Evidence for policy and action in times of transition: Quantity and quality

17.30 Digital Environmental Information – evolution and longstanding challenges

Muki Haklay, University College London

A core question of environmental decisionmaking is: how to allow inclusion and participation in a process that was conceived as a multi-disciplinary expertise, while it can be only resolved through a transdisciplinary action? One of the solutions to this challenge is a technical fix. Yet, trying to solve complex societal problems with technological fixes is a recipe for more problems. In the lecture, we will look at the link between digital technology, environmental information, and public participation over this half a century and identify the transitions, as well as persistent issues.

18.30 Verified Facts for Societies in Transition

Walter Radermacher, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München 

Environmental information is still too much a matter for specialists, not customised for public discourse, not integrated into reporting systems on social and economic issues. If we ask ourselves what is 'fit for purpose' as an information for the urgent transformational processes, it will be important to quickly arrive at new conventions regarding the methodology, quality and relevance of statistics that actually serve the common good.