Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

Country fiche: Greece(draft 22 October 2018))

Date of evaluation: September 2018

SummaryIn Greece a single main National Environmental Information System portal is maintained for all information most of the environmental domains. This portal is under the control of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, (YPEKA- ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΠΕΡΙΒΑΛΛΟΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΝΕΡΓΕΙΑΣ - http://ypeka.gr/). A separate portal linked with the main portal, carries all the INSPIRE data sets that are available along with their metadata, searching, viewing, downloading and transformation services and this portal is maintained by the National Cadaster and Mapping Organization of Greece (OKXE). The majority of the information is found in this portal, except information related to the Chemicals.

Overall information governance

In Greece an interlinked system is maintained for providing Environmental Information data in most of the environmental domains. The ‘Ministry of Environment and Energy’ portal (ypeka.gr) is the main portal. The portal is very comprehensive but it does not contain easy findable information on chemicals although search reveals spread out several documents on this topic. It seems the portal is well maintained although a lot of information and data provided are very outdated

Overall findings including on content, sharing and usability

Regarding Content, the main portal provides adequate information for the environmental domains although historical environmental datasets are difficult to find and also metadata especially for environmental is missing or difficult accessible. For sharing, the main portal does not offer environmental data download services. Only a limited number of datasets is available through the linked INSPIRE portal. Licenses to re-use data are difficult to find. Regarding usability, most of information is found mainly by navigating in the menu and the search box on the main page, although the structure is not clear and has overlap in the environmental domains. The site offers English information but lack of English context creates difficulties for the non-Greek users in finding the right content they are asking for.

Guidance

Although de portal is very comprehensive to further improve the needed information and references for the Chemicals should be added to the main portal. Also structure the content, the menu, more to the user perspective looking for environmental information can be improved. Access to up-to-date data and means to share the data would support a better use of the portal. In line with this also the INSPIRE portal can use improvement in the number of datasets available and ease of use of the INSPIRE portal.

IntroductionThis country fiche is a product of a project1 financed by the European Commission carried out mainly in 2018. The objective of the project [was] to retrieve information based on all the environmental data spread out in all different locations and systems and to find a way to collect the data in an efficient manner. If extracting the needed data it could lower the burden for reporting by the Member States. Currently, the legal obligation to report and monitor throughout the full environmental domain shows a scattered landscape of different environmental management information systems targeted at the specific specifications in the regulatory framework. It would be a major benefit to align common base data used throughout environmental acquis.

1 ‘Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level’ under Framework Contract No 07.0203/2017/761039/SER/ENV.E.4 of Directorate General for Environment

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

As a starting point, the situation for every Member State was analysed and summarised in a country fiche in which the current situation (2018 or earlier) on governance, content, sharing and usability performance of the national environmental systems are described. The country fiches are linked to the preparation of the guidance document for good practices for national environmental information systems. For more information on the project and the methodology, see the final paragraph of the country fiche and the project webpage (eis-data.eu ) 2 .

Governance By ‘governance’ we mean the structure that Member States have put in place for active dissemination of information and data on the environment. Good governance means that Member States actively disseminate environmental data and information in an (easy) accessible manner for all and the system is well-maintained and updated as frequently as feasible. In the Governance part we look into the structure and refer to INSPIRE.

In Greece an interlinked system is maintained for providing Environmental Information data in most of the environmental domains. The ‘Ministry of Environment and Energy’ portal (ypeka.gr/) is the main portal. The portals home page offers means for direct access to new and main items on the site. The portal is very comprehensive but it does not contain easy findable information on chemicals although search reveals spread out several documents on this topic. It seems the portal is well maintained although a lot of information and data provided are very outdated.

INSPIRE

INSPIRE is linked through the main environmental portal. It is a separate portal named as the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) which is maintained by the National Organization for Cadastre and Mapping of Greece (OKXE). In this portal the user may find INSPIRE thematic national data sets and their metadata, services for searching, viewing, downloading and also transformation and data request services. This portal has links with the European INSPIRE geoportal for easy access of European data sets. It is stated that there is compliance to the INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC) which is transposed to the national legislation since 2010.

2 During the duration of the project.

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

Criterion Rating Remarks

1.1 How is the governance of dissemination of environmental data and information arranged? Greece has an interlinked system: all information

and data of the Five (all but on) main domains is accessible through the main portal of the ministry of environment and energy.

1.2 What is the link with INSPIRE and the INSPIRE portal The linkage is inside the portal to be reached by

the menu and then further links. The quality of the INSPIRE portal itself is not very convincing.

ContentThe criteria on content indicate the ease of finding environmental data and information within a Member State. We searched in the six main environmental domains, Air, Biodiversity, Water, Chemicals, Industrial Emissions and Waste and restricted the search to one specific Directive as indicated above the tables. If the answer ‘not found’ is given it does not necessarily mean the information is not there, but it means we could not find it using the methodology set out in documents available on www.eis-data.eu.

General overview

Regarding Content, the main portal offers a menu covering two different sections “Environment’ and ‘Water Resources’ covering most of the environmental domains in this evaluation. The main portal (ypeka.gr ), provides adequate information for the environmental domains in these two sections although historical environmental datasets are difficult to find and also metadata especially for environmental is missing or difficult accessible. The main national environmental portal of Greece covers the domains of Air, Biodiversity, Water, Industrial emissions and Waste, while for Chemicals the coverage could not be found, although some reports were found related to the Chemicals (REACH directive). Some information for Industrial emissions and waste was also missing. Data viewers and other services like downloading or searching were not available in the main environmental portal. Monitoring data are sometimes available but also in some cases outdated (Water Framework directive).

Content criteria related to State of the Environmental report and permits/licenses

Criterion Rating Remarks

2.0 Are reports on state of the Environment provided? Report are found in the main portal in the

‘exhibitions-projects’ section of several domains with links to national and the European SoE reports. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.1 Is information on permits and licenses available? Permits and licenses are there but refer to the

'energy' (also of the ministry operating the main portal)

easily found (within 5 clicks); difficult to find (more than 5 clicks); not found

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Search protocol

First search main environmental portal (and if relevant linked portals) via menu and keyword search

If not found, next search other relevant portals in longlist via menu and keyword search If not found, finally perform keyword search in general search engine

Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

Content criteria related to legislation

For the domain of Air, the following legislation is selected: Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe. The criteria below are searched for in relation to this directive. For the search for monitoring data we focussed on data of air quality.

Criterion: Air Rating Remarks

2.2 Are links to European legal base of this legislation provided? The legal documents in Greek. Data found via:

ypeka.gr

2.3 Are links to national policies, plans, programs related to environment linked to this legislation provided? A web page with sub menu choices to navigate

to. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.4 Are monitoring data (or summaries thereof) connected to this legislation provided? A search for air quality data (spatial or statistical) is performed.

a web page with information on measurement station and links to data in a zip file with data per year. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.5 Are environmental impact studies connected to the legislation provided? A webpage with links to pdf report of air quality

(up to 20170. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.6 Are the monitoring data found in provided according to the INSPIRE directive? a web page with text indicating compliance to

INSPIRE and the link to INSPIRE portal. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.7 Are historical datasets available of the monitoring data found? same: a web page with text indicating

compliance to INSPIRE and the link to INSPIRE portal. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.8 Is metadata of the monitoring data found accessible and harvestable? on the page links are provided to many ministries

and catalogues in excel format. Data found via:inspire.okxe.gr

2.9 Is there an indication of quality control (incl. accuracy, consistency, coherence, completeness, schema validation) given for the monitoring data found?

Some reference to declaration about data quality control, but no direct links to results. Data found via ypeka.gr

easily found (within 5 clicks); difficult to find (more than 5 clicks); not found

For the domain of Biodiversity, the following legislation is selected: Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora. The criteria below are searched for in relation to this directive. For the search for monitoring data we focussed on data of habitats.

Criterion Rating Remarks

2.10 Are links to European legal base of this legislation provided? A web page with the links to EU-legislation. Data

found via: ypeka.gr

2.11 Are links to national policies, plans, programs related to environment linked to this legislation provided? lLnks to the legal framework of 28 management

bodies spread over different domains within the natural e=nvironment. Data found via: ypeka.gr

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

2.12 Are monitoring data (or summaries thereof) connected to this legislation provided? A search for habitat data (spatial or statistical) is performed.

A webpage with projects and exibitions, unclear if this is well structured and only the natura 2000 data monitoring and 'data forms' in pdf. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.13 Are environmental impact studies connected to the legislation provided? Only by using general search functionality the

data forms used for reporting are found. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.14 Are the monitoring data found in provided according to the INSPIRE directive?  No information was found on the main portal, nor

in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.15 Are historical datasets available of the monitoring data found?  No historical datasets found related to the

monitoring data found at 2.12

2.16 Is metadata of the monitoring data found accessible and harvestable?  No metadata of the monitoring was found on the

portal where the monitoring data was found

2.17 Is there an indication of quality control (incl. accuracy, consistency, coherence, completeness, schema validation) given for the monitoring data found?

 No quality information was found on the portal where the monitoring data was found 

For the domain of Water, the following legislation is selected: Water frame directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy. The criteria below are searched for in relation to this directive. For the search for monitoring data we focussed on data of water quality data of WFD water bodies.

Criterion Rating Remarks

2.18 Are links to European legal base of this legislation provided? a web page with text and the links to legislation.

Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.19 Are links to national policies, plans, programs related to environment linked to this legislation provided? a sub domain of the portal dedicated to river

basin management plans. Data found via: wfdver.ypeka.gr

2.20 Are monitoring data (or summaries thereof) connected to this legislation provided? A search for water quality data of WFD water bodies (spatial or statistical) is performed.

On a seperate site the ‘National Monitoring Network’ is published to ensure immediate information to the public about the status of each water system of the country. But no reference or link id easily found on the national portal in the ‘water resources’ section. Data found via: mnwn.ypeka.gr

2.21 Are environmental impact studies connected to the legislation provided? a pdf document from 2008: Quality of surface and

groundwater in the country: 2000-2008 reference period but no data found. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.22 Are the monitoring data found in provided according to the INSPIRE directive?  A general reference and link to INSPIRE is made

on the portal, but not in the ‘water resources’ section. Data found via: ypeka.gr ‘Urban Planning

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

& National Background’ section

2.23 Are historical datasets available of the monitoring data found?  No historical datasets found related to the

monitoring data found at 2.20

2.24 Is metadata of the monitoring data found accessible and harvestable?  No metadata of the monitoring was found on the

portal where the monitoring data was found

2.25 Is there an indication of quality control (incl. accuracy, consistency, coherence, completeness, schema validation) given for the monitoring data found?

 No quality information was found on the portal where the monitoring data was found 

For the domain of Chemicals, the following legislation is selected: Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 – REACH of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and establishing a European Chemicals Agency. The criteria below are searched for in relation to this directive. For the search for monitoring data we focussed on data on presence of chemicals in soil or water. Half of the items are easily found.

Chemicals Rating Remarks

2.26 Are links to European legal base of this legislation provided? No information was found on the main portal, nor

in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.27 Are links to national policies, plans, programs related to environment linked to this legislation provided? No information was found on the main portal, nor

in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.28 Are monitoring data (or summaries thereof) connected to this legislation provided? A search for presence of chemicals in soil or water (spatial or statistical) is performed.

No information was found on the main portal, nor in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.29 Are environmental impact studies connected to the legislation provided? No information was found on the main portal, nor

in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.30 Are the monitoring data found in provided according to the INSPIRE directive? No information on INSPIRE compliancy was found

on the portal since no monitoring data was found

2.31 Are historical datasets available of the monitoring data found? No information on INSPIRE compliancy was found

on the portal since no monitoring data was found

2.32 Is metadata of the monitoring data found accessible and harvestable? No metadata of the monitoring was found on the

portal since no information on monitoring data was found

2.33 Is there an indication of quality control (incl. accuracy, consistency, coherence, completeness, schema No quality information since no information on

monitoring data was found

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

validation) given for the monitoring data found?

For the domain of Industrial Emissions, the following legislation is selected: Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control and the Regulation (EC) No 166/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2006 concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release. The criteria below are searched for in relation to this directive. For the search for monitoring data we focussed on data of industrial emissions in air.

Criterion Rating Remarks

2.34 Are links to European legal base of this legislation provided? A web page with links to legislation related to e-

PRTR. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.35 Are links to national policies, plans, programs related to environment linked to this legislation provided? The link is only provided by a press release from

2013. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.36 Are monitoring data (or summaries thereof) connected to this legislation provided? A search for data on industrial emissions in air (spatial or statistical) is performed.

No information was found on the main portal, nor in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.37 Are environmental impact studies connected to the legislation provided? No information was found on the main portal,

nor in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.38 Are the monitoring data found in provided according to the INSPIRE directive? No information on INSPIRE compliancy was found

on the portal since no monitoring data was found

2.39 Are historical datasets available of the monitoring data found? No information on INSPIRE compliancy was found

on the portal since no monitoring data was found

2.40 Is metadata of the monitoring data found accessible and harvestable? No metadata of the monitoring was found on the

portal since no information on monitoring data was found

2.41 Is there an indication of quality control (incl. accuracy, consistency, coherence, completeness, schema validation) given for the monitoring data found?

No quality information since no information on monitoring data was found

For the domain of waste, the following legislation is selected: Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste. The criteria below are searched for in relation to this directive. For the search for monitoring data we focussed on data of amount of waste or landfill sites (spatial/statistical).

Criterion Rating Remarks

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

2.42 Are links to European legal base of this legislation provided? links to legislation but spread out over different

pages/sub topics. Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.43 Are links to national policies, plans, programs related to environment linked to this legislation provided? a web page with text on national legislation (no

links) and a pdf document with decrees . Data found via: ypeka.gr

2.44 Are monitoring data (or summaries thereof) connected to this legislation provided? A search for data on produced waste or landfills (spatial or statistical) is performed.

No information was found on the main portal, nor in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.45 Are environmental impact studies connected to the legislation provided? No information was found on the main portal, nor

in the other portals in the longlist or via keyword search in a general search engine

2.46 Are the monitoring data found in provided according to the INSPIRE directive? No information on INSPIRE compliancy was found

on the portal since no monitoring data was found

2.47 Are historical datasets available of the monitoring data found? No information on INSPIRE compliancy was found

on the portal since no monitoring data was found

2.48 Is metadata of the monitoring data found accessible and harvestable? No metadata of the monitoring was found on the

portal since no information on monitoring data was found

2.49 Is there an indication of quality control (incl. accuracy, consistency, coherence, completeness, schema validation) given for the monitoring data found?

No quality information since no information on monitoring data was found

SharingThe criteria on sharing indicate the ease with which data and information provided by an environmental portal can be shared. Users can be persons to look up information and/or view and download the data on a portal, but it can also mean automatic extraction of data and information by harvesting. For the main environmental portal http://ypeka.gr/ a number of issues regarding sharing are evaluated.

On the main environmental portal most of the sharing criteria were not met. In some cases downloading data sets in the main portal is supported, but often not in common spatial standards, although data related to the environment can be downloaded from the INSPIRE portal. Also the INSPIRE geoportal does not contain too many datasets in the environmental domain. Beside the INSPIRE portal there is a national geoportal, but that one is currently suspended. Information on re-use is not found.

Criterion Rating Remarks

3.1 Is it possible to view the data? A very limited set of data only one related directly to the environment. The national geoportal seems to be suspended. Data found via: www1.okxe.gr

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

3.2 Is it possible to download the data in most commonly used file formats? only e few in the geoportal, seem to be shp files.

Data found via: www1.okxe.gr

3.3 What communication possibilities are available? There is a contact link with a standard form to

contact the Ministry. Data found via: ypeka.gr

3.4 Is the license to re-use data published?  No information or data found on re-use.

3.5 Is access to registers or lists open? (catalogues, thesaurus, vocabularies) The is a register on environmental licensing found

as a news item (not through the menu), where you have to register for. Data found via: eprm.ypen.gr

3.6 Is environmental data freely available (free of charge)?  there is limited data available in limited formats

like shp (INSPIRE portal ) and Excel (main portal). Data found via: www1.okxe.gr

UsabilityThe criteria regarding the usability indicate the ease of use by consumers. For the main environmental portal http://ypeka.gr/ the following issues regarding usability are evaluated.

When searching for content most was found by using the menu options of the portal 15 out 20 (75%). Search is less used and only occasionally the content was found through a news item. Furthermore, 20 of the 50 searches were found (40%). Of the items that were found 60% were found easily (12 out of 20; within 5 clicks).

Criterion Rating Remarks

4.1 Are environmental indicators used? there are references to indicators, but mostly to pdf documents for EU and referring back to as recent as 2012 at ypeka.gr

4.2 Are facilities to support the user provided? only a site map which is difficult to find (tip tool

says contact) and nothing else at ypeka.gr

4.3 Are alternatives for visually and hearing impaired users available? Not found

4.4 Is the portal multi-lingual? In official language (Greek) and in English, but the English version is very limited and often pages are only partly translated

4.5 How was your overall experience? The website offers very much information although is the structuring of the main navigation by the menu seem to be not intuitive for the unexperienced user. Once familiar it is easier.

4.6 How do you judge the appearance of the site Although much use is made of photos and

colourful skins for the menu’s the appearance is a bit ‘busy’ or ‘crowded’

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

4.7 What is your impression of the complexity of the site Because a lot is offered on the national site it is

also complex and it is not easy to find your way through the content

4.8 Percentage of criteria of content found by using the menu > 66% (15 out of 20)

4.9 Percentage of criteria of content found < 66% (20 out of 50)

4.10 Percentage of the Content Criteria found that is found easily 33-66 % (12 out of 20)

GuidanceThe following measures are considered helpful for improving the national environmental information infrastructure:

1. Reconsider a more intuitive structure for navigation (the menu) in the main portal based on the environmental domains from a user perspective;

2. Since information on chemicals is not easily found this should be added the environmental information infrastructure. This can be either to the main portal, which seems most obvious in the current situation, or by linking to resources where this information can be found;

3. Provide in a more consistent manner the data on which tall the information is based;4. Support re-use of environmental information based on a clear, preferable common, license.

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

LonglistThese are the EIS’s that were found for Greece during the first inventory. In the first column is indicated which column we encountered during the evaluation.

√ Portal Description URL Owner Administrator√ Geoportal.gov.gr National geoportal (suspended

October 2018)http://geodata.gov.gr/ Hellenic Goverment

National Cadastre and Mapping Services

constantly updated system of information that records the legal, technical and other additional details about real estate properties

http://gis.ktimanet.gr/wms/ktbasemap

Hellenic Government Hellenic Government

Hellenic National Oceanographic Data Centre (HNODC)

provides data and services : physical, chemical and biological parameters in the water column

http://hnodc.hcmr.gr/ national agency HNODC

√ Ministry of Environment and Energy

Thematical data http://ypeka.gr/ Ministry of Environment and Energy

Ministry of Environment and Energy

√ National Monitoring Water Network

National geoportal http://nmwn.ypeka.gr/ Ministry of Environment & Energy

Ministry of Environment & Energy

Hellenic Military Geographical Service

Geographical Data http://web.gys.gr/GeoSearch/GYS

Hellenic Army General Staff

Hellenic Military Geographical Service

Institute of Geology & Mineral Exploration (IGME)

Research Institute for geological and mineral exploration

http://igme.gr/geoportal/ NAtional Agency IGME

√ National Infrastructure for spatial information

National geoportal http://inspire.okxe.gr/ Hellenic Goverment

WWF Hellas cover biodiversity conservation (priority places and species) and footprint (lifestyles and economy).

http://oikoskopio.gr/ WWF Hellas WWF Hellas

√ Greek water framework directive

National Geoportal http://wfdgis.ypeka.gr Ministry of Environment & Energy

Ministry of Environment & Energy

Greek Bathing Water Profiles Registry

National Geoportal bathingwaterprofiles.gr Ministry of Environment & Energy

Ministry of Environment & Energy

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Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level

Reference to project and methodologyThe evaluation was carried out by at least two members of the project team for ‘Promotion of best practices for national environmental information systems and tools for data harvesting at EU level’. Differences between the results of both evaluations are discussed and checked and this country fiche visualises the results. For background information and references regarding the method we refer to the guidance document available at eis-data.eu.

DisclaimerThis draft country fiche is part of an ongoing project and is work in progress. This document has been prepared for the European Commission however it reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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