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Last changed: 08/10/2010
The German Environmental Information Portal (PortalU) is a cooperative project operated by the federal government and the Länder. It has been online since June 2006, replacing the former German Environmental Information Network (gein). The portal offers centralized access to web pages and database entries from more than 120 public institutions and organizations in Germany. PortalU offers up-to-date environmental news, environmental monitoring data, detailed information on certain aspects of environmental issues, events and publications, as well as background information.
In addition to the online presence there are five Federal Environment Agency databases connected to PortalU. They are:
Furthermore, PortalU integrates the services provided by the Semantic Network Service SNS of the Federal Environment Agency. SNS shows the results from the search done in the Environmental Almanac and suggests alternative search terms to help the user find the information he is looking for.
For more information see German Environmental Portal PortalU.
The environmental data catalog (UDK) provides information on environmental data from public authorities. UDK shows the way to the ”who”, ”where”, and ”what” in matters of environmental information.
It contains the following information categories:
Environmental information catalogs are maintained by the Federal Environment Agency, the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, and the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, Hesse, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia. Bavaria provides its so-called environmental object catalog.
All of the environmental data catalogs comprise the metadata components of PortalU. The data catalogs are searched together with all other information resources automatically using the simple or extended search of PortalU. However, the objects and addresses of the environmental data catalogs could also directly accessed or searched by using a thesaurus browser.
The original concept of the German Environmental Information Portal PortalU was developed at the Federal Environment Agency. The Federal Environment Agency developed gein, the German Environmental Information Network, in the course of an environmental research and development project which ran from 1998 to 2000. gein was operated by the Federal Environment Agency from 2000 to 2002.
1 January 2003 marked the enactment of an administrative agreement reached between the federal and state governments about UDK and gein to develop and maintain a metainformation system of environmental data (UDK) and the German Environmental Information Network UDK/gein agreement (in German, PDF / 108 KB. The agreement replaces the UDK agreement of 1996. Operation, development, and maintenance of the German Environmental Information Portal PortalU and the Environmental Data catalog have since been headed by the Coordination Center for the German Environmental Information Portal. The coordination center is located at the environmental ministry of Lower Saxony.
Cooperation partners in the agreement are the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Bonn, and all the federal states (Länder).