INSPIRE 2010, Cracow, June 2010 1

INSPIRE and the Global Dimension

Alessandro Annoni

Spatial Data Infrastructures UnitInstitute for Environment and SustainabilityJoint Research CentreEuropean Commission

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European Union is young…

1957 Rome Treaty signed Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany

1973 Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined

1981 Greece joined1982 Spain and Portugal joined 1990 East Germany joined1995 Austria, Sweden, Finland joined2004 Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Estonia,

Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary joined

2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined

• Not yet European Union thinking.. (subsidiarity’principle)

• Physical and Political Europe remain different

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Country

Official and national Languages

Austria German, Slovene (official in Carinthia), Croatian and HungBelgium Dutch 60%, French 40%, German less than 1% Bulgaria Bulgarian Cyprus Greek, Turkish, English Czech Republic Czech (cestina) Denmark Danish (dansk) Estonia Estonian (eesti keel) Finland Finnish (suomi) 93.4%, Swedish 5.9% France French (français) Germany German (Deutsch) Greece Greek (elliniká, the Koine-Demotic version) Hungary Hungarian (magyar) Ireland Irish (Gaeilge), English (generally used), Italy Italian (italiano) Latvia Latvian (latviesu valoda) Lithuania Lithuanian (lietuviu kalba) Luxembourg Luxembourgish (LÎtzebuergesch), French and German Malta Maltese (Malti) Netherlands Dutch (Nederlands, official language), Frisian (official languPoland Polish (polski) Portugal Portuguese (português) Romania Romanian (romana) Slovakia Slovak (slovensky jazyk) Slovenia Slovenian (slovenski jezik) Spain Spanish (español - the Castilian version) 74%, Catalan 17%Sweden Swedish (svenska) Switzerland German 63.7%, French 19.2%, Italian 7.6%, Romansch 0.6United Kingdom English

23 official languages so far

Building a Spatial Data Infrastructure for Europe is a complex exercise… Europe is a patchwork of several countries with different traditions,

cultures and socio-economic models…This is reflected in terms of their geo-spatial management choices

Different sea levels

16.08.2001

Various Mapprojections

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Despite these difficulties we all together succeeded !!

Which lessons were learned ?

Which contribution could we offer for the development of a global environmental information system?

The six INSPIRE challenges

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Understanding the Global landscape (.. Environment ..)

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Challenge 1 : focus on few selected initiatives!

In order to be effective and to have a real impact the INSPIRE community should be able to identify and select few key initiatives running at international level and contribute to their development by plug in INSPIRE components and services.

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GEO and GEOSS

GEOSS is an intergovernmental initiative overseen by 81 countries, the European Commission and 58 international organizations: the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)

GEOSS is a distributed system of systems built on current international cooperation among existing Earth observing and data management systems

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INSPIRE and GEOSS Common Infrastructure

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GEOSSClearinghouses

GEO Web Portals

GEOSS Common Infrastructure

Components & Services

Standards andInteroperability

Best PracticesWiki

User Requirements

Registries

Main GEOWeb Site Registered Community

Resources

Community Portals

Client Applications

Client Tier

Business Process Tier

CommunityCatalogues

AlertServers

WorkflowManagement

ProcessingServers

Access Tier

GEONETCast Product AccessServers

Sensor WebServers

Model AccessServers

Test Facility

MediationServers

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Challenge 2 : influence selected initiatives!

In order to really influence the development at global level INSPIRE community should offer its best practices, guidelines and sound technical solutions already tested and implemented so adequate for building operational systems. INSPIRE solutions should become the international reference when appropriate.

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Registers & registry services

http://inspire-registry.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Expand the GEOSS Architecture

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Guidelines for Data specification development

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Diversity

Information is represented in variousdata models and coordinate referencesystems.

Distribution

A European SDI is formed by regionaland local SDIs that have their ownMetadata models, Catalogues, etc.

Multilinguality

The European Union comprises 23 official languages. This has significant impact on how discovery of data and services is performed.

Challenges of the INSPIRE Challenges of the INSPIRE GeoportalGeoportal

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Challenge 3 : promote INSPIRE as a process• Open and transparent approach in:

– Formulating the policy (Experts from Member States writing position papers as input)

– Assessing likely impact (Expert from MS preparing Extended Impact Assessment, chaired by EA for England and Wales)

– Advising on process (INSPIRE Expert Group with representatives MS)

– Mobilizing stakeholder through open registration of Spatial Data Interest Communities and Legally Mandated Organisations

– Providing input to drafting of Implementing Rules through experts, reference material, and projects

– Commenting on Drafts, and testing

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Building the community

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Building the spirit

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Governance Model: Participative, Open, Transparent

INSPIRE Community • 361 Spatial Data Interest Communities

(SDICs)• 198 Legally Mandated Organisations

(LMOs)• 3087 users registered on the INSPIRE

site• 230 Experts (Drafting teams)• 72 Experts (Thematic Working Groups)• 88 scenario2 experts• 238 Experts for annex II/III latest call• 3087 users registered on the INSPIRE

site

INSPIRE Forum• 485 registered on new INSPIRE forum• 32 Groups already set up

..External networks • Global: GEO, OGC, ISO TC211, GSDI, ..• UN: UNIGW-UNSDI, UNEP• European: ESA, EEA-EIONET, EUSC,..• Research: ISDE, IEEE, AGILE, ..

Data specifications - an example of the dedication !

• 7500 comments on Data Specifications• 358 meetings (including phone conferences) for

annex I development process• DS Testing: 325 approx registered on Testing

WIKI

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Challenge 4 : INSPIRE as conceptual model

INSPIRE is built respecting few key principles that could inspire the development of other global systems:

- Stepwise implementation- Starts with minimum but foresees

possibility to increase capabilities- Cost/benefits considerations- Feasibility and adaptability to local

diversities- Evolutionary..

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“The Balance Challenge”

Which level of interoperability is “just right”?

Simple Complex

Too simple:• Identified requirements can not

be supported• Insufficient harmonisation• Few benefits

Too complex:• Difficult to implement• Substantial benefits available

only to few users• High costs

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Challenge 5 : Internationalise INSPIRE specifications

The international community should make profit from the huge effort of INSPIRE stakeholders in developing specifications, testing them and implementing in operational environments. The INSPIRE community should make an additional effort to ensure that its specifications can be adopted as international standards.

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International standardisation bodies

• INSPIRE as unique opportunity to test existing standards– Detect errors and inconsistencies– Stress performances– Identify additional requirements,…

• INSPIRE requests for changes of ISO and OGC standards– Mid term: possible divergences– Long term: complete alignment between INSPIRE specifications

and international standards• Global interoperability will be easier and SW vendors will clearly

benefit when convergence will be fully achieved

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European contribution: INSPIRE data models

Annex IIIStatistical unitsBuildingsSoilLand useHuman health and safetyUtility and governmental servicesEnvironmental monitoring facilitiesProduction and industrial facilitiesAgricultural and aquaculture facilitiesPopulation distribution – demographyArea management/restriction

/regulation zones & reporting unitsNatural risk zonesAtmospheric conditionsMeteorological geographical featuresOceanographic geographical featuresSea regionsBio-geographical regionsHabitats and biotopesSpecies distributionEnergy ResourcesMineral resources4

Annex ICoordinate reference systemsGeographical grid systemsGeographical namesAdministrative unitsAddressesCadastral parcelsTransport networksHydrographyProtected sites

Annex IIElevationLand coverOrtho-imageryGeology

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Challenge 6 : Advance research for next generation SDI

• Profiling SDI as a central vision space where ‘Geo-Imagineers’ can think out-of-the-box: – where they can extend and modify

the vision of SDI by incorporating innovative ideas and edge-cutting technologies, combining disciplines, and

– ultimately feeding new ideas and requirements into research projects and more practically oriented initiatives

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Address current weaknesses of “static” SDIs

• Original SDI vision does not properly reflect recent changes in society including– major role of the private sector (Google,

Microsoft), – emergence of social networks

(Facebook) at the global level– emerging technologies (smart phones,

sensor web, cloud computing, ..)– …

• New governance models are needed in order to be able to drive or co-pilot

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Conclusions

• INSPIRE is playing an active growing role in the international arena • Europe has the possibility for a real influence due to the current

critical mass but we face now 6 main challenges1. Focus on key international initiative2. Play an active role to influence them3. Propose INSPIRE as a process4. Promote INSPIRE as a conceptual model for collaborative

solutions 5. Internationalise INSPIRE specifications6. Think out of the Box toward next generation SDIs

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….be INSPIREd…

Thank you for your attention !