=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper17
|storemode=property
|title=E-Government for National Forest Parks in Greece
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper17.pdf
|volume=Vol-1498
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/KoliouskaAKM15
}}
==E-Government for National Forest Parks in Greece==
<pdf width="1500px">https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper17.pdf</pdf>
<pre>
    E-Government for National Forest Parks in Greece

Christiana Koliouska1, Zacharoula Andreopoulou2, Fedra Kiomourtzi3, Basil Manos4
1
  Laboratory of Forest Informatics, Department of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle
    University of Thessaloniki, Greece, P. O. Box 247, 54124, e-mail: ckolious@for.auth.gr
2
  Laboratory of Forest Informatics, Department of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle
   University of Thessaloniki, Greece, P. O. Box 247, 54124, e-mail: randreop@for.auth.gr
     3
       Laboratory of Informatics in Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124
                      Thessaloniki, Greece, e-mail: fkiomour@agro.auth.gr
       4
         Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124
                       Thessaloniki, Greece, e-mail: manosb@agro.auth.gr



       Abstract. 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.

       Keywords: Electronic government, Information and Communication
       Technologies, Electronic services adoption, National Parks, Website
       assessment.



1 Introduction

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
(Andreopoulou et al, 2011).




                                            117
    Electronic government (e-government) has been defined as “the use of ICT, and
particularly the internet, as a tool to achieve better government” (OECD, 2003). In
Europe, governments are under intense and sustained pressures to remain
competitive on a global level, in responding to a variety of now well-known and
profound challenges (demographic change; environmental impacts; natural resource
shortfalls; social cohesion, worrisome waste streams, and the like) (European Union,
2013). E-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 such as in procurement, health,
environment, mobility and social security, and support the implementation of
citizens' initiatives with ICT tools (European Union, 2010). Implementation of e-
government can produce a form of relationship such as: Government to Citizen
(G2C), Government to Business (G2B) and Government to Government (G2G)
(Widodo et al., 2013; Hazlett and Hill, 2003).
    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 (Arabatzis and
Grigoroudis, 2010; Colchester, 2004).
    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 e-
services 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 Materials and Methods

    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 (Berry and Browne, 2005; Langville and Meyer,
2006).
    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.




                                         118
Table 1. Variables attributed to e-government services to be achieved by the website

 Variable                 Feature                   Variable               Feature
   X1              two or more languages              X16       links to other companies etc
   X2           information about products-           X17         various topics of interest
                     services-activities
    X3              contact information               X18             downloadable files
    X4               local information                X19            calendar application
    X5                  digital map                   X20        event calendar application
    X6              audiovisual material              X21            celebration calendar
                                                                          application
   X7                live web camera                  X22           social media sharing
   X8                  search engine                  X23            social media profile
   X9                     sitemap                     X24                   forum
   X10        updated enterprise information          X25      related sources of information
   X11                 online survey                  X26        third person advertisement
   X12         online communication form              X27                 newsletter
   X13               weather forecast                 X28                    RSS
   X14            website visitor tracker             X29                code access
   X15         Frequently Asked Questions             X30       personalization of the page,
                           (FAQ)                                         trace, safety

    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.


2.1 Classification of E-government Websites in the Four Stages of E-services
Adoption

    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 (Gossain and
Kenworthy, 2000; Rao et al., 2003) that represents four different distinctive
categories or adoption stages for an agency with varying strategic objectives and
aspirations. These stages are: presence, interaction, transaction and transformation.
The grouping depends on the features achieved by a website.
    “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




                                              119
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 (Andreopoulou et al., 2007; Andreopoulou et al., 2008).


3 Results

    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 e-
government 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 e-
government 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 e-
government 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.




                                          120
      Table 2. E-services adoption stages of e-government websites per National Forest Park

                                                                                  E-government websites
 National          Stage 1       Stage 2         Stage 3          Stage 4
                                                                                   per National Forest
Forest Park      "Presence"   "Interaction"   "Transaction"   "Transformation"
                                                                                          Park
 1. Olympus          0             7               0                  0                       7
 2. Parnitha         0             7               1                  0                       8
3. Parnassos         0             5               0                  0                       5
   4. Enos
                     0             3               0                  0                       3
   (Ainos)
  5. Sounio          0             7               0                  0                       7
 6. Iti (Oiti)       0             5               0                  0                       5
 7. Samaria          1             5               2                  0                       8
  8. Valia
                     0             10              0                  0                       10
Calda, Pindos
 9. Prespes          0             4               0                  0                       4
 10. Vikos -
                     0             7               0                  0                       7
    Aoos
    Total            1             60              3                  0                       64




      4 Conclusion

          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 e-
      services 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




                                                  121
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 e-
services.


References

1.   Andreopoulou, Ζ.S., Arabatzis, G., Manos, B. and Sofios, S., 2007. Promotion
     of Rural Regional Development through the WWW. International Journal of
     Applied Systems Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 290-304.
2.   Andreopoulou, Z., Manos, B., Polman, N. and Viaggi, D., 2011. Agricultural
     and Environmental Informatics, Governance, and Management: Emerging
     Research Applications. In the book Agricultural and Environmental Informatics,
     Governance, and Management: Emerging Research Applications. Editors
     Andreopoulou, Z., Manos B., Viaggi, D. and Polman, N. IGI Global. USA
3.   Andreopoulou, Z.S., Tsekouropoulos, G., Koutroumanidis, T., Vlachopoulou,
     M. and Manos, B., 2008. Typology for E-business Activities in the Agricultural
     Sector. International Journal of Business Information Systems, Vol. 3, No. 3,
     pp.231-251.
4.   Arabatzis, G. and Grigoroudis, E., 2010. Visitors' Satisfaction, Perceptions and
     Gap Analysis: The Case of Dadia–Lefkimi–Souflion National Park. Forest
     Policy and Economics, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 163-172.
5.   Berry, M.W. and Browne, M., 2005. Understanding Search Engines:
     Mathematical Modeling and Text Retrieval. Society for Industrial Mathematics
     (SIAM), Philadelphia.
6.   Colchester, M., 2004. Conservation Policy and Indigenous                   Peoples.
     Environmental Science and Policy, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 145-153.
7.   European Union, 2010. Communication from the Commission to the European
     Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the
     Committee of the Regions. Brussels. Available at: http://eur-
     lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0743:FIN:EN:PDF
     (28/9/2013)
8.   European Union, 2013. Public Services Online, ‘Digital by Default or by
     Detour?’. Assessing User Centric eGovernment Performance in Europe –
     eGovernment Benchmark 2012. Final insight report. Available at :
     https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-
     agenda/files/eGov%20Benchmark%202012%20insight%20report%20published
     %20version%200.1%20_0.pdf (28/9/2013).




                                          122
9.   Gossain, S. and Kenworthy, R., 2000. Winning the third wave of E-Business -
     Beyond net markets, NerveWire. Available at: http://www.nervewire.com
     (20/2/2013)
10. Hazlett, S., A. and Hill, F., 2003. E-Government: The Realities of Using IT to
    Transform the Public Sector. Managing Service Quality, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 445-
    452.
11. Langville, A.N. and Meyer, C.D., 2006. Google's Pagerank and Beyond: The
    Science of Search Engine Rankings. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
12. OECD, 2003. The E-Government Imperative. Organisation for Economic Co-
    Operation and Development, Paris, France.
13. Rao, S., Metts, G. and Mora Monge, C., 2003. Electronic Commerce
    Development in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: A Stage Model and its
    Implications. Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 11 – 32.
14. Widodo, A.P., Istiyano, J.E., Wardoyo, R. and Santoso, P., 2013. E-Government
    Interoperability Framework Based on a Real Time Architecture. International
    Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 10, No. 2, Is. 1, pp. 469-477




                                       123

</pre>