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Pulling Environmental Information Together across the Internet:

European/United States Environment Agencies

Cooperation in the Development of a

Common Terminology System

By: Domingo Jiménez-Beltrán and Alvin M. Pesachowitz

1. Introduction

Environmental protection requires broad understandings that cross subject disciplines and 

national boundaries. Potentially useful information is increasingly available on the Internet. 

However, the quality of that information varies widely and the quantity increases at a tremendous 

rate. As a result, finding information that is reliable and targeted to a specific query is extremely 

difficult.

Differences in terminology and language are major barriers to effective information access and 

dissemination. Those differences do not have to be as great as Polish and English. Even the 

nuances between British English and American English or the use of different terminology by 

subject area disciplines can be enough to thwart information access. If I call a certain industrial 

plant a "site" and you call it a "facility" we will never be able to aggregate our information about 

that place using standard web search methodologies. Information services to the public, industry 

and environmental program staff can be greatly enhanced by deploying emerging Internet 

technologies that draw upon new semantic management techniques and tools.

At the third semiannual meeting in Brussels on March 24 and 25, 1999, the European 

Environment Agency (EEA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strengthened 

their commitment to provide ready access to accurate, timely and reliable information utilizing the 

Internet as a major mechanism for information sharing and dissemination. They expanded ongoing efforts to improve information access and sharing via the Internet.

1.3 Strategy for success

The Agencies of the European Union and the United States are involved in several interrelated 

efforts:

● use of structured descriptions of data, text, images and other information elements 

disseminated on the Internet through collaboration between EEA Catalogue of Data 

Sources (CDS) and EPA Environmental Data Registry (EDR);

● exploration of the use of agent technology to retrieve and aggregate relevant data from 
disparate databases through Internet capable browsers piloted in the Environmental Data 

Exchange Network project (EDEN);

● collaboration on efforts to create and interrelate warehouses of environmental information 

such as EEA's Environmental Information and Observation Network (EIONET) and EPA's 

Envirofacts.

Unfortunately, there is no magic technology which will easily pull together all the electronic 

information needed to solve an environmental problem regardless of language, format, and 

database configuration. Internet technologies are rapidly advancing, but they rely on retrieval 

pulled from references that employ varying terminology. Therefore the Agencies have chosen to 

expand and refine the General European Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus (GEMET) with its 

links to national/sectoral/local environmental terminology systems. The Agencies will deploy 

GEMET as an accepted reference terminology in their information dissemination endeavors.

2. GEMET: the vision

2.1. Need for a common set of environmental concepts

Interrelation of national thesauri and other types of word lists via a multilingual thesaurus such as 

GEMET creates the possibility of deploying the terminology in several ways that improve 

information collection, management, retrieval and dissemination. Since each specialized field has 

a terminology of its own and each country works in its own language, distinct thesauri are 

necessary. However, in order to exchange information among different fields or countries, it is 

advantageous to map to terms within a common thesaurus, which is general in scope. The initial 

step toward dispersed information systems is to interrelate thesauri/word lists in a manner that 

allows them to retain their autonomy yet permits integration.

2.2. Deployment of terminology

Well-defined concepts associated with the appropriate terms (whatever the language or scientific 

jargon) will supply technologies with needed references or hooks to bring together information on 

a subject, whatever its structure or form. The terminology will be deployed in

● indexing (manual or automated) heterogeneous information resources in a uniform way,

● formulation of data element definitions and values for database construction,

● content driven searches using search engine and web crawler retrieval mechanisms that 

employ thesaurus functions and topic sets,

● design of EDI message sets,

● cataloging information resources, and

● intelligent agent assisted queries that cross disparate databases.

3. GEMET: the starting point
3.1 Developers

GEMET was developed for the European Environment Agency (EEA) by the Consiglio Nazionale 

delle Ricerche (CNR) and Umwelt-Bundesamt (UBA), as a reference indexing and retrieval tool 

for the EEA Catalogue of Data Sources and other EEA databases. It has been adopted by the 

United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) as the reference thesaurus for their 

Terminology Reference System(TRS). The US EPA has collaborated in the development of 

definitions and the incorporation of American equivalent terms.

CNR is willing to contribute to the GEMET expansion by acting as the reference center for:

● updating of the thesaurus internal structure and base of terms in British and North 

American English;

● adapting the thesaurus function to the application needs of the CDS, EDR and other meta 

databases;

● linking between the thesaurus and the national terminology reference systems (TRS);

● displaying of GEMET as a stand alone thesaurus, periodically updated, in a suitable Web 

page;

● handling/upkeeping of the reference master file, including the translations. The 

translations are expected to be performed under co-ordination of the Agencies in the 

different countries;

● establishing effective communication flows for sharing documents and organising events 

and meetings of the thesaurus Working Group at the global level utilizing an Extranet type 

of tool such as EnviroWindows (see 4.2).

3.2 Structure

GEMET is a vocabulary of more than 6,500 controlled terms (keywords), representing broad 

environmentally significant concepts. The terms are arranged in three schemes: 1) a hierarchical 

classification, 2) alphabetical list, and 3) clusters of 40 environmentally relevant themes.

The 2.0 version of GEMET will be edited in British and American English and will present the 

equivalents in 10 European languages. In order to ensure an exact equivalence between the 

various languages, terms are mapped to an English concept definition. A neutral numerical 

identifier is assigned to each GEMET concept. The clustering of terms which name the concept 

around the identifier permits the retrieval across synonyms and languages.

In the environmental information systems which use GEMET as a reference thesaurus, additional 

terminology is maintained in the form of specialized collections which are linked to GEMET 

through a common interface. All of these collections can be accessed through the GEMET List of 

Lists (GLoL).

4. GEMET Globalization: practical implementation

4.1 Asia and Pacific Economies Cooperation (APEC) Participation
Several of the APEC economies have chosen to participate in this initiative. Chinese Taipei is 

heading an effort to translate the GEMET core into Mandarin. Proposals have been launched to 

include translations in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese. The inclusion of these 

language groups will expand the environmental concepts covered in GEMET to include those 

specific to Asian and Pacific entities, assist in the development and refinement of the GEMET 

structure, and expand the retrieval of information to include work done in these languages.

Each of the APEC partners will be responsible for translation of the GEMET terminology into the 

target language; compilation and linkage of national terminology collections unique to the needs 

of the partner, and; participation in the International GEMET Working Group to review proposals 

for changes of structure, nomination of terms, content, linguistic equivalence, and application 

requirements.

Each participating country will require approximately two years to be an active partner in GEMET. 

One year for translation and the development of national terminology collections and one year for 

refinement and harmonization with the GEMET system.

4.2 Coordination mechanism

Expanding the development of GEMET across such a geographically wide area has suggested 

the use of an Extranet-type of connection to allow various contributors in different countries to 

communicate, share documents, and organize events and meetings. The EEA began, in 1998, to 

offer this service under its EnviroWindows project: an effort to provide a WWW-based 

communication interface to external partners such as non-governmental organizations and the 

private sector. GEMET's EnviroWindows Interest Group is currently accessible at http://eea.

eionet.eu.int:8980/envirowindows/.

New users can request access by filling out the subscription form available through the above 

Web site. EnviroWindows offers the following services:

● information pages available in HTML;

● library access to download documents in several formats and software;

● newsgroups in which discussions among members of the workgroup can take place;

● central user directory containing the names of all the IG users;

● contacts service containing addresses of persons and organizations, and;

● meetings service for announcing and preparing meetings.

Access to the Library and newsgroups is also possible by e-mail. A comprehensive search facility

assists in the identification of documents and events. Finally, a comprehensive On-line help

service is also provided with guidelines for the use of all the available services and their internal 

functions.

5. GEMET: projected results
5.1 Environmental Data Exchange Network (EDEN)

Utilizing emerging information technology, the US Department of Defense (DOD), the US 

Department of Energy (DOE) , the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National 

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the European Environment Agency (EEA) are 

participating in a collaborative effort to develop and demonstrate a means for sharing and using 

environmental data. Intelligent software agents and Java applets operate over the Internet to 

access and retrieve information from disparate data sources.

The terminology is key to the success of this approach. The terminology will serve as a reference 

for the creation of an ontology to bridge the gap between similar concepts expressed by different 

terms in the participating databases. The ontology is a set of concepts, relationships and metainformation that describes and links data in one system in a useful functional fashion to data in 

other systems. The ontology enables querying across data systems without incurring the cost of 

restructuring existing data systems or building new ones.

The EDEN project is expected to support a dynamic environment in which databases can be 

added or removed without affecting the basic behaviour of the system. Thus the project will be 

developed from a small initial group of databases but will provide the platform for incorporation of 

additional databases. Because the unifying feature of EDEN is the ontology, each database and 

tool provider adding an information source to the project will need to support the integration by 

mapping their system into the common EDEN ontology. GEMET will be a reference for the 

mapping activity.

EDEN is a ambitious effort and represents a significant step forward in the potential to organize, 

access and analyse environmental information. Depending on the results of this pilot, it is 

anticipated that the InfoSleuth technology will become commercially available

5.2 Catalogue of Data Sources and Environmental Data Registry

The Catalogue of Data Sources (CDS) maintains a description of authoritative EEA and the 

European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET) information, such as the 

EIONET organisations, EEA products, main EIONET databases and the sources of national 

environmental information in the EEA member countries. It also includes a description of 

European Union environmental legislation and other environmental reporting obligations of the 

EEA member countries. All entries in the CDS are indexed with GEMET terms, in order to assure 

access to this core EEA information across language barriers.

The Environmental Data Registry (EDR), developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA), is a comprehensive, authoritative source of reference information about environmental 

data. It is not the environmental data itself, but rather the information that helps describe the data 

and make it more meaningful. The EDR serves as the clearinghouse for information about the 

data. It provides information on the definition, origin, source, and location of environmental data. 

When used in conjunction with an environmental information database, the EDR enables users to 

better understand the information they are accessing. It also serves as a major tool to support a 

standard-setting process, to record and disseminate these standards, and ultimately to facilitate 

data sharing between organizations and users. The EDR is linked to GEMET through the EPA 

Terminology Reference System and utilizes GEMET as a source of data concept and data 
element definitions.

5.3 Search engines

EEA is, as a part of its European Environmental Reference Centre, developing a multilingual 

search service. GEMET terms are used in this service to facilitate multilingual search in full-text 

indexes of Web sites generated by search robots.

US EPA has plans to utilize the GEMET terminology in the development of subject or themespecific topic sets for search engine retrieval and to load the thesaurus function of the search 

engine tool replacing the general thesaurus in order to improve retrieval.

5.4 Other applications

The Agencies also see GEMET as a reference tool which will function as a

● map of environmental knowledge indicating how concepts relate to each other and a 

reference for organization of environmental terminology into classification schemes, 

ontologies, glossaries, etc;

● set of well-formed definitions to serve as a guide in mapping terms and synonyms to 

concepts and database fields;

● nesting structure for specialized national thesauri to be linked under the more generalized 

central thesaurus;

● resource for assistance in translation of environmental documentation; and, as

● an index for retrieval of environmental information across languages through a common 

identifier

6. Summary

Environmental protection is everyone's job. A major responsibility of governmental organizations 

on both sides of the Atlantic is to put information in the hands of those who have an interest in 

protecting the environment. The Internet has become the most effective method of information 

dissemination, but it needs development in order to achieve its full potential. Users need to be 

able to bring together information across disparate databases and they need to be able to 

aggregate information from a variety of formats. They also need to manage the information glut 

and to obtain retrieval more targeted to exact needs. EEA and EPA are cooperating in 

addressing these Internet dissemination problems. The Agencies see semantic management 

through a multilingual environmental thesaurus system, GEMET, as a key to more efficient 

dissemination of environmental information through the Internet. They are working on the 

extension and refinement of GEMET and the development of a general environmental querying 

ability based on this tool. 

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