1. The NATURE–SDIplus project Best Practice Network for SDI in Nature Conservation Co-funded by the Community Programme eContentplus ECP-2007-GEO-317007 Co-funded by the eContentplus Programme Project number: ECP-2007-GEO-317007 Project Coordinator: GISIG Starting date: 1 October, 2008 Project duration: 34 months (July 2011) Project web site: www.nature-sdi.eu

2. The INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC) The Natura 2000 Network (Habitat Dir. 92/43/EEC) New EU approach for nature management Necessity to link nature conservation and geoinformation Need for interoperable, accessible and harmonised datasets for nature conservation Support to environmental policies PROJECT BACKGROUND The project wanted to contribute to the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive with targeted reference to the following cluster of data themes of the INSPIRE Annexes: Protected Sites (Annex I) Biogeographical regions (Annex III) Habitats and biotopes (Annex III) Species distribution (Annex III) 2

3. INSPIRE DATASET THEMES 3

4. OBJECTIVES To establish a Network on Geographical Information for nature conservation To share experiences and good practices To stimulate the community of nature conservation stakeholders at improving the harmonisation, the exploitation, and the access to their datasets To evaluate and demonstrate common metadata profile and data model for the addressed data themes 4

5. Schematisation of the NATURE-SDIplus approach 5

6. WORK BREAKDOWN SCHEMA 6

7. COGNITIVE PHASE (State of the art of data and user needs) Users characterization and their needs analysis Survey on accessibility and usability of datasets on nature conservation Analysis of the NATURE-SDIplus datasets (contributed by the Data Providers) with regards to the INSPIRE provisions Good Practices identification 7

8. DEVELOPMENT PHASE (1): European metadata profile and data model for datasets on nature conservation NATURE-SDIplus Metadata Profiles 5 metadata profiles, in 3-level structure, were developed following the normative foundations, i.e. Protected Sites, Biogeographical Regions, Habitats and Biotopes, Species Distribution, and one for Spatial services NATURE-SDIplus Data Models The INSPIRE data model for protected sites has been adopted, also contributing to its final review Three data models for three Annex III themes of INSPIRE (BR, HB,SD), encoded into a corresponding GML application schema has been developed and used in the project 8

9. DEVELOPMENT PHASE (2) Development of a Common Thesaurus Framework, as a Multilingual and multicultural tool for a simpler and standardised access to spatial data 9

10. DEVELOPMENT PHASE (3): Solutions for metadata and data harmonisation A Data Harmonisation Technical Working Group (DH-TWG) was established for coordinating the NATURE-SDIplus data transformation tasks, with the development of procedures for metadata profiles and data models implementation and remodelling Different harmonisation tools were selected and made available for the data providers 10

11. DEVELOPMENT PHASE (4): The NATURE-SDIplus Infrastructure A demonstration of the Geoportal, that: is compliant with the INSPIRE principles and supported by web services, provides the data accessibility as main gateway to available datasets and services 11

12. VALIDATION PHASE Validation Methodology (NATURE-SDIplus Validation Briefcase), that offers guidelines for validation, useful also for other INSPIRE Data themes Testing focused on: Compliance of outcomes to INSPIRE and International standards Data ussability and accessibility Quality evaluation and datasets generalisation 12

13. Pre-kickoff meeting at JRC to align NATURE-SDIplus with the INSPIRE Implementation Roadmap JRC representative in the Advisory Board NATURE-SDIplus initial phase coincided with the INSPIRE DS testing for Annex I Protected Sites (23 data providers were involved) NATURE-SDIplus representatives within the INSPIRE Thematic Working Group for Data Specification for ANNEX III nature conservation data themes Registered INSPIRE SDIC (NATURE-GIS) Participation in INSPIRE Annex I DS Testing (Protected Sites) Development of candidate Data Specification for Annex III data themes (BR, HB, SD) Participation in INSPIRE Annex II/III DS Testing (BR, HB, SD) LINKS WITH INSPIRE 13

14. NETWORKING NATURE-SDIplus, as an open Network of stakeholders dealing with geoinformation for nature conservation Training Framework to tranfer knowledge Good Practices Catalogue to share experiences Liaison with other initiatives to crossfertilize European lessons 14

15. PARTNERSHIP (30 partners in the project consortium) Regione Liguria 15

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17. NATURE-SDIplus Network Members (2011) 20 countries 61 members NATURE-SDIplus NOW 17

18. The NATURE-SDIplus Network is a community of stakeholders, intended to be active at European and National level, interested and involved in INSPIRE and SDI implementation, to facilitate the approach to the Directive and related guidelines and the exchange of opinions and experiences The NATURE-SDIplus Network is continuing after the conclusion of the project, to support the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive for the nature conservation aspects NATURE-SDIplus NOW 18 Any stakeholder interested to join the NATURE-SDIplus Community is more than welcome

19. You are welcome to see more about the NATURE-SDIplus results 19