Information management in statu nascendi

The National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM) in the Netherlands has been given the tasks of an environmental planning bureau. Core activity is to be the regular preparation of national environmental outlooks, such as Concern for Tomorrow. Underlying information flows comprise the results of extensive monitoring and modelling, and data from sources outside RIVM. By mid-1990, when the second environmental outlook was being prepared, RIVM started exploratory work aimed at information management and at support arrangements with external data suppliers. The report describes and assesses this work.RIV