FEASIBILITY STUDY REPORT
Csaba Nemes
UNEP/GRID-Arendal (1995)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 Country Profile
2.1.1 Geographical data of the Republic of Hungary
2.1.2 Economy
2.2 Main Environmental Issues
2.2.1 Short-term priorities (up to the year 2000)
2.2.2 Mid-term priorities (up to the year 2005)
2.2.3 Long-term priorities (up to the year 2020)
2.3 Environmental Decision-Making and the Role of Environmental
Information in Improving Policy and Management Decisions
2.3.1 New requirements for decision-making
2.3.2 Environmental policy at the highest policy-making level
2.3.3 Facts and bottlenecks
3. STATUS IN ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
3.1 Preliminaries
3.2 Management, Monitoring and Networks
3.2.1 The organisation of Hungarian environmental management
3.2.2 Environmental monitoring in Hungary
3.2.2.1 The state of the air
3.2.2.2 The state of the water
3.2.3 The databases
3.2.3.1 Water resource data
3.2.3.2 Forest data
3.2.3.3 Public health data
3.3 International Assistance Activities and Projects
3.3.1 PHARE funded projects
3.3.2 Development of KTM Information System (PHARE
Project, No 303&802/91)
3.3.3 Finnish Feasibility Study of the Hungarian
Environmental Information Systems
3.4 International Networking
3.5 Legal and Administrative Framework
3.5.1 Background
3.5.2 Accessibility and freedom of information
3.5.3 Public participation in environmental protection laws
3.5.4 Anticipated developments in the law
3.6 Economic Aspects of Environmental Information
3.7 Environmental Information, Awareness, Education, Media
3.7.1 Access to and use of environmental information for decision-making
3.7.2 Raising environmental awareness through education, teaching and training
4. USER NEEDS ASSESSMENT
5. IMPLEMENTATION AND PROPOSED ACTION
5.1 Project Implementation
5.2 Action
APPENDIX
List of References
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In 1994, UNEP initiated a program to support environment assessment, reporting and data management capacities in countries with economies in transition in Central and Eastern Europe. This includes identification of needs and the formulation of project proposals to meet these needs. With partner agencies and other donors, UNEP seeks to leverage finances to correct any imbalances.
This activity is a part of UNEP's global ENRIN (Environment and Natural Resources Networking) programme, which is a direct follow-upof Agenda 21, chapter 40 on information for decision-making. This chapter underlines that there is a need for easily accessible environmental information at all levels, from that of senior environmental decision-makers to the grass roots. An agreement has been made with the GRID-Arendal centre in Norway for implementation of the ENRIN program in Central and Eastern Europe.
This feasibility report assesses the environmental information systems capacities and needs in Hungary, and proposes actions necessary for strengthening the existing capacities to improve access to environmental information for decision-making and awareness.
Included in the recommendations is an implementation proposal leading to an operational UNEP/GRID-compatible environmental information network in Hungary.
The feasibility study has been funded by the Government of Norway and UNEP.
Nairobi, 4. October 1995
Assistant Executive Director Harvey Croze, UNEP
Arendal, 4. October 1995
Director Svein Tveitdal, GRID-Arendal
Last updated 10 April, 1996 by Lorant Czaran /
This report has been compiled at GRID-Arendal under UNEP's ENRIN programme.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those persons responsible for contributions to this publication, in particular:
For writing the report, Csaba Nemes of the Department of Environmental Policy and Cooperation under the Ministry for Environment and Regional Policy and for supporting the cooperative activities; Pál Bozó of the Department for Environmental Information Systems under the Ministry for Environment and Regional Policy.
For coordinating the publication and maintaining communication between the authors, the editors, the lay-out persons and others, Dawn Freundof GRID-Arendal. For making the publication fully UNEP compatible and providing us with practical input, Danielle Mitchell of UNEP/DEA in Nairobi.
The report was edited by Susan Gut of Zürich, Switzerland; Per Harald Stabell of Litangen & Kuvaas (Arendal, Norway) was responsible for the lay-out; the front cover map was designed by Philippe Rekacewicz of Le Monde Diplomatique in Paris.
Constructive advice and practical support was provided by various individuals within the UNEP system, namely ENRIN coordinator Dan Claasen of UNEP/DEA in Nairobi, Andrea Matte-Baker of UNEP/ROE in Geneva and GRID-Arendal Director Svein Tveitdal.
Arendal, 9.9.1995
Otto Simonett, Programme Manager
Eastern European and Developing Countries
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FEASIBILITY STUDY REPORT
The recognition of the inherited environmental problems and the need to remedy them and to take strong measures to avoid further environmental degradation and, even more - to follow the principles of sustainable development in the future - are important lessons and issues which have at last been adopted in general terms. Unfortunately, this learning and modernisation process is very slow. The position of environmental protection and nature conservation, or, in more general terms, that of integrated resource management and sustainability, are relatively weak, because of the seemingly more evident short-term priority of essential, but particular economic and social problems.
The fundamental task of the monitoring systems used in environmental protection is to provide structured information on the effects of the deterioration of the environment. This information has to be suitable to satisfy the information demand of the scientific and professional fields (system analysis, planning) of authorities and politicians as well as of the general public.
Increasing the efficiency of the process of taking environmental decisions saves time. Implementation of emission-reducing programmes and of other tasks as well as increase of the efficiency of the control activity require standardized, exact, well-organised, up-to-date data systems. These should be as complete as possible, and there should be the possibility of displaying the data in the desired form and specification.
The recent monitoring system is divided according to professional branches and contains relatively few measured data except quality data related to air and soil. Auto-evaluation and control measurements show that the demonstration of the data in one system is not solved yet in a satisfactory manner.
The first steps in developing a comprehensive information system containing the diverse data related to the environment have been made under the co-ordination of the Ministry for Environment and Regional Policy.
For the co-ordination of IT-activities, an Inter-Ministerial Committee for Information Technology (ICIT) has been established. This Inter-Ministerial Committee was formed following the Government resolution of 1993 (No. 1039/1993). The main tasks of this organisation, which consists of several working groups, are the creation and enforcement of government level recommendations, standards and regulations, as well as controlling the optimal utilisation of resources.
A new department was established within the Directorate for Environmental Strategy of the Ministry for Environment and Regional Policy: the Department of Environmental Analysis and Informatics which has to co-ordinate all related IT-activities within the Ministry. In addition, an Information Programme Council has been established within the Ministry, which is formed by the Heads of the Departments and 11 representatives of the regional environmental inspectorates and the nature conservation directorates. This council has to define the tasks and to prepare policy decisions for the development of the IT. The council is chaired by the State Secretary, whereas the head of the Department of Environmental Analysis and Informatics acts as its secretary.
As a result of their authorized tasks in areas dealing with the protection of the natural environment, regional organisations collect and process data (environmental protection inspectorates, nature protection directorates and Board of Directors of national parks). The basis of the information system will be the data collection related to the national monitoring system. The establishment of the information system and the planning of its operation began within the framework of the concept of the Environmental Information Centre. Similar tasks have been formulated to tackle the more specific problems of nature conservation. In this area however, definitions of natural areas and values worth of protection should also been given (with a proper classification system), thereby putting them under protection. Regarding the technical integration of data related to the environment, the development of a National Environmental Information Network has been launched.
The recently published Medium Term Government at Programme and the elaborated National Concept of Environmental Protection and Nature Conservation as well as the new Environmental Act (accepted in May 1995) all emphasize the importance of environmental data management and of access to environmental data. The governmental programme states:
- Recognising the necessity of the public as the base of environmental protection, and the importance of making acceptable compromises in the decision- making process, the Government is to extend the legal opportunities for citizens concerned, for
environmental organisations and for local
governments, to enable them to participate in the environmental decision-making process in a
regulated form.
- The mentioned Concept says in this context:
"an essential element of public participation is the legal guarantee of free access to environmental data; every person, group and organisation has the right to access information which is or can be made available referring to their environment, that is: measures affecting or aiming at the protection of their
environment and data on the status of their
environment. Information must be given in a form which is clear and understandable for the public, together with the data necessary for control. All this have to be provided at a reasonable amount of money. Mass media and adequate dissemination of information play a very important role in the
strengthening of public awareness and propagation of different types of environmentally friendly behaviour. The Government is obliged to regularly publish a report on the status of the environment to keep the public informed."
In accordance with the documents, the development of the comprehensive National Environmental Information Network is in progress. The realisation of this development programme should support current policy planning and authoritative activities of the relevant national organisations (the ministries, their regional organisations, etc.) and of researchers, and it should strengthen the public awareness, by keeping it informed about environmental facts, including data on different environmental elements, various environmental impacts as well as data requests by international partners.
Agenda 21, Chapter 40, "On information for decision-making" outlines the need for improved capacities for information management, to make environmental information more easily accessible. The UNEP Environmental Assessment Programme's (EAP) mandate is "to provide the world community with improved access to meaningful data and information, and to help increase the capacity of governments to use environmental information for decision-making and action-planning for sustainable human development".
To meet these needs, UNEP/EAP is providing preparatory assistance to developing countries and countries in transition to strengthen their environmental data and information management capacities. Programme outputs will include an operational global network.
The UNEP/EAP approach - combined with UNEP/IEO (Industry & Environment Office) APELL (Awareness and Preparedness on Emergencies at Local Level) implementation tasks -consists of four stages of activities: Assessment - Feasibility - Implementation - Operation. For these, guidelines have been developed. Among these stages, the feasibility study is the most critical, as it outlines future developments, plants the seeds of the network to be, starts pilot operations and secures funds for the implementation.
Several activities are undertaken with respect to the implementation of IT within the Ministry. One of these activities aims at participation at the Global Resource Information Database (GRID), an UNEP network. This is based on bilateral Norwegian/Hungarian cooperation.
The main objective of this bilateral activity will be to:
- Strengthen the capacities of the national
environmental information network in Hungary,
to provide the aggregated information needed for improved national environmental management,
for decision-making and for raising public awareness.
This will be achieved by the following measures:
- Strengthen the information section of the Hungarian Ministry for Environment and Regional Policy, to establish a fully operational, internationally
compatible environmental information system core unit, based on modern GIS-and communication- technology.
- Facilitate networking between the Hungarian Ministry for Environment and Regional Policy and other key institutions with environment information mandates.
- Ensure compatibility between the environmental
information network and the Hungarian Environment MonitoringSystem both at national and sub-national level. Establish an interface of the environmental information network and early warning emergency information systems related to natural and industrial accidents and risks.
- Establish international links and ensure compatibility with UNEP (EAP, GRID, GEMS, APELL), the EU (EEA, PHARE, EUROGIS/CORINE), OECD (OECD TDS [Territorial Development Service], OLIS), US EPA EMAP/IRIS and other assessment programmes to
provide the necessary environmental information to support action plans dealing with environmental
issues of transboundary and global concern;
in particular, the Central European Initiative (CEI) Environmental Programme and also the CEI 2010 project, as well as the Danube River Initiative.
- Enable the involved institutions to get access to
environmental data bases held by UNEP and other UN or regional agencies.
- Encourage and enable the Hungarian Government
to diffuse environmental information as freely
as possible.
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2.1 Country Profile
2.2.1 Geographical data of
the Republic of Hungary
Hungary is located in the Carpathian Basin in the heart of Europe. The area of the country represents less than 1 % of Europe: its maximum length in north-south direction is 268 km; and in west-east direction 528 km; the total length of the border is around 2,300 km. Hungary is a typical low-lying country: 73 % of its territory is flatland which is less than 200 meters above sea level.
Six major terrains can be identified: the Great Plain and the Little Plain are filled-up lowlands, while the Transdanubian Hills, the Transdanubian Mountains, the Sub-alpine Region and the Northern Mountains are denuded formations.
Some basic facts:
- Area (km2) 93,033.
- Arable land (km2) 47,128.
- 93 % of Hungary's surface is covered with loose
sedimentary rock as the country's territory represents the lowest part of the Carpathian Basin (which covers an overall area of about 300,000 km2).
- 58 % of the surface is covered with loose rocks and another 4.4 % of it is covered with karstic rocks (limestone).
- as a result of its geological structure, the country is relatively poor in mineral resources.
- 94 % of surface water originates outside the country.
- in the Carpathian Basin which is surrounded by high mountain ranges, the prevailing winds are western and northern.
- Population (1,000) 10,277 (01. 01. 1994).
- Urban population (in %) 64 (01. 01. 1994).
- Rural population (in %) 34 (01. 01. 1994).
Population of the main cities (1,000 ):
- Budapest -1,996.
- Debrecen -218.
- Miskolc -190.
- Szeged -179.
- Pécs -172.
The country belongs to the catchment area of Danube and Tisza and their tributaries. The Lake Balaton with its area of 600 km2 is one of the largest lakes in Europe. Bauxite, brown coal, lignite and hydrocarbons are the most significant mineral resources found in Hungary. As a result of past volcanic activity, the country is also rich in thermal springs.
2.1.2 Economy
Hungary is in the process of a substantial socio-economic transition, and it has become evident that the symptoms of the lasting crisis of the Hungarian economy are basically structural in nature. The structural changes substantially affect the contemporary and future emission of greenhouse gases. This situation offers the rare opportunity to take the environmental considerations more seriously into accountduring and after the transition, than this has been the case before. The mass production capabilities which have been built up to satisfy the protected domestic and COMECON markets during the preceding decades have become obsolete.
The efficiency of economic activities based on cheap East European raw materials and energy imports considerably lags behind advanced international market competitors in most cases. For a number of products, the East European market has disappeared. In the case of some important product groups, the previous Hungarian market share has been taken over by multinational companies, who often are able to produce products with higher technical standards at lower prices.
The considerable fall in the production has not left the industrial structure untouched: between half and two thirds of the previous industrial capacity has become superfluous and has been written off during the recent years. In a sectoral analysis, the changes are even more obvious. A considerable proportion of the metallurgy, mining and agriculture co-operatives, of the electronic and telecommunication industry, and of the artificial fertilizer industry has disappeared. Undoubtedly, also new activities have emerged (e.g. passenger car production).
Nevertheless, in terms of the overall economic outcome, they are unable to compensate for the deterioration in other areas. The extremely strong centralisation related to state ownership in the Hungarian economy decreased considerably in recent years. This process should be continued and strengthened by direct methods of transformation and privatisation of state companies; by indirect methods of strengthening and supporting the sector of small and medium-size enterprises; and through consistent actions against monopolies.
- GDP/per capita: 6,100 USD (in purchasing
power parity, 1993).
- Unemployment rate: 13 %.
The distribution of GDP in various sectors (1993):
- Agriculture and forestry 6 %.
- Industry (including building and construction) 32 %.
- Services 62 %.
Starting at the end of the 1980's, the Hungarian economy (main economic sectors) has transformed considerably. Agriculture rated at 20% of the total GDP in the 1970's and 1980's; after that, this value dropped below 10%. Industry also decreased by 10 to 15 %. All these trends resulted in a rapid and significant growth of the service sector in recent years. The present portion of this sector is nearly the same as in the average developed OECD countries.
The employment structure of the active population generally follows these transformation trends. Due to the economic recession - which is caused mainly by the transformations - the unemployment rate greatly exceeds the present average rate of OECD countries. Moreover, this rate shows significant differences in various regions of Hungary.
During the last 10 years, the number of companies and enterprises grew about tenfold, and a number of state-owned companies were privatised. This resulted in an increasing number of small and medium-size enterprises.
One of the most important methods of ownership-restructuring is the privatisation of state companies. The basic goal of ownership reform is the improvement of economic productivity and the establishment of a company ownership that is directly interested in the successful utilisation of assets. At the same time, the privatisation process aims to serve the following:
- the elimination of market-, organisation-and
ownership-monopolies;
- the structural decentralisation of companies which consist of a number of individual units;
- the strengthening of co-operative supply-relationships between economic organisations and the
establishment of new types of integration;
- the promotion of property acquisition by domestic entrepreneurs and employees, efficiently turning
these parties into co-operating company owners.
The new environmental standards, adjusted both to national and international requirements, are also being introduced during this restructuring process. According to current government strategy, domestic privatisation fundamentally means the sale of property. Experiences so far indicate however that demand and supply conditions are inadequate for the quick privatisation process that had initially been envisaged by the government.
The supply side has been weakened by worsening economic conditions and by the increasing number of bankruptcy and liquidation experienced by companies. On the demand side, limited domestic purchasing power, moderate foreign investor interest, and the high nominal interest rate caused by high inflation are among the many influences that have made an impact on the pace of privatisation.
At the end of 1994, the number of the economic organisations having legal status reached 100,000. The number of small enterprises was about 800,000. A similar trend characterises proprietary changes. In the middle of the 1980's, more than 90% of the GDP was generated by the state sector. In 1994, the share of the private sector exceeded 50% of the GDP. About one-quarter originated from companies partly or completely owned by foreigners. In 1995, the presently state-owned servicing enterprises will be privatised; for example, the natural gas distribution and the electricity
supply.
In 1985, investment for environmental protection was about 0.5% of GDP. This increased to 1.5% in 1986 and 1987, decreased to 0.6% in 1991, and increased in 1992 to 0.9%. In 1993, this value reached about 1% .
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