since 2001 the System has been developed on the basis of a scheme illustrating activities for the providing of entry data, data processing and creation and giving outputs (see Figure, below).

The IOŽIP System and products as the Atlas of the Environment and the ENVIS Server have acquired awards on the domestic grounds (for example, in the competition on Geoapplications, CAGI) as well internationally.