Electronic government services strengthen the internal market and complement European Union legislative acts and their effectiveness in a number of domains where ICT can improve delivery of services. Today, there has been observed an increasing interest in applying electronic government to different business sectors such as the environmental sector. Effective and successful management of National Forest Parks relies on a complete understanding of the goods and services which they provide to the society. This paper aims to study electronic government websites concerning the 10 Greek National Forest Parks and analyze the websites as to their qualitative and quantitative features. Then, the electronic services model adoption of the websites is assessed. The electronic government websites are classified in electronic services adoption stages starting from a simple presence of the government agency in the Internet to the total electronic services integration through multiple Information and Communication Technologies tools and applications provision according to content features accomplished by the websites. The findings can be helpful for managers, policy makers, web designers, environmentalists and government agencies.
Lately, sustainability has been globally a key goal at local and regional level. The
environmental governance and the management issues related to decisions which
verify performance have also gained a continuously growing focus. Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) have become the means to make government
more accountable, transparent and effective. ICT are key elements supporting the
growth of electronic governance (e-governance) initiatives and projects
Electronic government (e-government) has been defined as “the use of ICT, and
particularly the internet, as a tool to achieve better government”
Further, there has been observed an increasing interest in applying e-government
to different business sectors, such as the environmental sector. The contribution of
protected areas such as National Forest Parks has been proven to be highly
significant for the preservation of biodiversity and of genetic material, for
maintaining the productive capacity of the related ecosystems, for the protection of
man-made, cultural elements and for rural development as a whole
The aim of this paper is to study e-government websites of the 10 Greek National Forest Parks. The websites that enhance government management services in the areas of National Forest Parks in Greece, by using ICT tools and applications, are analyzed. The websites are analyzed as to their qualitative and quantitative e-services features. The retrieved e-government websites are also classified in the four eservices adoption stages, starting from a simple presence of the government agencies in the Internet to the total exploitation of ICT tools and applications according to their content features. 2
E-government websites of the 10 Greek National Forest Parks are retrieved from
the Internet using various keywords and combinations such as ‘Greek National
Forest Parks’, ‘Management Agencies of National Forest Parks’, ‘Ainos National
Forest Park’, ‘Vikos-Aoos National Forest Park’, ‘Oiti National Forest Park’,
‘Olympus National Forest Park’, etc. The websites are retrieved using the large-scale
hypertextual search engine “Google” which provides much more satisfying results
than other existing search engines
Initially, qualitative analysis is performed to the collected e-government websites in order to examine the type of common features (e-services) found in these websites. There were various features introduced in the retrieved websites. These features are then used to describe variables x1, x2, …xn. The features that are used are described in Table 1.
Then a quantitative analysis is carried out, in order to examine the presence or absence of common e-services features. A 2-dimentional table is developed that examines the existence of features and the values of 1, for the existence, and 0, for the non existence of the features, are attributed to variables X1 to X30, respectively. The total amount of e-services features achieved by each website is also studied. For each e-government website, the total number of achieved features is attributed to a new variable, named t. Variable t presents the sum of e-services features, and therefore it takes a value between 1 and 30.
E-government websites are further classified in four categories, each one
representing a stage of usage of ICT tools and applications and e-services adoption.
Various researchers have described a four stages adoption model
“Presence” is the stage that ensures that the website is accessible in many ways by the users who want to visit the website and interact with the interface in order to gain some information. It is ensured just a simple presence in the Internet for advertisement purposes. “Interaction” addresses the engagement of website visitors and enables them to complete whatever process or experience is provided by the website. Moreover, in the second stage of interaction, there are some limited actions enabled for the users, such as navigation through the website and the provision of various links.
“Transaction” is related with the e-shoppers experience in the purchasing process and payment orders. Furthermore, in the third stage of transaction there are enabled applications that enhance the transactions where the final user can play a major role, such as electronic exchange of texts and self-services provided for the user. “Transformation” includes the quality of communication and transaction along with responsiveness and reliability to the potential customers. Therefore, in the fourth stage of transformation the value chain is optimized while users have the possibility for online orders and payments while they are simultaneously in position to check the stage of their order.
According to that method, websites that achieve t<=4 , only one to four (1-4)
features, are classified in the stage of presence, while websites fulfilling five to 21 (a
total 5<t<21) features belong in the stage of interaction; websites that accomplish 22
to 26 (22<t<26) features belong in the stage of transaction, while websites
accomplishing the majority or all of the features, a rate 27 to 30 (27<t<30), represent
the stage of transformation
The research through the search engines on the Greek Internet resulted in the retrieval of 64 e-government websites that promote the 10 National Forest Parks in Greece.
Concerning the area of Olympus National Forest Park, all e-government websites (7) belong to the second stage of e-services adoption model, the ‘interaction’ stage. As for the area of Parnitha Forest National Forest Park, seven e-government websites belong to the ‘interaction’ stage and one e-government website belongs to the third stage of e-services adoption, the ‘transaction’ stage. There have been retrieved five egovernment websites about Parnassos National Forest Park which are classified in the stage of ‘interaction’. As for Sounio National Forest Park, all e-government websites (7) belong to the second stage of e-services adoption model, the ‘interaction’ stage. Concerning the area of Iti (Oiti) National Forest Park, all egovernment websites (5) belong to the second stage of e-services adoption model, the ‘interaction’ stage. Concerning Samaria National Forest Park, one e-government website belongs to the first stage of e-services adoption, seven e-government websites belong to the second stage of e-services adoption model and two egovernment websites belong to the third stage of ‘transaction’. As for Valia Calda Pindos National Forest Park, all e-government websites (10) belong to the second stage of e-services adoption model, the ‘interaction’ stage. There have been retrieved four e-government websites about Prespes National Forest Park which are classified in the stage of ‘interaction’. Concerning Vikos - Aoos National Forest Park, the seven e-government websites belong to the second stage of e-services adoption model, the ‘interaction’ stage.
National Forest Park 1. Olympus 2. Parnitha 3. Parnassos 4. Enos (Ainos) 5. Sounio 6. Iti (Oiti) 7. Samaria
8. Valia Calda, Pindos 9. Prespes 10. Vikos
Aoos Total 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 7 7 5 3 7 5 5 4 7 10 60
The research in the Greek Internet retrieved 64 e-government websites in the areas of the 10 officially recognized National Forest Parks in Greece. The existence of e-government websites constitutes a first and very important step for the enhancement of government management services in these protected areas with the huge natural, ecological and cultural importance. There are identified 30 different eservices features introduced in each e-government website.
Most e-government websites deal with Valia Calda – Pindos National Forest Park, while the least websites serve the area of Enos (Ainos) National Forest Park. Moreover, most e-government websites belong to the second stage of e-services adoption, the ‘interaction’ stage. These websites apart from the informational material about the provided products - activities – services and the contact information, provide some information about the National Forest Parks with pictures, videos or maps, some useful links to related issues and some limited actions enabled for the user, such as navigation through the website and the provision of various links.
The findings of the study are concurrent to those of similar studies in other western countries about the evolution of e-government among National Forest Parks. The results show that the websites which enhance e-government services need to improve the interaction with the local population. The existence of e-government websites constitutes a first and important step for the promotion of local and sustainable development action. Nevertheless, their association with the local population is primarily based on the possible citizens’ access to the internet society and in the adequate use of internet from the citizens or not. So, it is essential for the state to provide internet access to the vast majority of the population.
Findings can be helpful for managers and policy makers while planning activities and implementing innovative technological changes, such as the functional and effective websites as also for web designers while designing website of similar interest in order to fulfil certain features and characteristics aiming to optimize the websites that promote protected areas and to generally improve effectiveness of eservices.