6.4.22.8 Hydrography

From Geostandards

The current version of the data specification is version 3.0. The document is available here.

This page currently contains the executive summary from the data specification document:

The data specification for Hydrography is required to facilitate the interoperability of hydrographic information between member states. Hydrography in the context of this data specification is involved with the description of the sea, lakes, rivers and other waters, with their phenomena.

This data specification is limited in both thematic as well as geographic scope. Geographically all inland surface waters are subject to this data specification. Coastal waters are also a subject of this specification as far as geographically defined in the context of the Water Framework Directive (2006/60/EC): “surface water on the landward side of a line, every point of which is at a distance of one nautical mile on the seaward side from the nearest point of the baseline from which the breadth of territorial waters is measured, extending where appropriate up to the outer limit of transitional waters”. The remaining part of the waters will be subject to the appropriate Annex III themes Sea regions and Oceanographic geographical features.

This data specification does not include information on navigation or navigability as this is handled by the Annex I theme Transport Networks nor does it include depth information, as this will be handled by the Annex II theme Elevation. Groundwater is covered by Annex II theme Geology with the exception of e.g. rivers running underground that form part of the hydrographic network; these are considered as within scope of this data specification since these are essential to forming a closed hydrographic network.

The thematic scope of this data specification is towards providing a solid framework for mapping, reporting and modelling purposes. This is necessary to improve policy formulation through better reporting and aid management of pan European initiatives, such as flood risk analyses, where hydrographic data fulfils a function in relating information to real world objects.

The Hydrography theme is concerned with the network of bodies of water and relating structures and objects. It does not define attributes that should be reported upon and as a consequence it should not be considered in isolation from other INSPIRE themes or reporting obligations as described by other legislation. Where work on such themes has yet to be initiated placeholders have been left to allow for associations to be defined more fully in the future. It is also acknowledged that the model may need to be extended should further user requirements be identified in the future.

Considering the importance of the Water Framework Directive, the thematic working group (TWG) has decided to include the geographic description of water bodies in this data specification in addition to the physical objects and structures. Although these are essentially part of the Annex III theme Area Management / restriction / regulation zones and reporting units; TWG Hydrography deemed these to be of such importance that it has decided to include the geographical aspects and classification of water bodies as an integral part of this data specification. It is expected that relevant developments such as the European WISE and SEIS projects will use this specification as a base for further extension with reporting obligations within the EU. More information on this subject can be found in Annex B.

The data specification has been prepared by the thematic working group on Hydrography, a multi- national team of experts in the field drawn from all parts of the European Union (Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom). Their brief has been to create a specification, which requires no additional data capture by member states, and is additionally, easily understood and as flexible as possible. In this way it is designed to minimise the effort required to supply conformant data.

The data specification has been based, as far as possible, on existing standards. Apart from ISO standards, the TWG has, amongst others, also used ideas from specifications published by DGIWG, EuroGeographics and the International Hydrographic Organisation. It is documented using “best of breed” ICT techniques such as the Unified Modeling Language (UML), Geographical Markup Language (GML) and Object Constraint Language (OCL).

Comments on earlier versions of this document delivered by SDICs and LMOs have been used to update those versions into this version after extensive discussion with stakeholders such as WISE and selected participants to the Comments Resolution Workshop where the previous version of this specification has been discussed.

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