WISE IP - summary - finalec.europa.eu/.../water/water.../wise_ip_2006_2010.pdf · WISE stands for “Water Information System for Europe” and is an umbrella term for a wider initiative

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL ENVIRONMENT Directorate D – Water and Environmental Programmes ENV.D2 – Protection of Water & Marine Environment

WISE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 2006 – 2010 SUMMARY AND RESOURCE NEEDS

FOREWORD

This is summary of the implementation plan (IP) for the Water Information System for Europe (WISE) prepared by the WISE teams of DG Environment, the Joint Research Centre, Eurostat and the European Environment Agency. It provides information on the WISE development vision and on the goals to be achieved. It describes the development process and broadly the methodologies chosen. It identifies development tasks for the involved institutions. It also includes an initial timing for including various areas of water data in Europe until 2010. Finally, the summary aims at estimating the resource needs for the period 2007-2013. The IP is a rather technical document by nature, result of an editing process initiated by the above-mentioned four European institutions. Since technology develops dynamically, this is a living document. The comprehensive WISE IP is complemented by a summary which aims at agreeing and circulating the tasks and responsibilities between the institutions involved. This summary will be complemented by a few strategic and informative documents (e.g. on GIS). It will also be complemented by a range of technical documents, explaining the concrete arrangements along the tasks. The developments will be guided by the WISE Steering Group (SG) led by DG ENV which involves the four EU bodies with the support of a Technical Group (TG) led by the EEA. The document addresses only the four institutions above. However, it will be used to communicate the WISE development to the other partners, in particular the Member State (and other countries) experts. These experts will be able to contribute through various ways. The summary of the WISE Implementation Plan is endorsed by the Director-General of DG Environment, the Director of the EEA, ESTAT and JRC-IES (Group of Four). It builds on the Technical Arrangements agreed in November 2005. The document constitutes the basis for co-operation and includes resource and other commitments which need to be considered as priorities in the annual planning of the respective institutions. The final document is made publicly available1 in order to communicate with and engage other partner, such as Member States, in the WISE implementation.

1 Through EUROPA web page: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water

WISE Implementation Plan 2006-2010 - Summary

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1. INTRODUCTION

WISE stands for “Water Information System for Europe” and is an umbrella term for a wider initiative to modernise and streamline the collection and dissemination of information related to European water policy. The starting point for WISE is the Water Framework Directive. The overall concept for WISE was laid down in a document which was agreed in 20032. Since then, the process of implementing WISE has started but is still in early stages. There are several aspects which illustrate what WISE will be, in particular:

• the water-related component of INSPIRE on European level. However, WISE is more since it covers also non-georeferenced information (e.g. numeric data, textual or administrative information). It will therefore be the platform of ensuring inter-operability of data between the national systems and the EU level.

• a formal compliance reporting tool. Thereby, it facilitates the information exchange between the Member States and the Commission. This implies that formal rules are established for this part in order to avoid parallel or double reporting. However, only part of the data in WISE are relevant for compliance.

• a shared information system of water-related data available on European level. Extensive amounts of data are being collected by European and international bodies. The sharing of water-related data will enhance efficiency of data sharing and improve quality of assessments. WISE is thereby the water-related component of a wider Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) currently under development.

• a platform for cooperation. The WISE process is built upon a close cooperation of four EU bodies, namely DG Environment, Joint Research Centre, Eurostat and the European Environment Agency. Furthermore, it provides the platform for cooperation with the Member States, the main data holders, and international organisations in the field of water policy.

• a harmonised data flow: To harmonise the technical and organisational processes will create a streamlined reporting of high quality (see flowchart in Annex 1). Moreover, resources can be concentrated on developing jointly standardised procedures and helpful tools for all partners involved in the data flow process.

In summary, depending on the context, WISE can refer to an initiative, a concept, a process, an information system, a set of rules or tools for reporting, a dataset or component or else. The subsequent document describes the various elements and they will be developed over the coming years.

2. STATUS OF THE DOCUMENT

The WISE Implementation Plan 2006-2010 is a work plan which is agreed (on technical level) by the four EU bodies involved - DG Environment, Joint Research Centre, Eurostat and the European Environment Agency, subsequently referred to as WISE

2 The WISE concept paper is available at the EUROPA web page :

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/pdf/concept_report.pdf

http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water



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partners. It sets out the tasks and the roadmap for the WISE development over the coming years. It attributes responsibilities and estimates resource needs in accordance with the competences and capacities of the WISE partners.

The document reflects the agreements in early 2006 and should be the basis for the annual planning cycle of the WISE partners. However, it is likely that, as developments proceed and experiences grow, that adaptations and amendments need to be introduced. This will be possible subject to the agreement of all partners. Thus, it should be envisaged to review the WISE Implementation Plan each year and introduce amendments, if necessary.

3. OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of this process is the “development of a new, comprehensive, shared European data and information management system for water, including river basins (WISE). The system should be based on the concept paper and should be fully implemented by 2010”. This objective and the more detailed concept for WISE has been agreed by the EU bodies (DG ENV, JRC, ESTAT and EEA) leading the WISE process and the EU25 Member States, Norway, Bulgaria and Romania during the Water Directors’ meeting in November 20033. In the beginning, WISE will concentrate on providing an infrastructure for reporting under the WFD for the 25 EU Member States. However, the scope will be extended step-by-step to cover all EU water-related information and inviting other countries with which the EU shares river basins and other international organisations to cooperate on a voluntary basis. The WISE Implementation Plan 2006-2010 (IP) aims at translating the general concept into an operational plan by which the system can be built in a step-by-step process using the competences, capacities and resources of the four WISE partners in the best possible way. It also describes the main tasks and distributes the roles and responsibilities between the four contributing partners. In this respect, the WISE IP builds upon the agreements in the Technical Arrangements between DG ENV, ESTAT, JRC and EEA on Environmental Data Centres as agreed on 14 November 2005.

4. PRINCIPLES

The development of WISE and the Implementation Plan is based on a number of principles, in particular:

• Key principle: "Report once use many4 – harmonise reporting tools"

• WISE will integrate State-of-the-Environment (SoE) and compliance (and where appropriate other) reporting data flows.

3 The WISE concept paper is available at the EUROPA web page :

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/pdf/concept_report.pdf

4 Data should be collected once, maintained at most appropriate level and shared between all levels.




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• WISE is built as distributed data nodes

• Users can build own services to connect their data to WISE or access WISE data

Moreover, the WISE is developed in close relationship to the INSPIRE initiative and to integrate WISE into the broader context of spatial information sharing, in order to ensure the application of the following principles:

Shared information system Data should be stored at different nodes and information should be shared between all participating nodes.

Interoperable system For the sake of information sharing and exchange all participating nodes have to be interoperable data should be exchangeable and services should be able to access and process data from different nodes.

Follow subsidiarity principle Data should be maintained at the most appropriate level and shared between all other levels.

Transparent (open) It should be possible to discover easily data and services. User should be able to determine data’s fitness for use and the conditions of usage should be clearly described.

In all the above, it is important that the four EU bodies have the ownership and exercise the leadership for the WISE development. In order to be successful, this process needs to aims to establish a close co-operation with the Member States. Ultimately, WISE should centralise only those core data which are needed as a reference against which reporting is made. The major part of information and data will be decentralised which means that, e.g. linkage between national water information systems and WISE will need to be established.

5. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT – PLANNING, PREPARATION AND CONSTRUCTION PHASE

The system development is divided into three stages:

1. Planning Phase (2005)

2. Preparation Phase (2006)

3. Construction Phase (2007-2010)

Thereafter, the Maintenance Phase (2011 and after) begins in which the system maintenance and improvement will be in the centre of the activities.

5.1. Planning Phase (2005)

The planning phase concentrated on the development of the WISE Implementation Plan. Furthermore, a number of prototypes (e.g. WFD prototype or WISE public viewer prototype) and feasibility studies (e.g. on


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integration of UWWT database or intercalibration metadata into WISE) were elaborated. With the finalisation of this document, the planning phase is successfully completed.

5.2. Preparation Phase (2006)

The preparation phase aims at making the work programme in the WISE IP operational. In particular the set up of the WISE Technical Group (TG) which is led by the EEA, is important to develop the technical specifications for WISE. Thereby, it will be important to decide for which aspects it will be necessary to await the INSPIRE implementing rules and which aspects need to be elaborated independently either, because they will not be addressed by INSPIRE, or because an interim solution will be necessary. Furthermore, the WISE GIS work will be coordinated by the TG with the aim to develop, e.g. hydrographic reference data sets. Moreover, the first agreements to streamline the "input" of data from the Member States will need to be elaborated with the aim of reaching agreement on the conceptual set up and tools to be used and developed.

Another focus of system development will be on the output side in order to make available and share the existing datasets effectively. The preparation phase is completed with the public launch of WISE which is foreseen on 22 March 2007. A more comprehensive list of tasks is referred to in section 7 below and in the section for of the WISE IP.

5.3. Construction Phase (2007-2010)

The construction phase can be divided into two main parts.

First, the development activities for the system can be governed by the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The ITIL targets the operation and maintenance of a running IT system. It is subdivided into activities related to service delivery and to service support. Activities within service delivery include service level management, security management, capacity management, availability and continuity management. Service support includes incident and problem management, configuration and release management. Change management activities are related to both service delivery and service support. In this context, the following tasks will be carried out:

• Identification of common information and streams to be included

• Expansion of the WISE system capabilities

• Expansion of the WISE data upload modules

Second, the addition of additional content to WISE should then be managed as changes while ensuring the continuation of service from the WISE system in operation. More details on the integration of datasets is presented in the subsequent section. A complete list of all the datasets to be included is provided in table1. More details on the construction phase can be found in section 5 of the WISE IP.


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6. INTEGRATION OF DATASETS

The ambition of WISE is to integrate all water-related datasets on EU level. This encompasses the information which is submitted in the context of formal reporting under existing EU directives (in particular, WFD, UWWD, NiD, BWD and DWD), the future reporting data flows under upcoming legislation (in particular Marine Strategy, Flood directive, groundwater, priority substances) and the more voluntary data flows to the EEA (EIONET Water) and ESTAT (joint questionnaire).

Figure 1 illustrates how the system will be expanding in the Preparation Phase and the Construction Phase. In addition, it shows that the potential of WISE is to share data also with other organisations, whether e.g. international marine or river commissions or national data systems. This expansion is optional and depends on the willingness of the partners to engage in a cooperation. These potentials need to be explored outside this Implementation Plan. If there were consequences from sharing data with any other organisations, this may require for adaptations or updates in the Implementation Plan.

The integration of dataset from EU level will be done on a step by step basis starting with the WFD and the EIONET Water data. Table 1 provides an overview which data sets will be covered and by when they will be incorporated in WISE at the latest.

Additional datasets, which are not listed in table1, may be linked (incorporated or decentrally available) to WISE following agreement with the dataholders. One example could be the interoperability between WISE and the database of an international convention. This will have to be negotiated on a case-by-case basis and may be realised before or after 2010.


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Table 1: Overview and timetable for integration of datasets (note: detailed timetable for inclusion into the WISE data centre to be decided)

No. Data origin Responsible WISE partner

Timetable for WISE inclusion

Comments

1 WFD – Art. 3 (districts and competent authorities)

ENV, JRc 2006 Most MS have already submitted, part of WFD prototype (wise.jrc.it)

2 WFD – Art. 5 (environmental analysis)

ENV, JRc 2006 Currently being submitted. Maybe relocated to EEA before 2010 as part of (4).

3 WFD – Art. 8 (monitoring networks)

ENV, EEA 2007 Deadline for submission, March 2007

4 WFD – Art 13 (river basin management plans)

ENV, EEA 2010 Deadline for submission, March 2010

5 WFD – Intercalibration

JRc 2006 Metadata available, further submission in 2007 likely

6 UWWD ENV, EEA 2007 Initial adaptations in 2007 questionnaire, full integration in next reporting cycle

7 NiD ENV, EEA 2007

8 DWD ENV, EEA 2007

9 BWD ENV, EEA 2008

10 EIONET Water EEA 2006

11 ESTAT/ OECD JQ

ESTAT 2008

12 Marine Strategy ENV, EEA 2010

13 Flood Directive ENV, JRc 2010

14 WISE GIS reference data sets

ESTAT, EEA 2007 Built from other datasets

15 CCM2 JRC 2006

WFD: Water Framework Directive, UWWD: Urban Wastewater treatment Directive, NiD: Nitrates Directive, DWD: Drinking Water Directive, BWD: Bathing Water Directive


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Figure 1: WISE Perspective regarding data sets

In addition to the datasets listed above, an additional information platform is being developed which will be linked and, if possible, integrated into the WISE infrastructure. The so-called WISE-RTD will be a warehouse of information on water-related research and other EU projects (e.g. LIFE, INTERREG) which are relevant for the implementation of EU water policy. The information platform will be organised in a easily accessible and user-friendly way. WISE-RTD is being developed as part of an ongoing FP5 project "HarmoniCa" and is led jointly be DG ENV, RTD and JRC.

7. WORK PLAN, TASKS AND COMMITMENTS

The Work Plan foresees that starting from the current situation and using the available tools (e.g. WFD prototype or Reportnet) to the best possible extent, the development of WISE will be carried out in two main stages. At first, the "output side" (in particular WISE public viewer) will be set up until the public launch in March 2007. The more complex and demanding development of the "input side" of the system will only be completed in 2010. However, first agreements and technical specifications on the input side will already be made during 2006. The two stages of the work programme are illustrated in figure 2.


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Figure 2: WISE development from now to 2010 focussing first on the streamlining of output and then on input data flows

The WISE IP comprises a considerable number of tasks which are defined on the basis of the system development and organised in accordance with the different time lines and subjects. In order to summarise these tasks and allocate the responsibilities for delivery to one of the partners, the subsequent overview is structured around the four EU partners. Approximate timelines for the development of the various tasks are specified in the Annex 2.

European Environment Agency (EEA)

In accordance with the Technical Arrangements between DG ENV, ESTAT, JRC and EEA on Environmental Data Centres as agreed on 14 November 2005, the EEA is the data centre for water. This places the main responsibilities and the need for adequate resource allocation towards the EEA.

As part of the data centre role, the EEA has taken the leadership for the new WISE Technical Group which will develop most of the technical specifications, requirements and other documents required for the WISE development. As a first step, the WISE TG, on proposal of the EEA, will define a software data model and develop the specifications on what can be considered as "WISE compatible". This also includes the development of common reporting formats and data exchange tools.


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Furthermore, the EEA leads the development of the WISE public viewer and the web (mapping) services. In this respect, the WISE GIS component will have to be further elaborated as part of the WISE TG work with the aim to have hydrographic reference datasets available for all WISE users. However, significant contribution from ESTAT and JRC is expected as regards the WISE GIS related tasks.

In addition to the EIONET water data, the EEA will also become main data holder on compliance data collected in the context of EU water legislation (see table 1). For this purpose, it may be necessary to adapt the IT infrastructure at the EEA. Following the construction phase, this will require certain resource needs as regards maintaining the data, providing help desk for data providers and running agreed quality assurance and control (QA/QC) routines. Finally, the system improvements and expansions of system capabilities are part of the data centre role.

Joint Research Centre – Institute for Environment and Sustainability (JRC)

The JRC will contribute actively to the work of the WISE TG and assist the EEA in the developments of the above-mentioned technical requirements. In particular, the JRC will take the lead the development of a WISE common data exchange protocol (synchronisation of independent data nodes). This is particularly important since the JRC will continue to host the intercalibration data. The JRC will ensure that the database is integrated into the WISE architecture and run compatibility tests.

Furthermore, the JRC will continue to host the already collected WFD Art. 3 and Art. 5 data. However, at a later stage, and in agreement with all partners, these data may be integrated into the EEA data centre since they will be an integral part of the submission of reports under the RBMP in accordance with Art. 13 WFD.

As part of the contribution to the WISE GIS process, JRC will prepare the CCM2 dataset to such a level that it can be used within WISE. Furthermore, JRC is involved in the WISE-RTD development and will ensure its hosting and maintenance following the end of the EU-funded RTD projects.

Moreover, the JRC will ensure coordination with the INSPIRE activities (inside JRC-IES but also general), in order to maximise compatibility and synergies.

Eurostat (ESTAT)

Eurostat will also contribute actively to the work of the WISE TG, in particular as regards the development of WISE GIS and the hydrographic reference datasets. ESTAT is also invited to lead the development of the WISE GIS guidance document. The ongoing work on coding is part of this contribution. At the end of this process, ESTAT will take forward which GIS datasets can and should be included into GISCO.

Furtermore, ESTAT will lead the developments of integrating water statistics into WISE, in particular, and in agreement with OECD, the integration of the Joint Questionnaire. Moreover, the ESTAT will ensure coordination with the INSPIRE activities (inside ESTAT but also general), in order to maximise compatibility and synergies.


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Directorate General for Environment (DG ENV)

DG ENV (unit D.2) will be involved in all aspects of the WISE development and will continue to provide the overall co-ordination platform by organising and chairing the WISE Steering Group (SG). DG ENV will also be responsible of defining all reporting needs which are related to compliance reporting and to carry out the compliance assessments of the national reports.

In addition, DG ENV will provide resources (mainly through support contract) which can be used in the development of the tasks identified in the WISE IP. The WISE SG and TG should coordinate the allocation of these available resources. DG ENV will be co-responsible for the project management for the integration of the various compliance datasets into WISE and be involved in the publication of those.

Moreover, DG ENV leads the negotiations with other data holders outside the EU, in particular the international river and marine conventions, with regard to a possible co-operation and link of their reporting and data streams with the WISE architecture. Finally, the DG ENV will ensure coordination with the SEIS activities (inside DG ENV but also general), in order to maximise compatibility and synergies.

8. RESOURCE NEEDS

Based on the distribution of tasks above, there has been an attempt to identify resource needs and available resources. However, at this stage it appears difficult for all partners to quantify the total resource needs and make detailed commitments over the next six years.

Overall, the support to WISE is included in all the multi-annual work programmes of the four partners. The EEA recognises the increasing resource needs as part of their data centre commitments and has consequently addressed this in the budget planning for the EEA and the European Topic Centre for Water. It will have to be reviewed annually whether the current allocations will be sufficient for the demanding tasks.

The JRC has propose a specific action (1.1.6-Data harmonisation: IWQIS supporting the development of the WISE) in the Multi-Annual Work Programme for 2007-2013. In addition, the other JRC actions on INSPIRE and COSIN-JRC will also provide valuable input.

ESTAT is also currently developing its work programme and generally committed to supporting WISE. However, a specific commitment is yet missing.

DG ENV will continue to steer the process and provide resource input mainly in relation to developing the compliance part of WISE and the assessment of the compliance reports. Currently, a support contract is in place and is foreseen to continue until March 2009. Additionally, other support contracts contain some resources towards integration of WISE (e.g. on bathing water). It is expected that also after 2009, external support will be available for the compliance aspects within WISE.

The WISE Steering Group will continue to monitor the resource availability and identify resource gaps in the further implementation process in order to bring them to the attention to the respective partners.


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9. PERSPECTIVES

The WISE Implementation Plan aims at laying down the process for a joint and shared WISE development. It is a living document which has to be adapted to the progress and the experiences made during the process. Furthermore, intensive and extensive consultation with an increasing number of partners and contributors will enable a more refined and efficient planning of the WISE implementation.

The WISE Implementation Plan is an ambitious and challenging project. Apart from the allocation of sufficient resources, it will only be successful if the four partners are taking ownership and are showing proactive leadership in this process which is based on a constructive and collaborative working spirit. The development of this document has demonstrated that the partners are able and willing to work together towards the shared objectives for a Water Information System for Europe. The Implementation Plan is a good and sound basis for work, now we (only) have to deliver!

Annex 1

Illustration of WISE data flow (note: all steps may involve quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC), such QA/QX tools qnd procedures need to be developed as an integral part of the data flow)


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Annex 2

Overview of tasks, products and timing for the development of WISE (as in Annex 2 of the WISE IP)

Reference No.

Output

Project Manage-

ment

Timeline (x indicating quarters)

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Vision and top level use case model

Document DG ENV ---x

First prototype of WISE public web site 3.2.2.4 Software

EEA ---x

System architecture and design 4.2.1 Document

EEA and JRC

x---

Spatial data viewer 4.2.1.1 Document

EEA x---

Synchronisation of indep. Data nodes 4.2.1.2 Document

JRC x---

Integration of data assessment nodes 4.2.1.3 Document

EEA x---

Design and maintenance of WISE public website 4.2.2

Document EEA xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Common exchange protocol 4.2.3 Documents

JRC xxxx

Adapting EIONET water 4.2.4.1 Software

EEA -x--

Adapting WFD and Intercalibration 4.2.4.2 Software

JRC -x--

Compatibility test 4.2.4.3 Document

JRC --x-

Common reporting format 4.2.5 Software

EEA --xx

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010


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Output interface design and realisation 4.2.6 Document and Software

EEA xxxx

Identification of common info/streams 5.1.1 Document

DG ENV xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Expansion of the WISE system 5.1.2 Document and Software

EEA and JRC

---x xxxx xxxx xxxx x

WFD Reporting 5.2.1 Document and Software

DG ENV with EEA

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

Urban waste water 5.2.2 Document and Software

DG ENV with EEA

-xxx xxxx

Drinking Water 5.2.3 Document and Software

DG ENV ---x xxx-

Bathing Water 5.2.4 Document and Software

DG ENV ---x xxxx xxxx

Nitrates 5.2.5 Document and Software

DG ENV -xxx xx--

Integrated Pollution & Prevention 5.2.6 Document and Software

DG ENV with EEA

-xxx xx--

Joint Questionnaire 5.2.7 Document and Software

ESTAT --xx x---

International river conventions 5.2.8 tbc DG ENV with ICPDR

---x xxxx xxxx xxxx

EU Marine Conventions

5.2.9

Document and Software

DG ENV with EEA and Int. Marine

Conventions

xxxx xxxx x

Flood Risk 5.2.10 Document and Software

JRC xxxx xxxx x

Exchange of water related research 5.2.11 Service JRC/HarmoniCa

---x