| Information & Communication Unit | ||||||||||
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| Information Data Management (IDM) Working Group |
| Mr. Roger Longhorn, in his capacity as EUCC advisory board member on Information and Data Management, recently introduced to the coastal and marine community a proposal for joining a EUCC Information and Data Management (IDM) Working Group. Please download here the document
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| INSPIRE Hydrography Data Specification Update – March 2008 |
| The following is an extract from the EC’s “Results
of the Call for Expression of Interest for participation in INSPIRE
Annex I Data Specifications according to scenario 1 and 2” published
at the end of January 2008. INSPIRE Data Specifications are proceeding
according to two Scenarios. if only one or a very few (2-3) data specifications
are put forward for a theme, demonstrating a strong convergence and
pre-existing, wide thematic community acceptance of this specification;
scenario 2: applies when no candidate specification has emerged for
a particular data. Eleven candidate specifications were submitted for the Annex I Hydrography data theme – more than for any other Annex I theme. (Transport networks had 10 – the other seven themes had from 0 to 4 candidates submitted). Thus: “ ... in (the) case of Hydrography, both hydrographical offices, water authorities, and national mapping and cadastre agencies (NMCAs) have a main role in data supply responding to different segments of users’ need. However, issues related to underground waters indicate that the geological community may also play a role in the specification process. Also other communities may be identified. ... If more than one specification was submitted by main stakeholders, this was taken as an indication that there is a need for harmonisation and/or consensus building. Consequently, such cases should be channelled to scenario 2.” Thus, specification for the Hydrography data theme “already shows the interest in this data theme of various communities. Representatives of the NMCAs, the hydrographical, marine and the environmental communities have submitted specifications and also nominated experts. The domain-specific views and also the proposed national solutions require therefore data harmonisation work. The TWG consisting of 5 domain experts selected from 4 communities will work according to scenario 2.” Thus, further development of the Hydrography data theme is now in the hands of the five thematic team experts listed below:
The main candidate specifications submitted included:
The EC’s INSPIRE Consolidation Team also noted the importance of the Water Information System for Europe (WISE) GIS Guidance, endorsed by the European water authorities and felt that the Water Resources Information Model (WRIM) would be an important reference material for the Hydrography TWG. Conclusion? There is still much work to be done - with five experts on the thematic DT working group to complete the work, who represent at least four of the main candidates from the list above. For the many other themes in Annexes II (elevation = shoreline) and III (too many to list here!), which are of more (most?) interest to the marine and coastal research and management communities, the thematic DT working groups will not be created, nor candidate data specifications requested, until after all Annex I themes have been taken care of. With projects such as HUMBOLDT, SeaDataNet and others all developing marine-, coastal- or oceanography-related data specifications, there should be no shortage of candidates! Which will then almost certainly result in ‘our’ community(ies) ending up following Scenario 2 with regard to INSPIRE. by Roger Longhorn, Information Policy Advisor, EUCC –
The Coastal Union |
| Announcements | ||||||
With the adoption of the INSPIRE directive, 2007/2/EC, the focus of this year's conference is on reviewing the progress of the INSPIRE Legislation and on the development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) in general. |
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