Digital environmental protection: how digitalisation saves nature, saves business, and why new public services are needed

How digitalisation saves nature, how much business saves, and why new public services are needed. Ruslan Strilets, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, spoke about this on Ukrinform.

"2.5 years ago, a completely new online system with information on the state of the environment for the public and digital services for business appeared in Ukraine. Back then, we launched this IT solution in test mode. Today, the EcoSystem is the only national online platform in the environmental sector," the Minister said.

According to him, more than 84,000 representatives of Ukrainian business are currently registered on the EcoSystem (Ukrainian version). They have access to 21 services out of 29 available in the environmental sector. Last year alone, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources launched 17 services from scratch and modernised them. Of these, 7 are provided in a peopleless mode, i.e. without the participation of an official.

Since its launch, companies have submitted more than 57,000 documents through the EcoSystem. In just one year, this is about 7.5 million sheets that did not have to be printed, or 880 trees that did not go to production.

However, digital environmental protection is not only important for "saving trees". Every permit is issued to limit the negative impact of companies' activities on nature and, consequently, on people. By digitising all processes, the Government is systematising data, analysing natural resource reserves and their consumption, and determining the level of industrial pollution of air, water and soil.

"Data on natural resources and enterprises are aggregated in the process of providing online services. The system automatically collects them into environmental registers. Currently, 30 registers are publicly available on the EcoSystem. Our goal is 176 published databases," said Ruslan Strilets.

EcoZagroza (EcoThreat) is a part of the EcoSystem. It contains all the information that saves lives: notifications about air raids, chemical and radiation hazards, and mines; information about water, air, and soil pollution and detected hazardous waste or illegal landfills; and instructions for environmental emergencies.

Among the plans for further digitalisation of the sector, the Minister mentioned:

• expanding the range of services provided in the peopleless mode, new services for business in the OverYou mode;
• introduction of artificial intelligence for analysing environmental data and a BI system for officials at various levels;
• further opening of information from registers in the OverAll mode.

"Our vision is that in the long term, the EcoSystem should completely replace officials at all levels involved in implementing the state environmental policy through the issuance of permits. It should also become an assistant to the state for analysing, forecasting and making management decisions and effective environmental protection," said Ruslan Strilets.