INSPIRE/GINIE Workshop Objectives To discuss directions for the construction of a European Spatial Data Infrastructure (ESDI) Share the current State of Play of member and invited nations on SDI Provide basis for recommendations and obligations in legislation that support ESDI

Workshop Participants JRC OpenGIS Europe ESRI US FGDC/GSDI AGI EUROGI Euro Geographics Norway United Kingdom Greece Luxembourg Italy Belgium (Vlaanderen) Spain (Catalonia) Sweden Switzerland Germany France Czech Republic Netherlands Austria Poland

WG1: Coordination & Organisation Lessons form existing SDIs shows that: – Strong multi-sector coordination is important – Legislation is often helpful to build momentum – Must be sustained over time to overcome agency’s silos mentality – Must provide technical support as well as leadership – Must nurture sustained political support – Must help make the SDI relevant to other stakeholders, demonstrate benefits, help with seed funding – Must disseminate and enforce common standards.

For a European SDI…… There is a need for a coordinating body at the European level to make it happen The Coordinating body does not need to be big (~12-15 staff) But also need for a broader reference group Authoritative in the professional communities and national constituencies. Own budget for coordination and implementation assistance

Who should be in it? EC and other EU institutions Private Sector Member States NSDIs and relevant pan-European orgs. Citizen organisations (e.g. NGOs, Friends of the Earth, etc. ) Relevant thematic applications and priorities, with strong link to e-government

WG2: Financial and political sustainability Politicians must be involved to provide leadership and participate in committees Financial support for ESDI should come from the government initially and that such investment is an integral part of modernization and e-government initiatives Involvement of private industry, utilities, and non-governmental participation expected but is a newer concept

Legal Framework Need legal framework to provide both an incentive and sustainability, requirement to understand how law applies to GI Requirement for research into existing and future data access policies within a potential ESDI Investigate and describe innovative models for financing the ESDI

WG3: Selling the benefits Wide adoption of ESDI requires cultural change – decentralized, peer-to-peer Need a communication strategy to address authorities and stakeholders at different administrative levels Candidate use cases to drive pilot integration that relate to top priorities Use cases need to be developed to reflect political, operational, cultural, and technical considerations

Use Case Candidates Disaster response: Rhine flood, Toulouse explosion Agricultural applications, fertilizer runoff Water: Water Framework Directive, NatureGIS Transport and Environment: pollution, traffic management IMAGE 2000 and Land Cover 2000

WG4: Phased Implementation Refine vision, definition, and technical terms of participation in ESDI Define baseline services of initial ESDI within an architecture Define European data content standards and encoding for reference layers Integration of ESDI will require both horizontal and vertical considerations

WG4 Recommendations ESDI principles to be followed in EU-funded projects Identify candidate services and capabilities to construct a baseline ESDI Establish core technical committee early to provide coordination of ESDI, as part of larger coordinating body Driving applications should be identified and developed for early wins

Recommendations, continued National and subnational obligation to construct baseline ESDI Specifications for data content and encoding for reference and other layers Focus on SME and application providers Set up multilingual GeoPortal and measure the success of ESDI development to support e- government and related initiatives