Impact

PortalU applies a number of technologies that go beyond the current state-of-the-art in the area of information portals: - The modular system architecture of PortalU makes it possible to build customized information portals on different levels of the administrative hierarchy. A network of regional and/or local environmental portals can thus be set up using the PortalU technology. - The information portals provide a one-stop-access to distributed data sources, avoiding redundant data storage. An innovative communication infrastructure based on peer-to-peer concepts enables each information portal to use all data sources in the network. This follows the principle “all for all”, i.e. all members of the network may profit from the network. - PortalU provides access not only to web-content, but also to databases, expert systems and data catalogs. A highly configurable database-connector was developed for this purpose to minimize the cost of connection of new data sources. - Interfaces based on international standards ensure the interoperability of PortalU with other information infrastructure. One example is the CSW interface for data-catalogs. Through this interface, PortalU will be integrated into national and international geospatial data infrastructures, as mandated by the recently adopted EU-INSPIRE directive. - A complex environmental thesaurus is used to enable semantic query expansion and automatic semantic annotation of textual content. The thesaurus is encapsulated in a web-service (Semantic Network Service – SNS) provided by one of the organisations participating in PortalU, the federal enviromental agency (Umweltbundesamt) - The SNS is also used to geo-reference textual content of documents indexed by PortalU. Through this function, the spatial search funcion in PortalU has access not only to geospatial data and metadata, but also to web-pages and other documents. PortalU provides a central information infrastructure that can be used by all partners to fulfill their obligations with respect to national/regional and European legislation (i.e., UIG, EEID, INSPIRE). Secondly, the PortalU software can be used by the partners to implement regional and local environmental information portals at no additional cost. The costs for development, operation and maintenance of PortalU are shared in an “all for all” approach between the partners. The federal government is the main finanical contributor (> 40%) and the financial obligation of the other are divided according to their population and economic power. In this framework, in particular the smaller partners (i.e. federal states) do have an advantage. For them, usage of PortalU and/or the PortalU software can result in cost-savings of several 100.000 Euros annually.

Track record of sharing

After only one year of operation, PortalU has already had a strong influence on the development of the environmental information infrastructure on a local, regional and European level: On the local level, municipalities can use the PortalU-technology and know-how to implement information infrastructures that help them to cope with the requirements induced by the EEID and INSPIRE. In Lower Saxony, a pilot project for a Municipal Environmental Information Portal involving several cities and counties is already under way (http://62.225.156.122/). Other pilot projects are planned. On the regional level, a number of federal states in Germany have decided to implement environmental information portals following the example of PortalU. Some of them (e.g. Saxonia, Thuringia) will use the PortalU software and system architecture as is. Others (e.g. Baden-Wuerttemberg, Saxonia-Anhaltinia) plan to integrate parts of the PortalU software in their own developments. On the European level, other European member states, in particular Austria, have expressed interest in a cooperation with PortalU. Austria plans to set up an environmental information infrastructure that follows the example of PortalU.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - Cooperation creates a win-win situation for all partners. Lesson 2 - Cooperation both on the techical and organizational level is difficult, but achievable. Lesson 3 - A solid organisational foundation is necessary to make a project successful and sustainable.