ABSTRACT
Our natural environment is damaged by abiotic and biotic effects and, especially during the last one hundred years, by human activities. This damage influences the very complex structure of our living space and is very dangerous for our living conditions. Both scientists and politicians, who have to take actions against these dangers, need complete, actual and correct data about the natural resources in order to acquire causal knowledge of the likely and potential damages. Sufficient, correct and current data describing the environment and the chronological development of the environment, will enable scientists to develop models of environmental networks in order to prepare a serious base for decision making. There are many examples of the requirement for such data:
1. sustainable cultivation of forests in Austria is regulated by laws and this has been extended, in recent years, to the sustainable cultivation of the living space. Within Austria, this is taken to mean the economic use of natural resources, securing of potential areas under cultivation, project planning without the destruction of the environment, and objective planning;
2. Austria became a member of the European Union at the beginning of 1995 and since this time, projects relating to the integrative development of rural areas have been financially supported by the EU. For this purpose, agricultural planning and development requires up-to-date information about natural resources since the subsidies, granted by the EU, are dependent upon the size of field and the type of crops grown. The need for extensive and current data is not only important for obtaining subsidies from the EU, but is becoming of increasing importance on a national scale. For
example, farming subsidies from the EU will diminish and these will have to be compensated for through national funding, especially in the case of the high alpine regions. This will impose an extra burden upon the whole population of Austria, who will thus require some form of guarantee upon the fairness of the distribution of the national subsidies;
3. the extension of the infrastructure (motorways, roads, railways, power stations, etc.) also have a profound influence upon the environment. Before any project can commence and approval be given, public opinions must be sought. If a co-ordinated programme of data collection already exists, the redundancy of data collection can be avoided and this might be used as evidence to either support or disprove public concern. Providing the data has been collected without bias, it may be offered to groups such as the eco-activists to process and model.
