The latest technological advances in e-Government systems, that were only made available in 2016, have taken advantage of readymade platforms of e-Authentication, e-Signature and e-Identification, and can offer considerable benefits in important areas of Life Sciences and their applications; such as e-Agriculture, e-Forestry, e-Environment, e-Food, etc. The emphasis, in this paper is placed on the use of Smart Cross Border eGovernment Systems, including all the latest emerging techniques (Big Data, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things). Such smart systems, offered via innovative and reliable services to producers, can for example further facilitate the transport of agricultural products beyond national borders. These benefits can be accrued by reducing bureaucratic cross border barriers and thus increasing the speed of transport and reducing the final cost of agricultural products in reaching distant markets, to the benefit of consumers. The motivation behind this research is drawn from the long-term plans and efforts of the European Commission, since 1993, in supporting Single Market of trade and business on a grand scale. The application of such Cross-Border systems will enhance the benefits of the European Single Market on demand as their availability and applicability support further integration at federal state level. This emulates the situation in the USA where all trade movements are conducted freely between States, based on the same currency and governed by the same laws and regulations.
The evolving role of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), as well as the continuous improvement in the security of Internet systems have resulted in the development and implementation of a number of e-Government standards to support integrated services in almost all areas of human activity. The core aim of the evolution of e-Government standards is the improvement of the quality of life, the commercial activities and the relations between the State and its citizens.
Globalization of the economy and the creation of state or local associations, such
as the European Union (EU), the USA, ASEAN, TURKPA, etc., in which integration
and free movement of citizens and goods are permitted, require the development of
e-Government Services in cross-border environments
The exploitation of the STORK 2.0 platforms simplifies and automates the
existing e-Health, e-Banking, E-Commerce and e-Crime Services and enables the
development of these Services for (E-Agriculture, e-Environment, e-Forestry,
eFood) in cross-border environments. The combination of innovative Big Data, Cloud
Computing and Internet of Things
It is clear that the flexibility and speed which is provided by the proposed Smart
Cross Border e-Government Systems (SCBeG) in export / import activities of
agricultural products between EU trading partners and in the automatic processing of
the relevant banking services
The cross-border eGovernment system model and its enhanced structure within
the eAU, eSIGN and eID platforms, which achieve the cross-border utilization of the
proposed ED systems, are described in the second section. The section 3 describes
the applications of SCBeG systems in the fields of Electronic Agriculture. Finally, in
the fourth section it is attempted to draw conclusions from the adoption at the level of
productive use of SCBeG systems in applications of Electronic Agriculture
The development of SCBeG systems and their dynamics depend on numerous
factors; with the most basic being security and privacy. The EU, through various
programs, has reached the adoption of a multilevel security framework (Figure 1), for
safeguarding the security and reliability of services
The multi-layered architecture of eGovernment systems, which is shown below, is enriched and reinforced by new building blocks provided by the innovative developments of Big Data, Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things.
A central piece of procedure and architecture of the systems represented above, is
STORK 2.0, which is grounded in recognized registered international standards
(OASIS web SSO, ISO/IEC 27001, OASIS DSS) and it resides to a combination of
subsequent models of identity (Pan-European Proxy Services (PEPS) & Middleware
Model (MW)
The services supported by the SCBeG systems, in addition to speeding and, as a
consequence, reducing the cost of migrating goods, enlarge the role of the European
Union's Small and Medium-Sized Agricultural and Manufacturing Operators, as the
European citizen becomes automatically a consumer of agricultural products of any
kind country of production (COP) within the EU
Furthermore, the agricultural economy in broad effects of SCBeG Systems and
other sectors of Agriculture and the environment are favored by providing them with
all the necessary information and valid data in a timely manner at their local farm
level. For example, the hitherto predictability of weather phenomena refers to broad
spatial and temporal data. The new SCBeG systems are equipped with building
blocks of Big Data
Generally, farmers and businesses in the sector will be able to take advantage of their land and other available resources (water, soil, atmosphere, etc.) in a more convenient and economical way, having quantitative and qualitative elements (e.g. transnational agreement on the exploitation of water flows and stocks).
SCBeG systems and their supported services will contribute to the qualitative
upgrade of agricultural products by providing advisory information that will deliver
more economical, more efficient and safer use of agricultural fertilizers and
pesticides. The services offered are ergonomic and understandable, as they have
excellent interfaces through which the user - farmer optimizes her/his production (see
Figures 3 and 4). Below are mentioned indicative partial applications of SCBeG
systems in Agriculture and the Environment
Cross-border eGovernment systems, enriched with innovative capabilities in the fields of Big Data, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things, as discussed in the context of G2C, G2B and B2B in this paper, offer major advances in further deploying applications to almost all Life Sciences sectors and applications. Meanwhile, the capabilities of authentication, electronic signatures and electronic identification offer essential prerequisites for the additional development in specific application areas such as those of e-Agriculture and Agricultural Economy. The trade (import and export) of fresh and sensitive agricultural products could hugely benefit from secure Cross-border transactions, the automation and the speed of carrying out all the necessary procedures digitally and the ensuing reduction of the costs of multiple handling of goods. All these enhanced services will significantly contribute to the stimulation and reinvigoration of small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector and could support opportunities for their economic survival within the contexts of globalization and the implementation of the key principle of the European Union in the creation of a Single Digital Market.