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Content of the WEB PORTAL homepage
Preface This web portal was designed as a pilot project. It was financed by British Council Kiev, Ukraine. As usual for pilot projects the web portal is not yet a 100 % perfect website that does not need any improvements. Within the given time span, not all texts could be translated into 3 different languages. The purpose was to present a tool that should be further developed. We have created this web portal using two different software packages. One package (ArcIMS, ArcSDE), developed from the GIS software market leader ESRI, was provided (free of charge) for use and evaluation from the Ukrainian ESRI distributor, the firm ECOMM.. The other is an "open source" program that can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet. Information materials as maps and texts have been gathered from various sources. Here we want to thank all those people and organisations that have given permission to use their maps, texts and databases. The main contributor was the ÒΠ"Àãåíñòâî ²íòåðìåä³à" (TOB Intermedia Agency), which has issued the Åêîëîã³÷íèé àòëàñ Êèºâà (Ecological Atlas Kiev) in 2006 (60 pages), ÓÄÊ 504 (084-4) (477-25). Several texts from this source have been shortened and summaries have been written in English. Additional information was provided by the NGO "Mama-86" and by co-workers of the Centre of Ecological Monitoring of Ukraine. The text of several pages and chapters has been viewed and optimised by Michael Calderbank, London, UK. We hope that they help further to arrange the texts styles properly.
Herewith we want to thank all contributors for their permission and help that has enabled us to create this web portal for a broader public. _ _ _ _ _ _
Project title “Electronic Access to environmental information to improve public participation in decision making processes”
This website was designed for all those who care about their environment and health. During the last decades, science has increasingly proved that these two items are more close related than we have thought. A sound environment is the basis of our live and attempts to destroy this basis should have our interest before it is too late. People should be given the opportunity to monitor their living basis and understand what is happening and what will be the consequences. Correspondingly the target group of this web portal is the citizens, including school children, students, scientists and politicians who will be made accountable for their decisions.
There is a huge area of information that would be worthwhile to know about. On the one hand, this includes all aspects of the environment (air, water, soil – analyses and assessments), on the other hand, information is needed on how to deal with that information. Therefore people should not only be well informed on environmental problems but also find selected information on the legal background, who are the responsible authorities, where to get support from other citizens and how to raise more public awareness. 2.1 state of the environment (until 2006)
General remarks: On this website we offer to retrieve environmental information presented on maps. These maps are interactive, that means that you can combine various environment related aspects and thus get a new understanding of reasons and influencing factors. On the map you can see the location of potential environment polluters and in some cases air, soil or water quality around that place. There are however several problems connected with that and this is important to keep in mind:
3.2 The legal background: * National directives, norms, right to know * Int. conventions Since independence of Ukraine people can make use of a new freedom that supports independent thinking and acting. To support this behaviour, citizens should know their rights and learn how to make use of it. If individuals form a group they gain even more power that can move many things into the right direction. Therefore we have started here to gather materials that can help to get first information on relevant legislation. This can not and should not replace the work of professional jurists but it can give a first introduction into the matter. 3.3 What is actually going on/ changing in Kiev?......... for example:· Plans to change landscapes · Plans to change waste management · Drinking water issues · Urban transport planning Kiev is a big and quickly growing city and it is the Ukrainian capital. This makes it difficult to keep an eye on everything and to know who is planning to change environment or health related issues. There are different information sources that have to be mentioned and that should also be approached to get a more complete picture. Various NGOs, journalist associations and state and city authorities have websites or publish relevant information. Such information sources are gathered HERE. What is actually going on in Kiev is only partly reported in the media. This website should help to spread information that is not reported or give additional information helping to understand the problem. 4 News, problems, accidents, latest political issues (links, reports, …) If this chapter will be successful and helpful depends from YOUR cooperation. If all people communicate environmental problems by writing into our forum, sending emails or just make a phone call then this will become interesting for all of us. If there is a bigger community who participates in such a process, it will be worthwhile asking experts adding their comments or assessments. 5 Place your comments: tell us, what you worry about (guestbook) A open book for your comments seems to us the best way to QUICKLY publish urgent problems and all other questions that should be shared with many other people. It does not require much preparation or knowledge, people should just write what they see, hear or mean like on the phone. Others will ask questions or send their own comments. There are different categories for different subjects. For school children there could be a special section etc. 6 How you can get engaged · NGOs (links, addresses, telephone, etc.) You are not alone. Many people are concerned like you are, but they can not speak to each other and act together because they do not know where to go and try to meet the others. The website will also show some opportunities to scope with that. First of all, we have put together addresses of NGOs who are waiting for your active support. Just contact them and see what they do. · Contacting the authorities (what should be reported, who should be contacted, how to prepare information materials) Another way is to approach the responsible authorities. We think it might be helpful to be prepared for that. As mentioned above you can have a first look at the legislative background and you can exchange information and standpoints with other concerned people. Thereafter you will be better prepared to explain your standpoint and this will help to activate the responsible employees of the administrations, ministries, committees and so on. · Reporting to the media? If all this does not help and even before that you should also think about giving information to the media. Other citizens who still did not have contact to the Internet, to NGOs and are just not yet informed will be grateful to listen, see or read what is going on around their living places. Depending on the subject you can write own articles or deliver materials to the press (newspapers, journals, leaflets). Now we wish you a successful start. Please write comments and proposals in our guestbook or by email to CEMU Quick jump to maps:
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