1. GISCO Working Party Meeting Luxembourg, 18 March 2014
EUROGI
The European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information:
Update on achievements and conference
Dr. Wolfgang Steinborn
Member of the EUROGI Management Committee
(Vice-president DDGI, c/o DLR / German Aerospace Centre)

2. Vision
Geographic Information (GI) in all its aspects should become a fully integrated component of the European knowledge based society
EUROGI – Who we are
Foundation (“Stichting”) under Dutch Law (NGO / non-for-profit), established in 1994 at the suggestion of the EC
Network of networks to - consolidate the views of the GI users and service providers (public, private, scientific) towards European policy, - stimulate and facilitate inter-disciplinary exchange between GI stakeholders in member countries
Participating with network services in European projects
Sub-national Spatial Data Infrastructure database and awards
Conferences (imaGIne), news blogs, website
Collaborating with relevant topical associations at EU level
Representing European GI at global level

3. MEMBERSHIP CONSTITUTION (only corporate members)
EUROGI – Who we are
MEMBERSHIP CONSTITUTION
(only corporate members)
“A-members”: National GI Associations (16)
“B-members”: GI-service providers with pan-European activities (5)
“C-Members”: Other associations / networks with relevance for GI (3)
2 General Board meetings per year

4. EUROGI – (Re-)Current Activities:
European affairs
Input to GI-relevant European policies (Digital Agenda, INSPIRE, HORIZON-2020, Big Data, Open Government Data, European Union Location Framework, Regional Policy etc.) through Position papers, consultancy etc.
Support to the transfer of large European GI infrastructures (GALILEO, COPERNICUS) into the professional practice
Project participation by EUROGI or member organisations, e.g. - LAPSI: Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information - UPSIDE DOWN: preparedness for risks to underground facility networks - Apps4EU: Turning Data into Business - ATTRACT-SEE: Capacity building in South-Eastern Europe - PLAN4BUSINESS: a service platform for aggregation, processing and analysis of urban and regional planning data - GI – Need to know (GI-N2K): towards a more demand-driven geospatial workforce education & training system

5. EUROGI – (Re-)Current Activities:
International affairs
Contribution to relevant international organisations:
Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (founded 1996 by EUROGI members),
UN Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management,
International Bar Association (of Lawyers: privacy protection etc.)
Emerging issues to use geospatial initiatives in the societal context of disaster management

6. EUROGI – Future Orientation:
Z-axis: reality
Y-axis: re-vitalising the former EGIN (European GI Network) Group in connection with the co conference
X-axis: to be developed
EUROGI – Future Orientation: Y X Z

7. HUNAGI / HU: Market-Pull-Pack for COPERNICUS 2013
EUROGI – Examples of Member Activities:
HUNAGI / HU: Market-Pull-Pack for COPERNICUS 2013
SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS:
GI world met Space world in a survey exercise in Hungary and a final pan-European workshop. Participants’ Resolution to the address of those, who have to justify the amount of data generated through societal and commercial acceptance, confirms earlier findings that the mainstream of professional use has not yet been reached (<30%) and gives advice for remedy
The GI community has in exemplary cases contributed two major assets: - middle-ware (technologies such as data compression and mining) to overcome barriers to less equipped local users (DDGI example) - de-centralised training through regional GI networks (AFIGEO example)
EUROGI and its member associations in European countries can provide outreach - to the GI community esp. GI industry (mostly SME) to assimilate COPERNICUS in user workflows and develop and market customer-friendly solutions - to relevant gatherings that represent the full multi-disciplinarity of GI (public, private, research)

8. IRLOGI / IE: Hosted the first European GI Conference 2013
EUROGI – Examples of Member Activities:
IRLOGI / IE: Hosted the first European GI Conference 2013
Keynotes by
are downloadable from

9. nd European Conference 2014
EUROGI – Invitation:
nd European Conference 2014
National GI events and events organised from outside Europe have grown in recent years
A European GI event was missing despite large European investments (INSPIRE, GALILEO, COPERNICUS…)
imaGIne is the answer and should be supported by all stakeholders in Europe
To solidify the mark a strong environment in the form of the Intergeo was chosen for the 2nd realisation

10. nd European Conference 2014
EUROGI – Invitation:
nd European Conference 2014
Provisional structure with room for partner events by
DGs of the European Commission
Topical organisations / Associations
etc.

11. PREMISES

12. European Urban Atlas: Land-cover / Land-use in 20 categories for
300 to 500 European Larger Urban Zones; 2006, 2012, 2015… ~1: (50x50m² MMU) as GIS-ready Vector data
Free download from: