PROBLEMS OF DIGITALIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AS ONE OF THE CONDITIONS FOR ITS RELIABILITY

Abstract

Abstract:
Environmental security is one of the most important types of national security in the
Russian Federation: it is impossible for further development of the country, for present and
future generations to live a full life without the preservation and restoration of Nature. In this
respect the article emphasizes the importance of environmental social control and openness
and accessibility to citizens to reliable environmental information as a necessary condition for
its implementation.
According to the author, who bases his conclusion on the present legislation, digital
technologies should be used to solve this problem. The using of such technologies in the
modern informational society, as well as the development of technical capabilities, forms
a new digital environment including environmental legal relations. One of the main goals
of the large-scale governmental digitalization, carried out in the last decade, is to ensure
the openness and accessibility of government bodies for citizens and their organizations.
Digital transformation of the state is one of the key national goals of Russia’s development,
and governmental information systems, including environmental ones, are one of its most
important components, for which huge sums are allocated from the federal budget.
According to the environmental legislation citizens and public organizations can track
information about the air and water quality on the relevant governmental websites. Using
concrete examples, the author shows that environmental information is often outdated and
contradictory. The article draws attention to the fact that often official data do not correspond
to the information of public organizations and the conclusions of environmental scientists. In
this respect the problem of the reliability of information about the environment, guaranteed
by article 42 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, is becoming increasingly relevant.
This situation is explained by the imperfection of technologies for collecting and
analyzing environmental information, as well as the digitalization of this information itself and
the imperfection of the relevant legal basis. In this respect the digitalization of environmental
information should be carried out simultaneously with the relevant legislative changes,
with the adjustment and improvement of existing mechanisms for providing environmental
information for open access.