Electronic PRTR
More information on ePRTR
The Federation (Bund) and the Federal States (Bundesländer) develop a uniform PRTR-software
Electronic transmission of the data to the competent authority is regulated by § 3 of the German PRTR-law (SchadRegProtAG, in German). The Federation and the Federal States decided to develop a uniform software which enables an integrated reporting via the web concerning the compartments air, water, land and waste.
The data collection system BUBE-Online is intended to include all reporting obligations determined by PRTR, 11th Federal Immission Protection Regulation (11. BImSchV, Emission reporting) and 13th Federal Immission Protection Regulation (13. BImSchV, large combustion plants) and to integrate further obligations for future reporting. Especially for PRTR a presentation module will be developed in consistence with the PRTR-Protocol. The software development takes place within a project shared by all Federal States and the Federation itself. BUBE-Online is expected to be available ex off March 2008 for the first reporting cycle in 2007.
An Online-data-input is provided as well as an Offline version and a direct data transmission from internal IT-systems via a XML-interface. The specification of the XML-interface is expected to be provided in January 2008, so facilities and agencies are enabled to build up communication channels to the new system.
Besides the technical specifications the items IT-security and data protection are of special importance.
The complete software system will contain the electronic processing of reporting: data input by the operators, quality assessment by the competent authorities, the compilation of the data at the Federal Environment Agency, including the publication of the national register and the data transmission to the EC. The procedure of PRTR-reporting using ePRTR is shown in figure 1:
Flowchart
Part I Data collection by the operator:
The operator generates his reports with (A) his own software, (B) with the offline version BUBE-Offline or (C) with BUBE-Online. In cases of (A) and (B) a XML-file (XML1) is created and imported in BUBE-Online by the operator. During data-transfer the compatibility of the XML-interface specification is checked.
Part II Internet portal www.bund.de
BUBE-online is accessible via the internet portal http://www.bube.bund.de.
Part III BUBE-Online:
BUBE-Online is the central web based data collection system for operators and competent authorities. With this system the operator is able to enter his data online or he can import his data via a XML-file. A user and role administration controls the user’s authentication and the data access. After finishing his data set the operator has to deliver his data to BUBE-online by activating an appropriate function. This official delivery is documented in the system and the operator receives a confirmation email.
Part IV Data processing at the competent agency:
Data processing contains data validation and, in well founded cases, withholding of data claimed for confidentiality by the operator according to legal guidelines. Data validation and check-up routines, which are uniformly processed nationwide, will be already implemented in BUBE-Online. If the competent authority does not use BUBE-Online, it will handle the received XML-files in a BUBE-system installed locally, in an own technical information system (TIS) or in other technical systems.
The competent authority generates an integrated XML-data file (XML2) specific for each Federal State from the operator’s data and the additionally requested data where applicable, either directly in BUBE-Online (W1) or – if the data are handled independently – in the appropriate Federal State system (W2). These data are transferred to the Federal Environment Agency by the competent authority (active transfer/data release permission by the Federal State). In BUBE-Online the user- and data-access administration ensures, that data-access is only permitted to operators and competent authorities. It is also secured, that operator’s information can only be changed by the operator himself and not by the authorities.
Part V Data processing at the Federal Environment Agency (UBA):
The Federal Environment Agency as competent national authority receives data (XML2) from 16 Federal States (each as integrated dataset, specific for each Federal State), on the one hand for the national data presentation in the web, on the other hand for the data transfer to the EC. For data transfer to the EC the UBA combines all 16 datasets to one national dataset. The XML2 data scheme is different to the XML1 data scheme to that effect, that only those data are present, which are necessary for the PRTR reporting obligation, information on dealing with confidential data is given and that confidential data are withheld.
Within the scope of the national reporting obligations the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) generates a XML-dataset (XML3) from the Federal States’ datasets and further data if necessary.
Part VI Presentation of data at the European Community (EC):
The EC receives XML-data (XML3) from the national competent agency (Federal Environment Agency, UBA) and presents the data of all member states in the web. The XML3-data scheme corresponds to the EC’s data interface.
Contract placing and kick-off meeting for software development
Four companies had made a quote for software developing after finishing a foregoing competition (EC-wide submission). After the quotas have been evaluated the company deborate GmbH in Brunnthal nearby Munich has been charged to develop the data collection system.
The data collection system contains the categories administration of main data, data collection for PRTR, 11. BImSchV and 13. BImSchV. The data collection system sets up on the software system EE-Online, which has been used for collecting data for the emission declaration and for the emission report (EPER-data) according to the 11. BImSchV in eight federal states (Bundesländer) in the year 2004. The specifications for a further development have been worked out and harmonised in a detailed specification document by a project team within cooperation between the federation (Bund) and federal states (Bundesländer).
After completion of the specification document now it is possible to create the detailed description of the XML-interface announced before. Via the XML-interface the operators are able to transfer their data directly out off the internal software system to the PRTR-internet portal. The specification of the interface will be made available at the PRTR-homepage about the end of October 2007.
On 30./31.08.2007 there was a kick-off meeting between the contractor and the project team at the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau-Roßlau, Germany. Topics of the meeting were the proceeding of the project, the timetable and technical details. The programming of a prototype is scheduled for the end of November 2007. A complete version of ePRTR will be available in March 2008.
Beside the data collection system the development of a module for data presentation will be commissioned separately in 2008. With the presentation module the PRTR-data of the Federal States (Bundesländer) will be consolidated, reported to the EC and be made available in the web as a national register.
