Context

Countries are required to prepare and submit environmental data under international frameworks. These obligations require transparency, consistency over time, and the ability to explain results during reviews. Software systems must support these requirements structurally, not only at reporting time. Key requirements: Long-term data consistency — Data must remain comparable across reporting periods spanning decades. Reviewability — External reviewers must be able to trace how results were produced. Reproducibility — Calculations and methodological choices must be fully reproducible at any point in time.

Environmental reporting is no longer a one-off annual task. It is a continuous process involving recalculations, updates, reviews, and internal reuse of data. This shift fundamentally changes software requirements: systems must persist knowledge, track changes, and remain understandable over many years.

Environmental data combines large time series, complex classifications, evolving methodologies, and strong audit requirements. This makes it one of the most demanding domains for long-lived information systems, especially in public institutions.