1. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 1 a potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB claude.luzet@ megrin.org claude.luzet@ megrin.org claude.luzet@ megrin.org

2. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 2 Who are we?  grouping(s) of European NMAs Officielle  Comité Européen des Responsables de la Cartographie Officielle  Multipurpose European Ground- Related Information Network

3. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 3 Why do we exist? All NMAs have common concerns  All NMAs have common concerns technical, organisational, legal, etc… a discussion and exchange platform CERCO since 1979 Increasing cross-boarder issues  Increasing cross-boarder issues dedicated and permanent resources business-like structure MEGRIN since 1993

4. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 4 resources annual budget ~€1 million  annual budget ~€1 million –70% members financial subscriptions coordination unit  coordination unit –Marne-la-Vallée (Paris-France) –4~7 people distributed resources  distributed resources

5. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 5 our experience  national datasets are not interoperable  technical differences –format, standard, co-ordinate system, … –semantics, language,...  policy differences –access rights, price policy,... >>> need for harmonisation mechanisms

6. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 6 membership MEGRIN

7. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 7 membership CERCO + MEGRIN CERCO

8. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 8 membership CERCO + MEGRIN CERCO observers

9. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 9 L’Europe des 15 European Union member countries

10. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 10 Achievements and on-going activities  (CERCO) Working Groups  R&D projects  metadata : GDDD - LaClef  admin.boundaries : SABE  1:250 000 : EuroMap  1:1 million : MapBSR & Global Map

11. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 11 metadata GDDD  the current GDDD (since 1995) –harmonised description of 360 ‘digital maps’ EuroMapFinder  the future LaClef/ EuroMapFinder –“unlocking public sector information” operational by Dec. 2000 fully multilingual distributed system XML exchange protocol wide product range e-commerce

12. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 12 SABE : Seamless Administrative Boundaries of Europe Current version official national data 26 countries, ~100 000 polygons 26 countries, ~100 000 polygons geometrically and semantically harmonised geometrically and semantically harmonised single licence single licence maintained : ‘91, ‘95, ‘97, 2001, (continuous?) maintained : ‘91, ‘95, ‘97, 2001, (continuous?)

13. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 13 SABE Current version added 2000

14. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 14 SABE Current version Negotiation for 2001

15. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 15

16. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 16

17. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 17

18. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 18 EuroMap 250 Class 1: EUROMAP prototype Class 2: EUROMAP extended with product 1 and external funding issues resolved Vmap level 1 remote from actual demand

19. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 19 Current assessment our assets  our assets –the organisational structure –10 year trans-national experience –actual concrete achievements obstacles  obstacles –politician/deciders awareness : no EU GI policy –funding : insufficient to continue on our own

20. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 20 Ex. DG13 several GI initiatives …. But no GI strategy or policy

21. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 21 ETeMII  European Territorial Management Information Infrastructure  Aims –To organise a network of excellence –To build consensus on technical issues –To raise awareness E.G.I.I.

22. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 22 7 Work-packages  1 - Project management  2 - User’s requirements 3 - Reference data  3 - Reference data  4 - Metadata  5 - Standards, interoperability  6 - Dissemination  7 - Assessment and evaluation

23. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 23 WP3 - Reference data Main aim:  Main aim: –To reach a technical consensus on the definition of reference data at European level, at global level (GSDI) –To address data policy issues  Focus on –minimum spec. for reference data, –main users: medium scales –the existing situation

24. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 24 Global Map  Phase one –starts with existing global datasets –locally updated by NMA –Internet distribution starts end 2000  Phase two –integration of national datasets –flexible scale/resolution –legal framework and commercial exploitation

25. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 25 MapBSR MapBSR  1:1 million topo database  pan-European extension?  contribution to Global Map?

26. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 26 Conclusions  Extensive Geographic Information projects needs multi-year planning  Source-data is not interoperable  Data maintenance is critical  Data sources and quality are generally difficult to assess >>>> collaboration is the sensible approach

27. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 27 Obstacles : not technical and of policies Lack of resources

28. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 28 and drivers clear policies  clear policies contribute to: –collaboration, co-ordination –reduced costs (no duplication) –consistent information (common references) & attracts resources

29. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 29 suggestions for the UN geo-DB

30. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 30 Alice’s two keywords COLLABORATION MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE

31. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 31 Risks Information not the same  Information not the same –at global (and UN) level –at regional (eg. European) level –at national (government) level –in commercial products Maintenance duplicated  Maintenance duplicated –at all levels –at different scales

32. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 32 Suggested action plan 1. Reference data  1. Reference data –centrally stored, used by all 2. Cataloguing  2. Cataloguing –UN system data and GIS related projects –links to other metadata resources 3. Co-ordination and agreements  3. Co-ordination and agreements –internal to UN system –with NMAs, other (official) data owners –distributed databases

33. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 33 UN ‘reference’ data(base)  reference-data, core-data, base-data or fundamental data  is NOT all the data needed...  but the common data needed by most (UN) users  should be (relatively) scale-free –today’s technology allowing on-the-fly feature selection/generalisation –therefore higher available accuracy/resolution?

34. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 34 Ref.data : suggested steps 1. Assess UN various internal needs 2. Define a common “reference data” - in co-ordination with other initiatives 3. Use current global/regional initiatives 4. Support filling out gaps - emerging regional initiatives - harmonisation initiatives - data developments

35. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 35 Number 1 best candidate administrative boundaries  administrative boundaries –international boundaries –lowest (communal) administrative units –harmonised hierarchies (cf. EUROSTAT) –names (multilingual) –unique identifiers (cf. EUROSTAT) –additional key features coast-line, ‘big’ lakes other land use, natural parks,...

36. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 36 Second bests population, settlements  population, settlements  transport & infrastructure –road network, tunnels, bridges,... –rail, stations,... –water-ways, harbours,... –airport/airfields,... –power lines,... DEM  DEM

37. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 37 An issue... flexible & incremental implementation vs. semantic & topological consistency

38. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 38 a second issue quality, richly attributed object oriented vector database, but rapidly aging vs. (or combined) up-to-date information-poor raster images

39. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 39 … a necessity... Think big (and medium term) and start small (and fast)

40. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 40 …and a citation “The UN can do little on its own” quoted by Mr. Kensaku Hogen consider collaboration and agreements with main source-data providers (NMAs, …) and their global or regional groupings (already harmonised datasets)

41. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 41 UN Carto.section and GM  Start with the existing avoid duplication (globally & nationally) ensure interoperability ensure sustainability  Build on the existing availability vs. needs plan for incremental evolution collaborate with and support global/regional/national relevant initiatives

42. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 42 Global Map GSDI UN geoDB NMA Industry PCGIAP MEGRIN PC-Americas

43. UN Headquarters, 28-30 March 2000 A potential European contribution to the UN geo-DB 43