| Description
|
|---|
| SDIC Title
|
UK Environmental Observation Framework |
| Acronym
|
UK-EOF |
| Details |
|---|
Mission and Objectives
| The UK-Environmental Observation Framework (UK-EOF) strives to change the way the UK perceives, values, archives and uses information from observation activities by working across public departments and agencies, the voluntary sector, industry and academia. The overall aim of the UK-EOF is to shape the UK's capability to:
"facilitate the ongoing environmental evidence required to understand the changing natural environment and its societal interactions, thus guiding current and future environmental management, policy, science and innovation priorities for economic benefit and quality of life".
|
| Mandate
|
The UK Environmental Observation Framework (UK-EOF) is an agreement between public sector funders of environmental observations to consider and value their observations in a joined up way. The UK-EOF will provide a strategic decision-making framework for optimising investments and measurements made by environmental observations (e.g. for research, policy and regulatory needs).
The UK-EOF is championed by Professor Bob Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser, Defra and managed by its Member organisations who form the UK-EOF Management Group and report to the LWEC Partners Board. There is a small secretariat hosted by NERC, in Swindon.
The agreed programme of work is set out in the Delivery Plan. Activities are championed by Management Group Members, facilitated by the secretariat and either partner, contract or secretariat led. The work programme is divided into 5 main areas to achieve the overall outcomes; some areas of work are currently inactive but will be considered in future work plans:
Collective Aspirations (Workstream 1) which includes the Statement of Need and the Decision Support Framework
Data Initiative (Workstream 2) including the Environmental Observation Activity Catalogue and the Focal Point
Knowledge Transfer
Financing Observations
Community
Many interlinkages occur within these work areas. Delivery relies on member participation and increased community consolidation.
|
| Formal Mandate
|
National Government
|
| Main Activities
|
The UK-EOF was launched in 2008 in response to the long term issues that surround environmental monitoring, observations and surveillance outlined in the Strategic analysis of UK environmental monitoring activity report. The study found that:
The UK monitoring community is large and fragmented.
The reasons for undertaking monitoring vary (including long-term research and informing policy development).
Estimates for the total cost of monitoring by the UK ranges from a conservative £88 million per annum up to £500 million per annum. This may be an under-estimate as it does not include data collection by volunteers.
Unsecured funding is a major risk to long-term datasets.
Major gaps in UK environmental monitoring arise due to a lack of baseline data and data on long-term trends in specific topic areas.
There is insufficient capacity to perform integrated monitoring and assessments.
The UK-EOF will be a self contained 5 year programme of Living With Environmental Change (LWEC), funded by the major sponsors of environmental observations in the UK and delivered via a series of workstreams. Full details of the initiative can be found in the UK Environmental Observational Framework and the Delivery Plan.
To date, exceptional progress was reported and the future challenges discussed, at the ERFF Main Board in November 2009. This is documented along with their recommendations in the Progress and Challenges report.
The UK-EOF will now focus on providing strategic and operational leadership to support the dynamic work of its funders and stakeholders. Although some technological development of the tools will continue, the UK-EOF will increase direct engagement with the funders to facilitate uptake of the tools, add value and provide a neutral space in which organisations can discuss increasing efficiencies and collaborative working practices.
It will enable funders and users to:
see the entire observation/monitoring portfolio,
understand the motivations of its various components, and will
improve data accessibility and quality.
Join up and collaborate at all levels from decision making to delivery of observation programs
The scope covers all environmental observation/monitoring activities done for or by the UK and in Summer 2011 we will expand the scope to include environmental socio economic observations
|
| SDIC URL
|
www.ukeof.org.uk |
| Membership
|
The UK-EOF is governed by the UK-EOF Management Group. The Management Group meets quarterly and reports to the LWEC Partners Board at its twice-yearly meetings.
The activities of the UK-EOF Management Group, will be set out in the UK-EOF Delivery Plan and Terms of Reference.
Membership (March 2011):
Doug Wilson (Chair) - Environment Agency
Beth Greenaway - UK-EOF Project Manager
Andrew Watkinson / Mary Barkham - Living With Enviromental Change
Bruce Truscott - Met Office
Caryn Le Roux - Welsh Government
Cathy Johnson - Department of Energy & Climate Change
David Allen - Countryside Council for Wales
Ian Davidson - European Environment Agency / Global Monitoring for the Environment & Security / Shared Environmental Information System
Keith Porter - Natural England
Lawrence Way - Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Liz Fox - Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs
Michael Schultz - Natural Environment Research Council
Nathan Critchlow-Watton - Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Pat Corker - Northern Ireland Environment Agency
Peter Costigan - Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs
Rebekah Widdowfield - Scottish Government
Richard Howe - Forestry Commission
Richard Walmsley - Environment Agency
Ruth Boumphrey - UK Space Agency / Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
|
| Typology
|
Thematic |
| Comments
|
The UK-EOF was launched in 2008 in response to the long term issues that surround environmental monitoring, observations and surveillance outlined in the Strategic analysis of UK environmental monitoring activity report. The study found that:
|
| Contact information for SDIC |
| Contact Person |
Beth Greenaway
|
| Organisation |
UK Environmental Observation Framework |
| Function |
Programme Manager
|
| Address |
Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, SN2 1EU |
| Country |
UNITED KINGDOM |
| Tel |
+44-1793-411799 |
| Fax |
|
| PROPOSED ROLE IN INSPIRE DEVELOPMENT |
| Which role(s) do you foresee for the SDIC in INSPIRE development |
-
submit reference material as input to the Drafting Teams
- collect and describe user requirements related to Environmental policies
- participate in the review process
- contribute to awareness raising and training
|
| Area of work/experience |
| Geographic Domain: |
TransNational
Description of geographic extent
United Kingdom
|
| Societal Sector
|
Central Government and National Research Bodies |
| Specific Expertise |
Metadata  |
| Data Specifications |
|
| INSPIRE Data Themes
|
| Title |
User | Producer | Coordinator |
| Environmental monitoring Facilities |
|
|
|
|
| Previous Experience relevant for INSPIRE development
|
UK-EOF have supplied reference material to AnnexIII EMF TWG. The UK-EOF data model was used as a candidate for the EMF datamodel |
| Primary Business
|
Government |
| Environmental application domains
|
All |
