Open Green Data for Accessible Environmental Information (RS0062)

Brief description of the Commitment

This commitment entails the standardization and publication of standardized machine-readable data about the state of the environment in the Republic of Serbia, in accordance with the rules of the European Union (EU), as well as their visual presentation on the website of the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency in a simple and easy-to- understand manner. By opening and visualizing "green" data, access to information in the aforementioned area is improved, better monitoring and understanding of the state of the environment is enabled, and steps are taken in the direction of more transparent and sustainable environmental management.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? Environmental protection is of vital importance for individuals, communities and society as a whole. Preserving nature, reducing pollution and promoting sustainable development are key steps towards preserving planet Earth, improving the quality of life and creating a sustainable future for all generations. Today, environmental protection represents a greater challenge than ever before, due to the increasingly rapid development of the society, the increase in the population of the planet and numerous other factors. As part of the globalized world, the Republic of Serbia also faces challenges of this kind and strives to establish appropriate mechanisms for environmental protection on its territory. Regular monitoring of the situation and the existence of reliable data are necessary prerequisites for quality creation of public policies in this area, i.e. for defining and implementing solutions in the direction of environmental protection. Accordingly, the right to be informed about the state of the environment is a constitutional category in the Republic of Serbia, while the principle of information and public participation is one of the fundamental principles of environmental protection, established by the Law on Environmental Protection ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 135/04, 36/09, 36/09 - other law, 72/09 - other law, 43/11 - CC, 14/16, 76/18, 95/18 - other law). Also, the aforementioned law establishes that data on the state of the environment are public. In accordance with the above, and bearing in mind the importance of this issue for citizens and the entire society, institutions in charge of environmental issues inform the public about the state of the environment in the Republic of Serbia in different ways. Among the key institutions of the system is the SEPA, which regularly informs the public about its activities and the state of the environment through its reports,76 website and associated portals. In an effort to make data publicly available, SEPA is one of the first institutions in the Republic of Serbia to provide data to the public in a machine-readable format, uploading its data to the national Open Data Portal (since 2018), an is also one of the institutions that created its own open data portal. Despite the proactive approach of this institution, the need for information and data in this area and their adequate public presentation changes almost on a daily basis as a consequence of global trends, as well as due to the needs of creating national policies and the interest of the domestic public. As a result, there is an evident need to further improve the various aspects of publishing the data about the state of the environment which are available to the SEPA – from their standardization, through regular updates, to the way they are presented to the public, all with the aim of facilitating access to the data for the widest public and raising the level of their understanding.

2. What are the causes of the problem? Data holders, in addition to their regular tasks prescribed under the law, very often do not have the resources (time, knowledge and human resources) to create additional tools and visualizations in order to present their data to citizens and other stakeholders in a receptive and understandable way. Therefore, the release of data generally remains at that initial level, at which the "raw data" is made public and then generally updated according to the expected dynamics. In the presentation of data to stakeholders, this practice has proven to be insufficient, and as a result different interpretations of data on the state of the environment, which were published in the described manner, often occur. In addition, numerous reports prepared and published by the SEPA contain a wealth of data on the situation in this area; however, these data are difficult to read, primarily due to their volume and the PDF format in which the reports are published, and have a reduced potential for further use.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? As was already stated, SEPA is one of the leaders when it comes to publishing data in machine- readable format in the Republic of Serbia. Since the beginning of the Open Data Initiative, this institution has published many datasets both on the national Open Data Portal (https://data.gov.rs/sr/organizations/agentsija-za-zashtitu-zhivotne-sredine/), as well as on its own open data portal (http://data.sepa.gov.rs/). Moreover, SEPA also has its own services, which offer visualizations of certain groups of data, such as: Air Quality Monitoring Portal (http://www.amskv.sepa.gov.rs/), where hourly air quality readings of the automatic air quality monitoring system in the Republic of Serbia are published; Watercourses’ Water Quality Monitoring Portal (http://77.46.150.213:8080/apex/f?p=406:1:::NO::: ), with data on water quality from daily reporting stations; Portal for Monitoring Concentrations of Allergenic Pollen (http://symappsys.com/POLEN/), which is updated on a weekly basis; Portals with data from the National Register of Pollution Sources – Register of Large Pollution Sources (http://prtr.sepa.gov.rs/) and a GIS Portal with data on waste management (http://www.nrizgis.sepa.gov.rs/NRIZGIS/index.html); Land Degradation Portal (https://degradacijazemljista.sepa.gov.rs/); Ecoregister, national meta-register on environmental information (http://www.ekoregistar.sepa.gov.rs/); and National List of Indicators (http://indicator.sepa.gov.rs/). In addition to special thematic portals, on its website (http://sepa.gov.rs/) SEPA has additional services for displaying specific data: Serbian Water Quality Index, water quality in the Belgrade area, information on exceeding concentrations of air pollutants, information on accidental water pollution, Permits for waste management, etc. In addition, an important source of public information about the state of the environment are the aforementioned reports which SEPA has been preparing and publishing for years. However, despite all the efforts undertaken, the previous activities in this area did not go in the direction of better presentation of data and their standardization with the EU policies, which will be tackled as part of this commitment.

2. What solution are you proposing? Starting from the described need in terms of improving the standards of publication and presentation of data on the state of various aspects of the environment available to SEPA, the commitment includes two segments. The first segment includes the standardization of data that is published in a machine- readable format, in accordance with EU policies, i.e. in accordance with the regulation under the Directive (EU) 2019/1024 on open data and the re-use of public sector information. The opening of standardized "green" data in accordance with the EU Regulation on high-quality data aims to ensure the availability, interoperability and quality of data related to the field of environmental protection in the EU context, i.e. it aims to create unique and harmonized standards for collection, processing, storage and publication of environmental data. This implies: uniform data format (the Regulation prescribes the use of standard data formats which enable simple exchange and interpretation of information); descriptive metadata (data which are opened should be associated with appropriate metadata that describe the contents, structure and context of the data, which allows users to understand and correctly interpret the data); general access (the Regulation seeks to provide open and simple access to "green" data that should be available through publicly available repositories or specific platforms intended for the publication and exchange of environmental data in API format); and protection of privacy and security (the Regulation pays special attention to the protection of privacy and data security). This segment of the commitment is particularly significant when bearing in mind that the aforementioned regulation is legally binding only for EU Member States, i.e. it is not binding for the Republic of Serbia as a candidate country at the moment, and that, in this way, the harmonization with EU policies is actually carried out despite there being no formal obligation to do so. At the same time, with this step, SEPA would set standards and be a positive example for other institutions, especially those that are the owners of the so-called "high value" data. The second segment of the commitment involves the adequate visualization of previously published standardized data, i.e. their presentation in a clear and understandable way, so that large amounts of information become accessible and usable for those who are not experts in the field. Through the visualization of the data at its disposal, the SEPA, as a key institution that collects data on the state of the environment in the Republic of Serbia, would raise the level of public information about this area in a way that stakeholders and the public can understand and continue to use. Therefore, the commitments includes both the publishing of the so-called "high-value" data in a machine-readable format compliant with EU standards, as well as their reuse.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? In the broadest sense, it is expected that the implementation of this commitment shall contribute to improving the availability of information and better informing of the public about the state of the environment in the Republic of Serbia. Such a result shall be achieved by raising the level of quality, number and availability of data in the subject area, with the application of EU standards and visual solutions which will facilitate the understanding and further use of data by all stakeholders. At the same time, the commitment will serve as a model and a positive example for all other institutions, and shall lay the foundation for future practice when it comes to opening the so-called “high value” data. Through standardization (the first segment of the commitment), these data will be comparable with open data in the field of the environment at the EU level, their more efficient reuse will be enabled in order to develop different data-based solutions (commercial and non-commercial in nature), scientific research work will be improved, as well as the work of the competent institutions themselves. Visualization (the second segment of the commitment), on the other hand, refers to the conversion of raw data into graphs, diagrams, maps and other visual forms, which enables a better understanding and easier monitoring and analysis of the state of the environment, both by the competent institutions and by the interested public.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency? The commitment directly improves the availability and accessibility of information and data on the state of the environment, both in terms of volume and quality and in terms of the way of their public presentation. The publication of data in accordance with EU standards and their visual display on the SEPA’s website shall significantly contribute to greater transparency of environmental data, facilitate their understanding and raise awareness of the importance of this issue.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability? With a simpler and more receptive insight into and presentation of data, the public will be able to monitor the state of the environment more efficiently, which will also be a mechanism for feedback on the quality of data and opportunities for their improvement. Additionally, with data standardization and visualization which makes it easier to understand publicly available data, the institutions will be under pressure to act more responsibly.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? Standardized and regularly updated data are the basis for the creation of public policies, while timely, understandable and accurate informing, which is the aim of this commitment, will provide the citizens and other interested public with the necessary resources to participate in decision-making processes in the field of environmental protection.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date)

1. Data mapping for the purposes of their standardization in the process of opening and creating visualization | A document in which data is listed | III quarter of 2024

2. Data preparation and standardization in accordance with the Directive (EU) 2019/1024 on open data and the re-use of public sector information and related regulations concerning "high value” data | Prepared datasets | II quarter of 2025

3. Publication of standardized datasets on the Open Data Portal and the SEPA Open Data Portal | Published datasets at http://www.data.gov.rs and http://data.sepa.gov.rs | I quarter of 2026

4. Creation of visualization of the state of the environment and publication on the SEPA’s website | Created visualization, available on the SEPA’s website http://www.sepa.gov.rs/ | III quarter of 2026

Action Plan Review

(Environmental Protection Agency – SEPA & Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment - ITE)

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 8 in the 2023-2027 Action Plan

Context and objectives:

This commitment aims to standardize all environmental data according to EU standards and publish it on a single platform. During the co-creation process, the Association of Lawyers (AEPA) proposed creating a portal for monitoring environmental noise pollution. [32] Since this was under the competence of local authorities, the MPALSG explained that it would be necessary to have onboard every local self-governance unit, which was unrealistic. [33] After additional consultations, the MPALSG, in cooperation with Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and ITE, revised the commitment to encompass publishing standardized machine-readable data on the environment in Serbia, in accordance with the rules of the EU, on the website of the SEPA. [34] Although Serbia’s previous action plans have aimed to address environmental protection, these commitments mostly focused on adopting or amending legislation or opening parts of the data. [35] The current commitment aims to improve the presentation of the data and standardize it with EU policies.

Climate change and pollution are major issues in Serbia, as recent data showed that Serbia had the worst air quality in Europe in 2023. [36] In this period, the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia found that Serbia had three times more PM 2.5 particles above the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold. [37] Additionally, air quality indexes have become part of weather forecasts in recent years. [38] There is a multitude of portals and websites with environmental data, making it difficult for citizens to track them individually. SEPA operates its own services offering visualizations of certain data, such as air quality, [39] water quality, [40] concentrations of allergenic pollen, [41] data from the National Register of Pollution Sources, [42] data on waste management, [43] and Degradation Portal, [44] an Ecoregister, a national meta-register on environmental information, [45] and the National List of Indicators. [46] SEPA has additional services for displaying specific data, such as the Serbian Water Quality Index, water quality in the Belgrade area, information on concentrations of air pollutants, information on accidental water pollution, and permits for waste management. [47]

Potential for results: Substantial

A single portal with all environmental data could be a game changer for environmental transparency in Serbia, as it will greatly improve access to information such as water and air quality, waste management, and polluting accidents. It could also enable better public monitoring and understanding of the state of the environment and change the approaches of environmental protection institutions in publishing their data. In recent years, the Serbian public has begun to pay closer attention to air pollution, particularly the health consequences, and these indexes are now included in the weather forecast which was not the case before. [48] This commitment can further facilitate citizens’ awareness in environmental trends in areas other than air pollution. More efficient reuse of this data will enable different data-based solutions (commercial and non-commercial) and improve scientific research and the work of the competent institutions.

Government and civil society stakeholders in the Working Group recognized this commitment as highly promising. [49] AEPA believe this commitment could significantly improve ecological awareness among people, but pointed out there is more that can be done with the available data. [50] There is a high potential for reuse of the data by environmental CSOs and other interested stakeholders, but also for the government and the Ministry of Environmental Protection to use collected data for future evidence-based policy-making.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

This commitment is scheduled to be completed in 2026, which means that its implementation will be ongoing at the midterm refresh of the action plan. During implementation, it will be important for SEPA and the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment (ITE) to design the platform so that the data is easy to access and understand for users. In that sense, SEPA and ITE could consult environmental groups when designing the platform and check examples of good practice in other countries, such as New Zealand’s Environmental Data Portal. [51] Also, SEPA and ITE could make the data from the platform accessible and adjusted for different devices and operating systems (mobile phones, tablets, PCs, laptops). Moreover, SEPA and ITE could promote the platform among the public. This could involve marketing on national television, including visualized data in weather forecasting, and using social media, radio, advertising billboards, and newspapers. Lastly, during implementation and afterwards, SEPA and ITE could generate mechanisms and learning opportunities for civil society in using this information, so that the commitment goes beyond the dissemination of already-available information and supports the co-creation of public policies according to OGP principles.