GI & PSI Geographical Information Public Sector Information European Union Projects Ulrich Boes URSIT Ltd. Association for Geospatial Information in South-East Europe

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Outline of Presentation Geographical Information, content and the economy Geographical Information and EU Policy Geographical Information in South-East Europe Opportunities and future solutions Technology and collaboration

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Geographical Information Source: Pira International Ltd., Sept. 2000

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Spatial is Special Almost everything that happens, happens somewhere Multi-dimensional Voluminous – large amounts of data Projections necessary for visualization Special methods necessary for analysis (GIS) Many types of spatial data Many applications GI resides in many public organizations (NMAs)

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 EU policies and Spatial Data Increasing interest for the spatial dimension GI-GIS needed to Assess needs, policy formulation, monitoring its implementation, evaluation of its effectiveness, … GI-GIS explicitly required in EU directives/regulations Water Framework directive, Habitat, IACS, Olive Trees registers, Urban, Noise, … Increasing demand for better GI Such information is often available locally

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 European data ? we have islands of data of different standards and quality... Lack of use of standards incompatible information incompatible information systems fragmentation of information redundancy Lack of co-ordination across boarders between levels of government Lack of data Lack of infrastructure Data policy restrictions pricing, copyright, access rights, licensing policy

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 EU Policy Public Sector Information Directive Directive 90/313/EC on freedom of access to information on the environment 6th Environmental action programme Integrated policy-making: 4 priorities: climate change, nature and biodiversity, environment and health, waste and resources INSPIRE European spatial data infrastructure delivers integrated spatial information services will become a directive in 2006

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 EU Programmes Galileo GMES RTD Framework Programmes eContent programme Euroregiomap, Euroglobalmap, e-earth, Euroroads eContent+ budget € 149 million for multi-lingual content for innovative, on-line services across the EU Special attention GI pan-European frameworks services, information infrastructures, etc. facilitating discovery of and access to digital content

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Spatial Data Projects in Bulgaria Donor funded projects contribute to SDI EU, GTZ, USAID, Matra, … Environment, cadastre Research Framework Projects WELL-GIS West-East Linked Laboratories in GIS PANEL-GI Pan-European Link for GI GISEE GIS Technology and Market in SEE – a market study Digital-SEE Distributed Geo-Warehouse for SEE

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Project GISEE GIS Technology and Market in South East Europe A Study contributing to the SDI in South East Europe IST – 37994, September 2002 – October 2003 Document the spatial data infrastructures in the countries of South East Europe First Survey in SEE Questionnaire: Organization, Technology, Data Organization, Spatial Data, Meta Data Policy recommendations and roadmap for SDI

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Where do I find free data? National Border Police National coverage Digital Raster and Vector Shape-Files/ DXF All Scales WGS 84

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 The problem Spatial Data exist throughout the region Access to data difficult Data owners are not known Access conditions are not made available Data are not compatible Lack of collaboration between data owners and providers Unclear procedures and planning Lack of financing Problems are inter-dependent !

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 The Way Forward Technical Facilitate data access and sharing User and demand driven Organizational Coordination and Integration Community Building

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Technology - The Vision Digital Earth Single portal to all knowledge about the geographic world Browsable 3D version of the earth Tying together data from multiple sources Al Gore 1998 Digital South-East Europe Implements Digital Earth in SEE Unites the countries of SEE Digital SEE – technology for data sharing across the region eContent project

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Digital Earth Digital SEE

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Collaboration: AGISEE Vision enable sharing of data for the benefit of the economic development of the region Goals to unite the GI community and interested parties in South-East Europe; to promote the use of GI and to contribute to building SDI in the region; to represent the GI sector in South-East Europe and outside; to support and provide relevant information to its members; and to act as enabler for new opportunities to members. Association for Geospatial Information in South-East Europe

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March Member Entry Become a member !

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Conclusions Technology enables new access methods and cheaper access to data Market and user demand Sound policy and business planning needed Donors need to see a consistent strategy Money is not the first problem AGISEE is to help develop collaboration, strategy and planning

ePSINET Workshop, 31 March 2005 Thank you for your attention ! AcknowledgementsEuropean Commission GISEE Consortium AGISEE Managing Board Ulrich Boes AGISEE (Association for Geospatial Information in South-East Europe) URSIT Ltd.