Desertification Information System to support National Action Programmes (DISIMED)
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To meet these requirements, the information system has to be based on a
minimum set of agreed common indicators for the Mediterranean area, which
should be:
• Already available or that may be immediately derived from the existing
information;
• At low cost, to allow a frequent updating;
• User-friendly and of immediate understanding for the decision-makers;
• At a suitable scale, in order to enable planning at a national and regional scale;
• Comparable and congenial at the regional level.
Actions should focus on the following three areas:
1. Designing and developing a system for the management of data and the
dispatching of information at the regional level. This system will lie in
standardised and homogeneous databases;
2. Developing methodologies for the assessment of desertification at the regional,
national and local scale. These methodologies will lead also to the definition of
a reference framework for the monitoring of trends;
3. Providing decision-makers with a series of operational tools and outputs, which
could be directly used for planning.
6 Project Implementation
The project foresees the active participation of a number of different stakeholders,
in particular decision-makers and national scientific institutions. It provides for the
enhancement of planning capacity of National Coordinating Bodies (NCBs), by
facilitating the exchange of information between partners and the transfer of
technology, as well as through a common information system for the Mediterranean
region.
The project does not provide for any new structure, on the contrary it aims at
facilitating the relationships among the existing institutions in order to make their
action more serviceable and effective.
To achieve these goals, the following is crucial:
~ To rely on the existing capacities and structures;
~ To build consensus on common methodologies and procedures for the processing
and circulation of information;
~ To define a common set of benchmarks and impact indicators.
For these reasons, a number of workshops will be held during the
implementation of the project:
~ A start-up workshop and three yearly workshops for the evaluation of the results
achieved (validation workshops);
~ Nine thematic workshops for the endorsement of technical options (operational
workshops);
333
To meet these requirements, the information system has to be based on a
minimum set of agreed common indicators for the Mediterranean area, which
should be:
• Already available or that may be immediately derived from the existing
information;
• At low cost, to allow a frequent updating;
• User-friendly and of immediate understanding for the decision-makers;
• At a suitable scale, in order to enable planning at a national and regional scale;
• Comparable and congenial at the regional level.
Actions should focus on the following three areas:
1. Designing and developing a system for the management of data and the
dispatching of information at the regional level. This system will lie in
standardised and homogeneous databases;
2. Developing methodologies for the assessment of desertification at the regional,
national and local scale. These methodologies will lead also to the definition of
a reference framework for the monitoring of trends;
3. Providing decision-makers with a series of operational tools and outputs, which
could be directly used for planning.
6 Project Implementation
The project foresees the active participation of a number of different stakeholders,
in particular decision-makers and national scientific institutions. It provides for the
enhancement of planning capacity of National Coordinating Bodies (NCBs), by
facilitating the exchange of information between partners and the transfer of
technology, as well as through a common information system for the Mediterranean
region.
The project does not provide for any new structure, on the contrary it aims at
facilitating the relationships among the existing institutions in order to make their
action more serviceable and effective.
To achieve these goals, the following is crucial:
~ To rely on the existing capacities and structures;
~ To build consensus on common methodologies and procedures for the processing
and circulation of information;
~ To define a common set of benchmarks and impact indicators.
For these reasons, a number of workshops will be held during the
implementation of the project:
~ A start-up workshop and three yearly workshops for the evaluation of the results
achieved (validation workshops);
~ Nine thematic workshops for the endorsement of technical options (operational
workshops);