Environmental Information Systems

Abstract Environmental information systems are concerned with the management of data about the soil, the water, the air and the species around us. Environmental information systems serve different purposes for different target groups. To develop efficient environmental protection strategies government administrations need easy and fast access to environmental information that are available and aggregated in environmental information systems. In companies, decision makers analyze the environmental performance of their organization using environmental information systems. These analyses help to measure the adherence to the standards set forth in the companies' statements on environmental principles and illuminate weaknesses and opportunities, and may lead to new environmental goals in a company. The public provision of environmental information is crucial to increase the environmental awareness among the public and, thus, to contribute to a better understanding of environmental problems. Both increased awareness and a better understanding are important factors in inducing a change in environmental behavior and thus helping to protect the environment worldwide in the long term. The article addresses public environmental information systems from different perspectives. This includes the evolution of environmental information systems, the components these systems are based on, the way they manage data and metadata in general and spatial data in particular. The article closes with an outlook on future trends and a brief conclusion. The choice to focus primarily on public environmental information systems was taken because public environmental agencies are disclosing internal information about their systems, which is an indispensable prerequisite to profoundly understand how environmental information systems function.