Automated generation of environmental reports - a case study
A variety of documents generated within the scope of environmental reporting are based on similar and partly overlapping information. However, in the majority of cases information collected for a particular environmental document cannot be reused for other objectives and if then only with huge additional work input. Data need to be updated on a regular basis, e.g. according to the report period. Therefore computer aided and automated reporting would make good sense. This paper introduces an approach of partly automated environmental reporting. The focus thereby lies on automated conversion of environmental assessment data to XML (Extensible Markup Language) format and integration into environmental reports, which will be shown with the software tool Umberto.
Standardisation of XML-based DTDs for Corporate Environmental Reporting: Towards an EML
Discussions concerning companies’ environmental aspects gained considerable importance and challenged business in recent years. Comprehensible and authentic as well as customised corporate environmental reporting requires substantial quantities of relevant information. In order to automate corporate environmental reporting, the presented approach focuses on structuring and standardising environmental documents using the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). In a more detailed fashion, the contribution is dealing with the harmonisation of three current XML-based document type definitions (DTDs) proposed for internet-based corporate environmental reporting. From an academics’ point of view, this harmonisation is thought to be a considerable effort: firstly, for contributing to the discussion of standardising corporate environmental reporting taken as a whole, and secondly, for stimulating the processes towards shaping an Environmental Markup Language (EML). From a practitioners’ perspective, such a standardised XML-based DTD contributes to employ Internet technologies and Internet services productively for corporate environmental reporting. Reporting companies and their target groups are enabled to exploit the huge opportunities and media-specific technical benefits efficiently. The paper is structured in four parts: The first part deals with the design process used to develop each DTD. In the second part, the three DTDs are presented in a more detailed fashion. Based on this, the third part refers to the process of harmonisation of the proposed DTDs. The paper ends with a conclusion.
PILAR: Sharing VISIR Remote Labs Through a Federation
Social demands have promoted an educational approach based on an “anywhere and anytime” premise. Remote laboratories have emerged as the answer to the demands of technical educational areas for adapting themselves to this scenario. The result has not only benefit distance learning students but has provided new learning scenarios both for teachers and students as well as allowing a flexible approach to experimental topics. However, as any other solution for providing practical scenarios (hands-on labs, virtual labs or simulators), remote labs face several constraints inherited from the subsystems of its deployment —hardware (real instruments, equipment and scenario) and software (analog/digital conversions, communications, workbenches, etc.)—. This paper describes the Erasmus+ project Platform Integration of Laboratories based on the Architecture of visiR (PILAR) which deals with several units of the federation installed in different educational institutions and devoted to analog electronics and electrical circuits. Based on the limitations of remote labs, the need for the federation will be justified and its benefits will be described.