Roadmap for interoperability in support of the European Spatial Data Infrastructure

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Roadmap for interoperability in support of the
European Spatial Data Infrastructure

• Paul Smits and Lars Bernard
• European Commission
• DG Joint Research Centre
• Institute for Environment and Sustainability

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DG Joint Research Centre
EU
Commission Parliament Council
DG AGRI DG INFSO

• Mission to provide customer-driven scientific
  and technical support for the conception,
  development, implementation and monitoring of
  European Union policies.
• The JRC functions as a reference centre of
  science and technology for the Union.
• Close to the policy-making process, it serves the
  common interest of the Member States, while being
  independent of special interests, whether private
  or national.
• 7 institutes in 5 countries, 2400 people

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Background - SDI Interoperability

• Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) are based on
  interoperable Geoinformation-Services to
• support platform independency freedom of choice
• prevent from data conversion
• support decentralized management of geodata and
  geoprocessing
• enable a more efficient use of geoinformation
• allow easy access to up-to-date spatio-temporal
  information

today
today
1985
1995
1985
1995
Data-exchange-format era
GI-Interoperability-via-API era
GI-Service-Chain -on-demand era
OGCISO
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Background - GI-Services

• GI-Services are based on distributed computing
  platform architectures protocols (CORBA/IDL,
  WEB/HTTP)
• Interoperability of GI-Services needs standards
• Interoperable GI-Services cooperate in
  infrastructures and can be chained
• Benefits
• Provider Easy to realize and to provide your
  own GI-Services
• User Easy access to and use of geoinformationNo
  need for specific systems nor for specific
  knowledge

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Geographic Information Interoperability !??

• Experiences in the INSPIRE EU GeoPortal
  development as well as in the JRC hosted Expert
  Meeting on connecting European Regional Spatial
  Data Infrastructures (Ispra, Jan. 2003) showed
  that
• existing GI-related standards do not ensure
  their unambiguous interpretation
• only a few cross-border linkages of SDI
  components can be realized today
• development stages and expertise differs
  enormously
• existing applicable guidelines and cookbooks do
  not consider issues of cross border/cross
  institutional geographic information
  interoperability

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Geographic Information Interoperability !

• Existing de-facto and de-jure Standards
  (OpenGIS, ISO, W3C, etc.) are a good
  important starting point for an ESDI, but need
  additional glue to provide
• commonly agreed harmonized, unambiguous
  application profiles
• quality measurement of distributed(!) services
  (certification of services)
• a trigger to additional standards where needed
• awareness and training on GI interoperability

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ESDI Technical Guidelines are needed !!

• INSPIRE cannot be implementedwithout agreement
  on proper standards and guidelines for
  geographic information interoperability
• the JRC ESDI Action is developing guidelines
• needed by INSPIRE, JRC, EC, National and Regional
  organisations (managing spatial data)
• including results of standardisation processes
• National and regional experiences will be
  considered this way!
• Considered Standards need to be proved by
  implementation.
• JRC acts as European Technical Reference Centre
  by implementing/testing upcoming standards

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Key-Players in the development of ESDI Technical
Guidelines
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Consensus processes on interoperabilityJRCs
role in GI standards development
JRC to host ISO/TC211 In Ispra, October 2004
JRC Convener of CEN/TC287 WG 1 Spatial Data
Infrastructures
JRC currently co-chair of ISO/TC211-OGC Joint
Advisory Group
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Organisation CEN/TC 287

• Working groups
• WG1 Spatial Data Infrastructures, start in April
  2004
• Check consistency of standards, and identify
  existing material required to implement Spatial
  Data Infrastructures by drafting
• Technical Report Standards, specifications,
  technical reports and guidelines required to
  implement Spatial Data Infrastructures
• Stimulate interoperability between national and
  European SDI developments by drafting
• Technical Report Profiles and guidelines
  related to the use of standards for the
  implementation of spatial data infrastructures
• Identify the requirements of electronic
  conformance testing by drafting
• Technical Report Requirements of electronic
  conformance testing
• Convener Paul Smits, JRC
• Other WGs to be decided

.
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Development of the Guidelines 1/2

• Increasing levels of interoperability planned
  steps
• Catalogues and metadata (Common thesauri,
  Multi-lingual issues, Metadata generation,
  Geo-portals)
• Eu-Portal, EFICP, Forest Focus, INSPIRE
  Pilot, Soil Pilot,..
• Portrayal and simple queries (Common Coordinate
  Reference Systems, CRS-Registries, )
• CRS ws, Map Projection ws, EVRS ws, ..

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Use of ETRS89 in a cross border application
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Soil database now accessible via EU-GeoPortal
http//eu-geoportal.jrc.it
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Development of the Guidelines 2/2

• Increasing levels of interoperability planned
  steps
• Access to spatial objects (Common Georeferences,
  Common Conceptual Geodatamodel, Unique feature
  identifier, Feature catalogues,)
• Euro GRID, EFAS, GMES Data Harmonisation
  Project, Nature-GIS, ..
• and to be addressed in near future
• Complex queries and analysis (Service chaining,
  generalisation services, aggregation, )
• ORCHESTRA
• Authorization authentications
• ORCHESTRA

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Development of the Guidelines

• Example (from GDI NRW) A profile for the OGC
  WMS Standard, that unambiguously defines
• Image Formats
• Image Style
• Default behaviour
• Client requirements
• Coordinate Reference System
• Scale Hints
• Accessibility
• Quality
• Metadata
• (Additional capabilities)
• that must be provided to be
• GDI NRW compliant.

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ESDI Technical Guidelines development Timescale
INSPIRE preparatory phase (2005-2006)
INSPIRE Task Force for Action Plan Preparation

• 4/2004 ESDI Guidelines Structure and
  Implementation Plan
• 6/2004 INSPIRE Action Plan (pre- implementation
• phase) to be adopted by the Exp. Group
• 12/2004 Version 0.5
• - Catalogue Services
• - Metadata Profile, UID, Thesauri
• - Portrayal Services
• - CRS
• 12/2005 Version 1.0
• Common Georeferences Feature
  Catalogues,
• Common Conceptual Geodatamodel
• 12/2007 Final Version (adopted by INSPIRE
  Committee)

INSPIRE Spatial Data Interest Group
INSPIRE transition phase (2007-2008)
INSPIRE implementation phase (2009-2013)
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Conclusions

• JRC Technical Reference Centre
• recognized role in international GI arena and
  focal point for the GI Community
• increasing demand for assistance to Regions and
  MSs
• technical coordinator of INSPIRE, ..
• Proactive role of JRC in geospatial
  standardisation
• necessary to address specific European
  requirements
• ESDI Technical Guidelines, important for sharing
  spatial information in Europe
• early version needed to support JRC work related
  to spatial data management
• JRC projects used as testbeds together with
  RTDGMES projects
• Synergy with the Oxygen concept should be
  exploited

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Service Chaining Use Case

• Area of Natura2000 protected area gone lost in
  forest fires
• Based on request EP to EC-JRC (summer 2003,
  Portugal, 2 days max response time)

MASS Portal Workflow Impact fires on Natura 2000
site
S1
S3
S2
Intersect. Natura 2000
Burnt area Processor(X)
Reporting Service
Word / Excel document Maps
Lost land cover types area
Burnt area
Spot, Ikonos
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Thank you for your attention !

EU-Geoportal http//eu-geoportal.jrc.it INSPIRE
http//inspire.jrc.it GMES http//www.gmes.info

paul.smits_at_jrc.it