On September 28, a workshop dedicated to the development of a comprehensive concept for the Lake Sevan section of the Armenian Ecoportal was held, which was organized in the framework of "Environmental protection of Lake Sevan" (EU4Sevan) project funded by the European Union and the German Government. The purpose of the workshop was to present and discuss with interested parties the vision of the Lake Sevan section of Armenian Ecoportal to be developed within the framework of EU4Sevan project. This platform will serve as a public and accessible information hub for environmental data, research results and other necessary information about Lake Sevan and its basin.
The workshop was attended by RA Deputy Minister of Environment Aram Meymaryan, EU4Sevan project Team leader Christian Henschel, and EU4Sevan Project Advisor on Integrated Water Resources Management Alexander Arakelyan, Geoinfo LLC expert team which is implementing the concept development task, as well as other governmental, scientific and educational, civil society organizations representatives, individual experts, and researchers.
Deputy Minister Meymaryan welcomed the participants and highlighted: "Thank you that in this period full of challenges for our State, you continue to stick to our common vision of restoring and protecting the environment, particularly the ecosystem of Lake Sevan, and you do not stop bringing us closer to that vision thanks to your daily efforts. I attach great importance to the implementation of the integrated information system for the Lake Sevan ecosystem and the development of the Ecoportal, and I hope that today's discussion will provide an exchange of opinions on the future of e-governance and open data in the interdisciplinary domain of the environment."
During the workshop, the proposed technical solutions of the platform, its toolset, and spatial and descriptive data sets that will be integrated into this information warehouse were presented. Suggestions and comments from potential users were collected, which will be considered in the final version of the concept.
The workshop was concluded with questions and answers, as well as a group discussion on the next steps and ways of cooperation. Before submitting of the final version of the concept, it was decided to continue the discussions of its individual sections with relevant organizations and specialists to include the demands of the stakeholders as much as possible.