Information as an instrument | Umweltbundesamt

Access to information is essential for all institutions and groups actively committed to an intact environment: policy-makers, environmental authorities, associations, citizens’ action groups and the private sector.
On its website, the Federal Environment Agency offers a broad range of information systems which provide an important basis for decision-making and development processes:

• Indicator systems for policy advice at national and international level
• The GISU geographical environmental information system
• The UFORDAT environmental research database

Indicator systems for policy advice at national and international level

What trends are observed in the state of the environment? Which pressures are increasing, which are decreasing? Environmental indicators can provide clear answers to these questions. Environmental indicators are key figures to describe the state of the environment. They are determined by measurement and/or calculation.

GISU geographical environmental information system

GISU is UBA’s central and interdisciplinary geo-portal. It interlinks internal and external geo-data, geo-services, meta-data and catalogues. GISU is an important node of Germany’s geo-data infrastructure. It fulfils the conditions essential for implementation of the INSPIRE Directive at UBA.

UFORDAT environmental research database

The UFORDAT environmental research database provides information on current research activities in German-speaking countries. UFORDAT supports

• environmental administrations in coordinating their research, e.g. in reducing duplication of effort and in evaluating past research activities as a basis for the further design of research funding programmes
• scientists, companies, associations and environmental groups in finding out whether research is already ongoing on topics of interest and in searching for contact persons and cooperation partners.