On-line State of the
Environment Report for Tbilisi http://www.ceroi.net/reports/tbilisi/index.htm The capital of Georgia is in need of developing a city environmental action plan to address urgent
problems, concludes a report prepared by GRID-Tbilisi. The on-line state of the environment report highlights challenging issues such as increases in
transport-related air and noise pollution, as well as in the spread of
infectious diseases due to contaminated drinking water. In addition, the report addresses low public participation in
decision-making processes, high income disparity and limited government
resources. Maps, detailed statistics and charts
on topics such as air and water quality, demographics, health and cultural
heritage are included as supporting information. Positive actions are also featured, such as
cooperative efforts with European sister cities as well as a recent
nation-wide incorporation of environmental education into school
curricula. These developments signal hope for future environmental
improvements. UNEP/GRID-Tbilisi produced the report under
the auspices of the Cities Environment Reports on the
Internet (CEROI) programme, http://ceroi.net
. In addressing the demand for easy access to
comprehensive environmental information, CEROI follows-up the 1992 Rio
Conference and the Aarhus Convention (1998). The reports facilitate sound decision-making and general awareness-raising in
cities. Comparisons among cities are made possible by using common
indicators , as well as a report-writing
template provided in Publikit®, a web-publishing tool with advanced GIS
functions, http://publikit.net. For more information about the online state of the environment
report contact Zurab Jintcharadze, Director of
GRID-Tbilisi by e-mail (z.jintcharadze@gridtb.org