1. The Geographic Information System of the European Commission (GISCO) By Albrecht Wirthmann, GISCO, Eurostat e-mail: Albrecht.Wirthmann@cec.eu.int ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

2. Structure of the Presentation GISCO project GISCO mandates Current GISCO database New System Architecture INSPIRE initiative NUTS Regulation ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

3. GISCO Mandate & Activities Origin : CORINE project Origin : CORINE project 1990 : Task force on spatial statistics 1990 : Task force on spatial statistics 1992 : GISCO as a permanent Eurostat project 1992 : GISCO as a permanent Eurostat project Eurostat has recognised the importance of a GIS to integrate data from different statistical databases Eurostat has recognised the importance of a GIS to integrate data from different statistical databases ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

4. GISCO Mandate & Activities Mandate : Within Eurostat Within Eurostat Within the Commission Within the Commission Within the European statistical system Within the European statistical system International co-operation International co-operation

5. manage the GISCO reference database including its structure, architecture, data transfer, etc. manage the GISCO reference database including its structure, architecture, data transfer, etc. ensure quality control of the contents ensure quality control of the contents act as a reference centre for Eurostat and the EC act as a reference centre for Eurostat and the EC chair the meetings of the COGI chair the meetings of the COGI express and support user’s needs in terms of software and hardware express and support user’s needs in terms of software and hardware pursue the harmonisation of EU and broader international activities in GI pursue the harmonisation of EU and broader international activities in GI GISCO Mandate & Activities ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

6. CORE DATA GISCO GI & GIS in the Commission ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

7. GISCO database structure Hierarchical structure of themes, layers and datasets Hierarchical structure of themes, layers and datasets Coverages storing vector data Coverages storing vector data Grids for raster data (land cover, DEM) Grids for raster data (land cover, DEM) Attribute tables in INFO format Attribute tables in INFO format File based structure File based structure Metadata as HTML pages and as Access database Metadata as HTML pages and as Access database Equal Area Projection system on a sphere Equal Area Projection system on a sphere Distribution on CD-ROM Distribution on CD-ROM ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

8. New system architecture Goals Object oriented approach Object oriented approach Integration of temporal aspect Integration of temporal aspect Multilinguality Multilinguality ISO 19115 profile on meta data ISO 19115 profile on meta data Integration in relational database Integration in relational database Data access via the web Data access via the web ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

9. UML model for a part of GISCO database Implementation as Geodatabase in Oracle Conversion of spatial and attribute data Conversion of metadata to ISO 19115 Application for feature generalisation Desktop mapping application Web application for accessing data Concept for updating Prototype on a new system architecture ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

10. Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe The INSPIRE Vision is to make harmonised and high quality geographic data and information readily available for formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Community policy and for the citizen to access information about the environment, whether local, regional, national or internationalINSPIRE ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

11. INSPIRE Common principles Data should be collected once and maintained at the level where this can be done most effectively It should be possible to combine seamlessly spatial information from different sources across Europe and share it between many users and application It should be possible for information collected at one level to be shared between all the different levels, detailed for detailed investigations, general for strategic purposes ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

12. geographic information needed for good governance at all levels should be abundant under conditions that do not refrain its extensive use it should be easy to discover which geographic information is available, fits the needs for a particular use and under which conditions it can be acquired and used geographic data should become easy to understand and interpret because it can be visualised within the appropriate context selected in a user-friendly way INSPIRE Common principles ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

14. Position papers until September 2002 Expert group meeting end of october 2002 INSPIRE concept paper end of year Draft of legislation beginning 2003 INSPIRE: timeline Information at: http://www.ec-gis.org/inspire ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

15. The Draft NUTS Regulation Time table Proposal adopted by the Commission on 14 February 2001 l Discussion in the Council and Parliament since March 2001 l Decision of Parliament October 2001 l Second reading in 2002 l “Common position” of the Council in October 2002 l Discussion in Parliament: end of 2002 (?) ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

16. The Draft NUTS Regulation Objectives Assure comparability and impartiality of regional statistics fix (more or less) the current state of the NUTS in the MS set-up objective criteria for the definition of regions define clear rules for future amendments stability of the classification over time ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

17. Changes of NUTS Comitology procedure Changes only every 3 years in addition 2 years transition period Aim: reduction of the dispersion of region sizes The Draft NUTS Regulation ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002

18. Which countries changed GermanyNUTS level 2non-admin. ItalyNUTS level 1non-admin. FinlandNUTS level ?admin. PortugalNUTS level 2admin. SpainNUTS level 2admin. ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002 The Draft NUTS Regulation

19. Summary GISCO project GISCO mandates GISCO database New System Architecture INSPIRE initiative NUTS Regulation ESPON Seminar 21-22 Nov. 2002