European Spatial Data Infrastructure - INSPIRE and beyond

Editor's Notes

• #20: JRC is actively participating in the Commission-driven Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations Programme. The programme, which is managed by the ISA Unit (DIGIT.B2), supports a wide range of interoperability-related activities that are important to the Member States and the services of the Commission. INSPIRE and, more broadly speaking, location information are being recognized as a great potential to underpin a wide range of policies – not only environment. The Digital Earth and Reference Data Unit, which is responsible for the technical coordination of INSPIRE, is managing two INSPIRE-related Actions in the ISA programme.
• #22: The ISA cooperation structure is as follows: The ISA Committee formally gives its opinion on the annual ISA work programme and on strategic issues. The Coordination Group assists the commission in translating the ISA strategy into concrete actions, and also helps in the coordination between actions. The cooperation structure is completed with working groups with formal representation of the Member States that provide a focus on different aspects of the ISA Work Programme. These are Interoperability architecture, trusted information exchange, exchange of best practices, and, established in 2013, the working group on Spatial Information and Services. The Working Group on Spatial Information and Services is chaired by JRC, and had its first meeting on 16 and 17 October 2013. The meeting was an opportunity to formerly bring together the INSPIRE and e-government communities, to share experiences from practice and provide guidance for A Reusable INSPIRE Reference Platform (ARE3NA) and Towards a European Union Location Framework (EULF), two ISA Actions based at the EC Joint Research Centre that aim to support the needs identified by the Working Group. The minutes of the meeting will be made available to COGI.
• #23: This figure further explains the relationships among EULF, ARE3NA and INSPIRE. Further information is available in the explanatory note accompanying the proposed amendments to the ISA Work Programme 2014 for the two actions relating to spatial information and services. It provides further background information and rationale describing the relationships between them, and how the will be jointly coordinated. European Union Directive 2007/2/EC for the establishment of an infrastructure for spatial information (INSPIRE) requires EU countries to share spatial environmental data and information according to a number of agreements, laid down in the Directive, in the Implementing Rules Legal Acts (IRs), and in technical guidance (TG). The infrastructure will support decision making in support of environmental policies, and of policies that have an impact on the environment. INSPIRE is a multi-purpose infrastructure, meaning that it can be used for sharing and re-use of spatial information also in other policy domains.
• #25: ARE3NA will establish a reusable INSPIRE reference platform. It will focus on the sharing reusable components for INSPIRE implementation and for interoperability in cross-border/cross-sector contexts. Main Tasks in 2013-2014 are to 1) Establish a collaborative platform 2) Identifying components used to implement INSPIRE, including from the Open Source community [inventory] 3) Find policies dealing with spatial data exchange and their platforms and tools [inventory] (in cooperation with EULF) 4) Find missing items in INSPIRE and between INSPIRE and cross-sector interoperability [inventory] 5) Address missing items (Free and Open Source Software - FOSS - and guidelines) and help share best practices
• #28: The EULF is developing a strategic EU-wide, cross-sector interoperability framework for the exchange and sharing of location data and services. The EULF activities will focus on five priority areas: policy and strategy alignment, e-Government integration, standardisation and interoperability, and committed partnerships. This will be underpinned by a generic activity on collecting cost benefit information. The outcome of the work is a shared vision and a series of reports providing concrete guidance on a number of topics such as procurement, the use of standards, and opportunities for the alignment of strategies and policies.
• #29: The EULF Strategic Vision v0 (see section on Working with stakeholders) identifies the relevant stakeholders within ISA, INSPIRE, other EU institutions, Member States, Interest Groups and Communities, and associated projects. For each stakeholder, the nature of engagement is specified and further detail given on the strategic relationship and synergies with each community and how it might relate to both the EULF and ARE3NA actions. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/isa/actions/documents/isa-2.13_eulf-strategic-vision-lite-v0-3_final_en.pdf
• #30: Q. What is the difference between EULF and ELF? We are closely coordinating the activities of the two programmes to ensure that they are aligned and complementary. EULF is focused on the specific needs of Public Administrations and ELF will enable the core reference data. EULF will enable Public Administrations to build Interoperable solutions, served by the core reference data we need from our National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies and other providers of essential location information.