ABOUT PEMSEA> PROGRAMME COMPONENTS
INTEGRATED INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Objective

To establish and operate an integrated information management system (IIMS) for coastal and marine environmental assessment, planning, monitoring and management at PEMSEA's ICM and subregional sea area/pollution hot spot sites.

Information as the Key to Effective Decision-Making

Comprehensive, accurate, reliable, cost-effective and timely information is a pre-requisite for effective decision-making. Data must be accessible and available to users when and where needed, and in a form that is understandable by the user.

Limitations of Existing Information Management Systems in the Region

• no standard and uniform data collection and recording system

• questionable quality and uniformity of data

• poor accessibility

• format not conducive to easy interpretation/use

• time consuming and costly to find, collect and analyze

IIMS as a Response

To address these problems, the GEF Pilot Phase, the Regional Programme on Marine Pollution Prevention and Management for the East Asian Seas (MPP-EAS) has developed an integrated information management system (IIMS). The IIMS is a relational environmental database, capable of handling large sets of data on the coastal and marine environment. It will also serve as a decision-support system when linked with a geographic information system (GIS) and hydrodynamic and pollutant fate forecasting models. The IIMS is designed to enhance accessibility of information, not only for the participating government institutions, but also for other stakeholders in the coastal and marine environment.

Data Sets Covered

• socioeconomic

• demographic

• institutional

• pollution sources

• water quality

• biophysical

• physiographic data

Field Application of IIMS in PEMSEA Demonstration Sites

PEMSEA will apply IIMS in its demonstration sites for various aspects of environmental planning, management and assessment. Applications of IIMS include the following:

• environmental profiling

• strategic environmental planning

• risk assessment

• environmental impact assessment

• environmental monitoring

Benefits of IIMS

• Timely, reliable and cost-effective data that would aid in planning, management and assessment

• Data organized in a uniform manner that would speed up generation of data for environmental planning, management and assessments

• Decision-support system that assist coastal managers, planners, policy-makers and stakeholders in handling environmental issues

• Enable PEMSEA's ICM and pollution hot spot sites to share data in a timely and cost-effective manner

• Facilitate networking among PEMSEA's sites and other users

Manila Bay IIMS The IIMS for the Manila Bay Are can be accessed online through the EMB website at www.emb.gov.ph/iimsweb.