IOWater

PRESS RELEASE


Limoges the 26th of January 2017
Hyderabad, India (geospatialworldforum.org)

European Commission wins the International Excellence Award 2017
of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

The Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Commission is the winner of the 2017 Geospatial World Award in the category "geospatial policy implementation award” for its open source platform UWWTD SIIF developed by the International Office for Water in partnership with UBA.

Launched in 2009, the "Geospatial World Awards" is an international award attributed by the OGC acknowledging innovations and best practices in the field of geographic information around the world. This award was given at the World Geospatial Forum held this year in Hyderabad, India, from 23 to 25 January 2017.

This award recognizes the open source platform called Structured Implementation and Information Framework for Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD SIIF).

The "UWWTD SIIF" is a generic tool that presents a country's sanitation data through charts, maps, tables, statistics, with a strong geospatial component, incorporating many automatic calculations and sorting. It facilitates access to information for all users.

The acceleration of the availability of data and the improvement of their management by using interoperability are at the heart of the project. The SIIF thus contributes to reducing the administrative burden on users by automating and simplifying visualization and public access to environmental information, in accordance with the requirements of the Directive INSPIRE 2007/2/CE and Directive 2003/4/CE.

The aim of this system is to modernize the implementation of Directive n°91/271/CEE on the treatment of Urban Waste Water, which obliges the Member States of the European Union to report data every two years.

UWWTD SIIF (dedicated to sanitation) was set up by the International Office for Water with the support of "Umweltbundesamt GmbH" (Environment Agency Austria -UBA), and under management of a French seconded national expert working for the Water Unit of the Directorate General for the Environment.

This project is part of a Framework Contract on "Water for citizens" to support the European Commission policy activities on the Bathing Water, Drinking Water and Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (ENV.C2/FRA/2016/0032) involving a large European consortium, of which OIEau is partner and UBA the leader.

This Structured Implementation and Information Framework (SIIF) was gradually enriched with new functions. In 2016 and 2017, the tool is used to support the assessment of 28 European Member States' legal compliance to the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. The final platform for each of the 28 Member States will be published and will ensure the operability of the concept.

The tool, developed using open source solutions, can be reused at different geographical scales and for various environmental topics. It offers significant development potential recognized by this Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Excellence Award.

To go further:

Website to find the award: www.geospatialworld.net/news-posts/geospatial-media-communications-announces-winners-geospatial-excellence-award.

More about the tool Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) - SIIF.

The video: youtu.be/lvmn6ZynL1I.

The first demonstration platforms:

The Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) is the European Commission department responsible for EU policy on the environment. It aims to protect, preserve and improve the environment for present and future generations, proposing and implementing policies that ensure a high level of environmental protection and preserve the quality of life of EU citizens. It also makes sure that Member States apply EU environmental law correctly and represents the European Union in environmental matters at international meetings.

International Office for Water (IOWater) is a French non profit NGO recognised for its public utility by a State Decree of 13th September 1991. OIEau is mainly active in developing competencies for a better water management in France, Europe and around the World. Its key expertise topics are:

  • Cooperation, studies, institutional support programs, administrative reforms,
  • Management and valorisation of water related data, information and documentation,
  • Training for water professionals.

For more information: uwwtd.oieau.fr/contact

- Benoît FRIBOURG-BLANC - Project manager of "SIIF-UWWTD"
     Tel : 05 55 11 47 97 / E-mail : b.fribourg-blanc@oieau.fr

- Christiane RUNEL - Director of Communication and Press
     Tel : 01 44 90 88 60 / E-mail : c.runel@oieau.fr

www.iowater.org