From Geostandards

Contents 1 Introduction and high-level requirements 2 Article 7 2.1 Paragraph 1 2.2 Paragraph 2 2.3 Paragraph 3 2.4 Paragraph 4 3 Article 8 3.1 Paragraph 1 3.2 Paragraph 2 3.3 Paragraph 3 3.4 Paragraph 4 4 Article 10 4.1 Paragraph 2 5 Recitals in the Directive

Introduction and high-level requirements

The INSPIRE Directive requires technical arrangements for the interoperability and, where practicable, the harmonisation of spatial data sets and services.

For all spatial data:

• definition and classification of spatial objects
• geo-referencing

For spatial data belonging to the spatial data themes in Annex I, II:

• common system of unique identifiers for spatial objects
• relationship between spatial objects
• key attributes and corresponding multilingual thesauri
• how to exchange the temporal dimension of the data
• how to exchange updates of the data
• 3rd parties shall have access to these specifications at conditions not restricting their use
• consistency of national boundaries and cross-border objects

This section provides an overview of relevant articles in the INSPIRE Directive and describes how they are addressed in the INSPIRE data specifciations. The articles from the Directive are shown in italics.

Article 7

Paragraph 1

Implementing rules laying down technical arrangements for the interoperability and, where practicable, harmonisation of spatial data sets and services, designed to amend nonessential elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 22(3). Relevant user requirements, existing initiatives and international standards for the harmonisation of spatial data sets, as well as feasibility and cost-benefit considerations shall be taken into account in the development of the implementing rules. Where organisations established under international law have adopted relevant standards to ensure interoperability or harmonisation of spatial data sets and services, these standards shall be integrated, and the existing technical means shall be referred to, if appropriate, in the implementing rules mentioned in this paragraph.

With the documents "Generic Conceptual Model" and the "Guidelines for the encoding of spatial data" a modelling framework has been developed in order to facilitate the drafting process of data specifications for all spatial data themes in a harmonised way. The development of a set of harmonised INSPIRE data product specifications are the approach taken to enable interoperability by creating views to existing spatial data sets. Interoperability of spatial data is understood as providing access to spatial data through network services in a representation that allows for combining it with other spatial data in a coherent way. This includes agreements about coordinate reference systems, classification systems, application schemas, etc.

In other words, by enabling interoperability, spatial data appears to a user as if it has been harmonised - even if that is not the case and the underlying spatial data is transformed for publication in INSPIRE.

Paragraph 2

"As a basis for developing the implementing rules provided for in paragraph 1, the Commission shall undertake analyses to ensure that the rules are feasible and proportionate in terms of their likely costs and benefits and shall share the results of such analyses with the committee referred to in Article 22(1). Member States shall, on request, provide the Commission with the information necessary to enable it to undertake such analyses."

Feasibility and cost/benefit considerations are part of the development process for implementation rules. No documents are currently publicly available documenting the results of such analyses.

Paragraph 3

"Member States shall ensure that all newly collected and extensively restructured spatial data sets and the corresponding spatial data services are available in conformity with the implementing rules referred to in paragraph 1 within two years of their adoption, and that other spatial data sets and services still in use are available in conformity with the implementing rules within seven years of their adoption. Spatial data sets shall be made available in conformity with the implementing rules either through the adaptation of existing spatial data sets or through the transformation services referred to point (d) of Article 11(1)."

The meaning of "extensively restructured" has been the source of several questions and discussions. In a workshop of the European Commission with the Member States in 2008 (see report) the following questions were raised:

When is a data set “newly collected” or “extensively restructured”? Is an entire data set considered as “newly collected” when a single object in the data set is updated? Or does a certain percentage of the data set have to be updated to be considered as "newly collected"? Or does “newly collected” mean that a completely new data set is produced?

What does “extensively” mean? Is a data set extensively restructured if a new referential system is introduced or if the data models are restructured? Please give examples when data sets are not extensively restructured.

The answer by the Commission:

"Newly collected” applies in the views of the Commission not to the updating of single data set or item. Newly collected applies to a dataset not yet existing before the end of the INSPIRE Directive transposition period. Hence, when a ‘new’ data set is produced.

The Commission can at this stage not further regulate through a more precise definition of ‘extensively restructured’. However, in the context of the discussions in co-decision, it was understood that this would apply in cases where Member States would move their entire data sets to a new data model structure – if such is the case, then interoperability would be enhanced by applying the adopted INSPIRE data specifications. Such an obligation will only enter into force after the adoption of the data specifications according to the calendar provided in Article 9 of the INSPIRE Directive

Small modifications to a data model are not considered to be an extensively restructured data sets.

In case you have in mind to change your reference system, it is highly recommended to adopt the European one.

The last sentence of the paragraph references the use of transformation services. How this is addressed in the implementing rules is discussed in 6.4.2 Interoperability of spatial data.

Paragraph 4

"Implementing rules referred to in paragraph 1 shall cover the definition and classification of spatial objects relevant to spatial data sets related to the themes listed in Annex I, II or III and the way in which those spatial data are geo-referenced."

In the INSPIRE modelling framework this is addressed on the basis of the rules of the ISO 19100 series by the data specification for each theme.

In particular, the types of spatial objects that are relevant to INSPIRE are defined and maintained in a feature concept dictionary. The feature concept dictionary covers the spatial objects of all themes and includes a classification of all spatial objects into spatial object types. For each spatial object type, the dictionary provides a definition.

Spatial properties are specified for each of the spatial object types in the INSPIRE application schemas following the rules of EN ISO 19109 (Rules for application schemas) and EN ISO 19107 (Spatial schema).

It is allowed that different application schemas may specify different spatial object types for the same feature concept, i.e. with the same name, but with a different set of properties depending on the application view or the required level of detail.

In INSPIRE, spatial data may be geo-referenced in the following ways:

• using a property where the value is a spatial type in accordance with EN ISO 19107, i.e. using coordinates associated with a coordinate reference system;
• using a property where the value is geographic identifier - which can be translated into a location by way of a gazetteer;
• using a property that references another spatial object and "inheriting" its geo-reference.

Article 8

Paragraph 1

"In the case of spatial data sets corresponding to one or more of the themes listed in Annex I or II, the implementing rules provided for in Article 7(1) shall meet the conditions laid down in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Article."

See paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 below.

Paragraph 2

"The implementing rules shall address the following aspects of spatial data:

• (a) a common framework for the unique identification of spatial objects, to which identifiers under national systems can be mapped in order to ensure interoperability between them;
• (b) the relationship between spatial objects;
• (c) the key attributes and the corresponding multilingual thesauri commonly required for policies which may have an impact on the environment;
• (d) information on the temporal dimension of the data;
• (e) updates of the data."

Item (a) is addressed as described in the section identifier management. The INSPIRE approach aims at supporting existing identifiers, but adds a namespace identifying the data provider.

Item (b) is addressed by using EN ISO 19109 (Rules for application schemas) as the basis. Note that relationships may be explicit associations or they may be implicit spatial or temporal relationships based on the values of the individual spatial and temporal properties of spatial objects. More details are provided in the pages on Rules for application schemas and feature catalogues and Object referencing modelling.

Item (c) is addressed by providing guidelines for capturing attributes based on EN ISO 19109 (Rules for application schemas), see Rules for application schemas and feature catalogues, and in more detail in the data specification for each theme, see Annex I data specifications.

Item (d) is addressed by specifying temporal properties for each of the spatial object types in the INSPIRE application schemas following the rules of EN ISO 19109 (Rules for application schemas) and EN ISO 19108 (Temporal schema).

Item (e) is mainly addressed by the support for unique object identifiers and life-cycle rules, which plays an important facilitating role in exchange of updates. See 6.4.8 Identifier Management.

Paragraph 3

"The implementing rules shall be designed to ensure consistency between items of information which refer to the same location or between items of information which refer to the same object represented at different scales."

Relevant constraints between spatial objects across different spatial object types or levels of detail are specified in the INSPIRE data specifications. See also the pages on Multiple representations and Consistency between data.

Paragraph 4

"The implementing rules shall be designed to ensure that information derived from different spatial data sets is comparable as regards the aspects referred to in Article 7(4) and in paragraph 2 of this Article."

This article is addressed by the modelling framework in general and the uniform use of EN ISO 19131 (Data product specification) for the individual INSPIRE data specifications.

Article 10

Paragraph 2

"In order to ensure that spatial data relating to a geographical feature, the location of which spans the frontier between two or more Member States, are coherent, Member States shall, where appropriate, decide by mutual consent on the depiction and position of such common features."

See Consistency between data.

Recitals in the Directive

Of the 35 recitals of the Directive, recital (6) is partially relevant for the technical specification of implementing rules on data specifications:

"The infrastructures for spatial information in the Member States should be designed to ensure

• that spatial data are stored, made available and maintained at the most appropriate level;
• that it is possible to combine spatial data from different sources across the Community in a consistent way and share them between several users and applications;
• that it is possible for spatial data collected at one level of public authority to be shared between other public authorities […]."

It is worth highlighting that in particular the aspect "object referencing" described in the relevant section below is linked to these requirements.

Also, recitals (16) and (28) state that "implementing rules should be based, where possible, on international standards […]" and that "in order to benefit from the state of the art and actual experience of information infrastructures, it is appropriate that the measures necessary for the implementation of this Directive should be supported by international standards and standards adopted by European standardisation bodies."

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