Kostas Karatzas • Asteris Masouras • Athina Kaprara • Anastasios Bassoukos
Ionannis Papaioannou • Theodora Slini • Nicolas Moussiopoulos
www.apnee.org

Environmental Information Systems are the core of contemporary urban environment management systems, and a prerequisite for the proper, timely information of the public. Technological advances require for systems that can make optimum use of informatics and telecommunications infrastructures to address environmental management needs, yet being open, flexible, modular and inexpensive to implement and operate. On this basis, a number of existing environmental information components for wireless, mobile phone and web-based applications are presented. Overall, the right of access to information related to the quality of the environment that citizens live in, via personalised, electronic information services, appear to suit well with the concept of open source. This type of services addresses today's needs concerning environmental information access, supports an active participation of citizens in decision making, and may lead to a better quality of life.