UK-Environmental Observation Framework
Sharing the observation challenge
17 July 2008
With the
ever-growing challenges of climate change, over 150 environmental
observers are meeting for the first time today in central London to
debate and discuss issues and shared aspirations. Their current
activities and a vision for the future are published today as part
of a new, 5 year UK-Environmental Observation Framework
(UK-EOF).
UK-EOF is a partnership between Government departments, Research
Councils and agencies. As we place more and more reliance on using
the planet’s natural resources, and become more aware of the way
our climate is changing, there is an ever increasing need to take
observations, to record the changes and predict what will
happen.
The UK invests an estimated £500 million per year in
environmental observations and this is a long-term commitment since
for some measurement very large and complex tools are needed such
as ships and satellites which take many years to plan and
build.
All those who measure our environment on a regular basis have
agreed to work together to make the best of the resources available
to take the measurements, and to make better use of information
once it has been collected.
Professor Bob Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser to Defra and
‘champion’ for the UK-Environmental Observation Framework,
said:
"We have never been more aware of the impacts of human activity
on our planet. We are seeing loss of species, depletion of natural
resources and the many issues associated with climate change. I
hope the UK-EOF will enhance our ability to work together – across
Government administrations, research councils, agencies and
voluntary bodies – to tackle the technical, institutional and
economic challenges associated with observing our constantly
changing natural environment. "
"These will require a great deal of commitment and new thinking
but I am confident that we can make the UK even better at
understanding the planet, and provide our scientists and policy
makers with a solid platform from which to influence the global and
international aspects of environmental change, as well as those
closer to home."
The UK-Environmental Observation Framework comes from a
recognition of the need to address the issues surrounding the
collection and sharing of long-term datasets. The Environment
Research Funders’ Forum (ERFF), itself a partnership of UK
Governments, research councils and agencies, carried out an
analysis of the known environmental research and monitoring being
funded throughout the UK. From that analysis, at a workshop
in 2006, the ERFF partners identified the need to greatly improve
monitoring, observation and surveillance mechanisms.
The UK-EOF aims, by 2013, to find solutions to the long-standing
issues of funding and sharing the datasets, and to enable the UK to
achieve a robust evidence base by contributing to many national and
international programmes such as Living With Environmental Change.
Dr Peter Bridgewater, chair of the Joint Nature
Conservation Committee, one of the key organisations in the
preparation of this Framework, noted:
"The world leaders accepted in 2002 to slow the decline
in biodiversity loss by 2010 - yet without good observational and
monitoring data we will have no idea if we have succeeded in this
aspiration, or where challenges will lie in future. Public
bodies cannot achieve this level of monitoring on their own; they
must work with the voluntary sector. While volunteer work on
bird observation is well-known, less understood are the millions of
hours work to observe butterflies, plants - even animals like
woodlice and litter on our beaches. JNCC's hope is this
new UK- Environmental Observation Framework will strengthen and
develop the partnership between public and voluntary sectors, give
us all new energy, and provide a focus and long term view of
environmental conservation and management data needs, while
promoting the vision that understanding and managing the
environment is everyone's responsibility."
Benefits to partner organisations within the Framework will
include better operational planning, improved data quality from
sharing best practices, and far less duplication of effort and its
associated costs. In the longer term UK-EOF will provide a clear
market for observations, encouraging technological innovations in
industries that develop sensors, instrumentation and networks, and
in climate modelling.
More information
http://www.erff.org.uk/
Press release issued by ERFF
see: JNCC's Surveillance and monitoring