| BACKGROUND TO THE CITIES STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT PROJECT  |
| Gold, a precious resource in Greater Johannesburg, has initiated employment
opportunities, which resulted in a high urbanisation rate (96%) for GJ. This impacted
intensly on the environment and provided an opportunity to create an information base on
the environment. The Cities State of the Environment Report on the Internet (CEROI), initiated and funded by UNEP/GRID-Arendal, as a research project within the framework of Local Agenda 21, is to facilitate access to environmental information, which will enable sound decision-making and general awareness raising concerning local priorities in cities. The objective is to develop a concept for a simple, easily understood and user friendly Cities’ State of the Environment (CSoE) Report on the Internet. Greater Johannesburg is a pilot city (of 15 others), participating in a project to produce a CSoE Report, based on our own experiences, guidelines and need, to deliver an independent Internet site that will feed into a pot of other Internet sites from the rest of the pilot cities. The Greater Johannesburg State of Environment Internet Reporting (GJSoER) is designed to enhance decision-making for environmental protection and sustainability, as a baseline for future management decisions. It is also designed to improve environmental education and training. Potential users of the GJSoE Internet Reporting include National, Provincial and Local level government, environmental advisory groups, environmental management practitioners, scientists and interested members of the public. The GJSoE Internet Report for South Africa would contain information on:
Environmental Pressures and influences;
This information is presented using indicators as a measure for environmental quality discussed in the Table of Content. GJSoE Internet Reporting is of strategic importance, and contains relevant, scientifically accurate information on the environment. This information is presented in such a way that can be easily understood by all user groups and that can be easily revised, as updated information becomes available. The information and issues is based on the Land Development Objective Process for the Greater Johannesburg Council,where selected issues for environmental managementwere prioritised:
The indicators of these selected issues are listed in the Table of Contents. The project received assistance in analysis, compilation and presenting the information geographically for each issue. All copyright of the final GJSoE Internet Report and components thereof are vested with the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council.
SCOPE AND PHILOSOPHY Available information are integrated and interactive (in terms of use and maintenance) in aid for decision-making. This changes the attitude, use, value and management of information. This project makes information available to the Internet user in an integrated and interactive (user and administrator) manner for decision-making by the reader. The web page has been done in a visual, easy to understand, well-structured and internationally comparable report, that is :
Greater Johannesburg SoE Internet Reporting it is considered necessary to have two different sets of indicators to evaluate performance of both environmental and informative standards. When analysed together, these indicators determines project tolerance towards all users. This brings a new dimension to the discussion and means that there are information technology statistics which determine how many times the site will be accessed, the number of users reached, the different levels accessed, the time spent on each page and the date of access. These indictors are both quantitative and qualitative in nature and informs the web administrator of the success or failure on the ‘Internet component’. REFERENCES DEAT 1998: Business plan for the CSoER. |
