Citizen-Centered Environmental Information Dissemination via Multiple Information Channels

Abstract

Citizens call for timely and high-quality environmental information for reasons of awareness and personal well-being. Only an informed citizen will be in the position to participate in urban environment decision making and planning. This interest recommends an easy-to-understand and easy-to-access presentation of such up-to-date information. Rather than presenting raw data in an extensive fashion, one ought to engineer customizable information services that can be tailored to individual user groups, be it for reasons of content or be it for reasons of citizen’s ease of access. Apnee has designed information services that draw upon various information channels, such as mobile technologies, interactive portals for the Internet, as well as street panels for municipality usage scenarios. In a nutshell, the Apnee system promotes user-friendly information management and dissemination services via multiple information channels, effectively combining information content and service providing schemes. This dissemination platform can be applied not only to the environmental sector but also in multiple information domains. Based on the Apnee approach, environmental information turns into an attractive product (electronic information service).