English Abstract A Global Environment Assessment workshop was held in
Brussels on September 15 and 16, 1998. During the preparation of
policy-oriented reports of GEO, several gaps in data and expertise had been
identified. The workshop elaborated on the issues where gaps had been
signalled aimed to bring together scientists from different disciplines,
representatives of DG-XII and specialists from RIVM in integrated
environmental assessment to locate information missing in UNEP's studies and
make progress in filling up gaps. Research needs would be identified. The
specific issues were categorised as: land-related issues, urban environment
and implementation of policies. The workshop participants were able to
identify several links between the activities for GEO and ongoing research
in the context of the EU Research, Technology Development and the
Demonstration programme. About 15 more specific research needs were
formulated. For land-related issues, the following knowledge gaps and
research implications were identified: 1) e.g. social and economic
expertise in land-use analysis, 2) e.g. land-use planning and urban land
use in integrated assessment, 3) modelling land degradation, and 4)
modelling the driving forces of land degradation. For the urban
environment, the major knowledge research areas identified from an
integrative perspective were: 1) defining a core set of indicators for
sustainable urban development, 2) quantifying the interlinkages between
environmental stress and human health, 3) describing the effects of
measures, 4) determining the role of institutional structures, and 5)
ensuring data provision based on the physical city. Major problems were
identified for implementation of policies that the degree of policy
implementation is not often measured and that it is difficult to relate
policy actions to changes in environmental pressures. In analysis it is
first of all necessary to identify which definition of effectiveness will be
used, since different indicators will be employed to measure performance.
Research implications included: 1) defining a conceptual framework for
analysis, 2) developing an approach to assess effectiveness of indirect
policies, 3) analysing the effectiveness of multilateral environmental
agreements, 4) operationalisation of portfolio indicators and 5) developing
tools for communication of results to policy-makers.
