Improving data usability for environmental indicators in Strategic Environmental Assessment

1. Improving data usability forenvironmental indicators in Strategic Environmental Assessment 1Peter Mooney & 2Alison Donnelly 1National Centre for Geocomputation, NUI Maynooth. 2School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin. Environmental Research Centre, Environmental Protection Agency. IRELAND

2. There are many sources of baselinedata/information in SEA

3. Decreasing Opportunity For Usage “Data Gaps” occur in a variety of ways • Data does not/never did exist • Data is physically in-accessible • Data is too old or just not applicable • Data is of very poor quality • Wrong level of aggregation (temporal or geog) or wrong scale • Data distributed in an in-accessible way • political or human barriers • software or cost barriers

4. Responsibility for “Data Issues” from Collection to End Usage -- (No Responsibility) ++ (Responsibility)

5. Post-SEA can provide for feedback Predict Significant Environmental Effects Environmental Data Stored Used By SEA Monitoring Actual Effects of the Plan Feedback Inform/Identify Problems Environmental Data Collection And Analysis

6. Midlands Waste Management Plan HUMAN HEALTH There is a lack of human health data available at national, or regional level in relation to waste management, however an overview is given here. A literature review in 2003 on the effects of various forms of waste diaposal ‘Health and Environmental Effects of Landfilling and Incineration of Waste – A Literature Review’, concluded that Ireland has insufficient resources to carry out adequate risk assessment. • Are there any clues as to why there is a “lack of human health data”? • Are these data hidden from public access? • Are they only available in paper format?

7. Midlands Waste Management Plan • Data gaps: • Three are a number of areas where there is insufficient data or where the level of detail is not sufficient for the purpose of baseline. • Groundwater vulnerability and aquifer classification data for Westmeath, Longford and Offaly • Air quality data that is specific to the impacts due to waste (main source; Annual Environmental Reports) • Human health data relevant to waste facilities • Biological water quality data upstream and downstream of significant waste facilities • Traffic or number or journeys related to waste transport and waste activities • Energy consumption data for waste facilities • Which of these “data gaps” are as a result of data access problems? • Which of these “data gaps” are as a result of data not actually existing?

8. Greater Dublin Water Supply Data Gap: Impacts on otter activity Impacts on breeding waterfowl listed in Annex 1 of the EU Birds Directive Impacts on the wetted perimeter downstream of Lough Ree and impacts of the predicted increase in the duration in minimum downstream flows of approximately 12m3/sec (54 days to73 days) on biodiversity and the River Shannon. • What are the reasons for these gaps? • Can the Environmental Report speculate or provide examples? Data Gap: Unknown sites of cultural heritage

9. Draft Rural Development Plan Wales • Transboundary problems are evident here • Ontological problems also evident • Data Scale problems • Data providers need to improve their service

10. SEA can provide very useful feedback for data collection/management • SEA Breaks away from traditional producer/consumer data model • SEA needs - good data – quickly – at useful scales and levels of aggregation • In a unique position to provide feedback on problems encountered when collecting baseline data and information Thank you for your attention!