DECOIN project responds to the EU FP6 SSP Priority “Integrating and strengthening the European Research Area, Scientific Support to Policies”. At the EU policy level, the project will contribute to the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy and the 6th Environment Action Programme and the related Thematic Strategies.

The DECOIN project deals with sustainable development indicators and the methodology of analyzing inter-linkages between different trends in the EU. The DECOIN project will contribute to the research towards a sustainable European knowledge society through the development of the EU framework of Sustainable Development Indicators. Through the methodological work concerning the analytical frameworks the project will help the EU and its Member States to better observe the trends in relation to the different dimensions of sustainability. The very broad societal relevance of the overall research topic is exceptional and so the project will play an important role in serving the society as a whole.

“Much emphasis in the 21st century has been placed on providing accurate data to support decision-making. In the public and commercial arena, these decisions are diverse. Organizations want to know how to pursue an enemy on a battlefield; what are the best land use alternatives for combating global warming; where should police be assigned to reduce crime; what areas are at risk for West Nile Virus; what is the best site to build new schools; or what are the route logistics for efficient delivery truck fleet management. At a personal level, people want to know how to get to a party, where to vote, what neighborhood is a good location to buy a house, where to find their friends, and how will an ambulance find them when they call 911.

Today’s citizens, taxpayers, and homeowners have an entirely different set of geographic information needs and expectations than people did thirty, twenty or even eight years ago. They want to access geographic information from home through powerful, inexpensive personal computers by means of broadband networks. People accustomed to social Internet structures are as interested in publishing as they are in consuming information. They will readily participate in Facebook’s “what are you doing now” dialog. Today’s generation of Internet users are often armed with their personal navigation system, are repeat consumers of Google Earth data, and expect easy-to-use applications such as seeing their homes and relational values. They flock to sites such as Zillow.com and Cyberhomes.com to view the value of their property and observe the trends in their neighborhoods. This cyberspace generation has high expectations of geographic technologies. They expect to link to their local assessor’s records. They expect detailed, recent aerial photography, and, even better, with bird’s-eye views at four different oblique angles. In reaction to these demands, local governments are incorporating GIS into their enterprise-wide IT environments. Waukesha, Wisconsin, for instance, reports that scores of business decisions relating to everything from E911 to school zoning are driven from a parcel-based GIS because it is the expected norm.”

National Geospatial Advisory Committee (USA), January 2009