INSPIRE DIRECTIVE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SOIL COMMUNITY

1. INSPIRE DIRECTIVE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SOIL COMMUNITY • Introduction • Present situation • Inspire principles and legal framework • Implementation and proposed calendar of execution • Technical guidelines Jean DusartMeeting on harmonization of Soil Information in the AlpsIspra July 1st and 2nd 2004

2. Why do we need a legislation about spatial data? • Good policies require quality information • There is a lot of information available in Europe • This information is often fragmented, and suffers from key problems: • Existing information difficult to find and access • Lack of information on updating and observation methods (metadata) • Barriers to sharing data and reuse • Lack of standardisation in data exchange and representation • Varying data quality within the same information layer across countries and regions

3. Present situation • Difficulty of finding and accessing existing information (insufficient metadata at all levels); • Different standards and scales, making existing information difficult to integrate; • Dates of updating and observation are incompatible and rarely available; • Sometimes prohibitive cost of geographical information; • Lack of harmonised data exchange formats; • Lack of harmonisation of the codes used to represent the objects described; • Varying data quality from one country to another within the same information layer; • Lack of long-term strategies and frameworks to overcome legal and institutional obstacles to information sharing.

4. CORINE LAND COVER 1990 EUROPEAN 1M. SOIL DATABASE

5. Five principles • Spatial data should be stored, made available and maintained at the most appropriate level (avoid duplicates). • It must be possible to combine spatial data from different sources across the EU seamlessly and share them between several users and applications. • It must be possible for spatial data collected at one level of public authority to be shared between all levels of public authorities. • Spatial data needed for good governance should be available under conditions that do not restrict their extensive use. • It should be easy to discover available spatial data, evaluate their fitness for purpose and know the conditions applicable to their use.

6. Proposed directive (still focused on environmental policy) The proposed directive (initiated by ESTAT, ENV and JRC/IES/LMU) aims at creating a legal framework for the establishment and operation of an infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe, for the purpose of formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Community policies at all levels and providing public information

7. Concrete elements of an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe • Structures at EU and MS level to coordinate the practical implementation of the infrastructure • Metadata concerning spatial data sets (for searching for and identifying spatial data sets and the corresponding services) • An electronic network, connecting distributed services, that allows anybody to query, view free of charge, access and trade spatial data sets • A range of guidelines and specifications for spatial data sets and services • A data policy framework and a range of sharing agreements between public bodies ensuring that information is exchanged without barriers • A framework for monitoring the implementation of the infrastructure for spatial information in Europe.

8. Proposed structure of the Directive • General provisions (what is covered, definitions) • Metadata (to be prepared within 3 to 6 years after entry into force of the directive for all data) • Harmonisation and Interoperability of spatial data sets and services (within 2 to 5 years after entry into force of the directive) • Network services (publishing, discovery, view, download, transformation, services to ‘invoke’ spatial data services, E-commerce services) • Sharing of spatial data between public authorities and harmonised licensing framework • Coordination and complementary measures • Conclusions • Annex Ia: CRS, GRID, geog. Names, administrative units, transport, hydrography, protected sites • Annex Ib: Adresses, cadastral parcels, elevation, land cover, orthoimagery… • Annex II: soils, statistical units, geology, building, land use, species, bio-geography, …

9. Implementation and proposed calendar of execution • Proposed directive to be adopted by the Commission in July 2004 • Co-decision approval procedure (involving EU Parliament and EU Council) 2004-2006 • Transposing of adopted directive in national legislation: 2006-2008 • Implementation 2009-2013

10. Technical guidelines • A set of implementing rules prepared by JRC in his action plan for 2004 – 2006 • Metadata (multi-linguism, certification, quality, accuracy, thesaurus, updating, cross-reference, profiles) • Network services (chained services) • Third parties harmonized specifications for themes mentioned in the annexes (conceptual data model, exchange of data) • Need for pilot projects for implementing/testing upcoming standards

11. Example of the EU Soils portal • Contribution of S&W Unit to the building of a thematic spatial data infrastructure on soils • Harmonized data and services delivery • Use of OpenGIS standards (WMS) • Discovery, query tools from the EU Inspire Portal: http://eu-geoportal.jrc.it • Delivery of raster data according to recommended Inspire GRID based on Inspire recommended projection system (LAEA)