triple-A for the environment: make IT simply better With the new Dutch Environment Act, the legal framework for development and maintenance of the physical environment becomes more understandable and manageable for citizens, businesses and governments. A simpler and more coherent environmental law contributes to work actively and efficiently on a dynamic and sustainable environment. This entire exercise of harmonization, reduction and integration is headed by the motto “Simply better”. In addition to the merging several dozen laws and regulations in one Environment Act (http://www.omgevingswet.nl), also the central IT office where citizens can apply for a environmental permit is further improved. This should make it easier to obtain a permit for example for a construction or business activity. The information presented in this central IT office must fulfill the triple-A requirements, i.e. Accessible, Applicable and Abiding. On the basis of this is a national system of open (geo)data registers of which the data acquisition and management is mandated to (semi-)government organizations. On each area of environmental law, a domain expert is appointed; stakeholders of each domain are metaphorically organized in an ”information house”, and all houses are situated metaphorically along “the avenue of the environment”. Goal of the improved central IT office is to provide a clear understanding of the relevant legislation and to allow each actor in the process to work with the same data and definitions. Therefore, we developed a prototype which presents a concept of linking data, definitions and regulations stored in one central register using an online mapping service as user interface. Using Linked Data as strategy with persistent URIs, we are able to link the concepts in this register to an end-user prototype application. We implemented an prototype for the question: “Do I need an environmental permit for… applying a change in business activity?“. An air quality impact assessment is computed based on user input an visualized in a map interface showing the effects of an increase of nitrogen emission on the nearby nature reserves after extending a greenhouse farming. We used the AERIUS calculation tool (http://www.aerius.nl/) of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and presented the returned geodata as GeoJSON in the Leaflet Map API (http://www.leaflet.org). With this prototype, we provide a concept which facilitates the clear understanding of the requirements for an environmental permit by making IT simply better. |