SDI & INSPIRE

A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) denotes the collection of technologies, policies and institutional arrangements that facilitate the availability of and access to spatial data.

The European institutional framework is provided by the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE), published in the official Journal on the 25th April 2007. The INSPIRE Directive entered into force on the 15th May 2007.

“… The initiative intends to trigger the creation of a European spatial information infrastructure that delivers to the users integrated spatial information services. These services should allow the users to identify and access spatial or geographical information from a wide range of sources, from the local level to the global level, in an inter-operable way for a variety of uses. The target users of INSPIRE include policy-makers, planners and managers at European, national and local level and the citizens and their organisations. Possible services are the visualisation of information layers, overlay of information from different sources, spatial and temporal analysis, etc. …”[1]

INSPIRE key concepts:

•          Main problem to be solved: “… widespread access to and use of spatial information is still a problem in Europe. The main problems relate to data gaps, missing documentation, incompatible data sets and services due e.g. to varying standards and barriers to the sharing and reuse of spatial data”

•          “The Directive lays down general rules for the establishment of an infrastructure for spatial information in the Community, for the purposes of Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have a direct or indirect impact on the environment”

•          “The infrastructure for spatial information in the Community shall be based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the Member States”

Useful definitions:

•          “infrastructure for spatial information” means metadata, spatial data sets and spatial data services; network services and technologies; agreements on sharing, access and use; coordination and monitoring mechanisms, processes and procedures established, operated or made available in accordance with the INSPIRE EC Directive;

•          “spatial data” means any data with a direct or indirect reference to a specific location or geographical area;

•          “spatial data set” means an identifiable collection of spatial data;

•          “spatial data services” means the operations which may be performed, by invoking a computer application, on the spatial data contained in spatial data sets or on the related metadata;

•          “spatial object” means an abstract representation of a real-world entity related to a specific location or geographical area;

•          “metadata” means information describing spatial data sets and spatial data services and making it possible to discover, inventory and use them;

•          “interoperability” means the possibility for spatial data sets to be combined, and for services to interact, without repetitive manual intervention, in such a way that the result is coherent and the added value of the data sets and services is enhanced;

Conditions to be fulfilled by spatial data sets:

•          They relate to an area where a MS has and/or exercises jurisdictional rights

•          They are in electronic format

•          They are held by or on behalf of a public authority or a third party, according to Article 4.1.c of the Directive

•          They relate to one or more of the themes listed in Annex I (Coordinate reference systems, Geographical grid systems, Geographical names, Administrative units, Addresses, Cadastral parcels, Transport networks, Hydrography, Protected sites), Annex II (Elevation, Land cover, Orthoimagery, Geology), or Annex III (Statistical units, Buildings, Soil, Land use, Human  health and safety, Utility and government services, Environmental monitoring facilities, Production and industrial facilities, Agricultural and aquaculture facilities, Population distribution – demography, Area management /restriction/ regulation zones & reporting units, Natural risk zones, Atmospheric conditions, Meteorological geographical features, Oceanographic geographical features, Sea regions, Bio-geographical regions, Habitats and biotopes, Species distribution, Energy resources, Mineral resources) of the Directive.

SDI TECHNOLOGIES

From an architectural point of view, the component elements of SDIs are: metadata (i), spatial data sets (ii), spatial data services (iii), network services and technologies (iv), agreements on sharing, access and use (v), coordination and monitoring mechanisms, processes and procedures (vi).

The basic architecture to set up interoperable spatial services is depicted in the following figure:

•          Web server layer:

•          A Web Server is a software application using http

•          A Web Server may host or provide access to content and respond to requests received from web browsers

•          Sw components:

•          Apache (for Linux, Mac, Solaris and Windows)

•          Microsoft IIS (only for Windows)

•          Java Servlet Engines

•          Processing layer:

•          It consists of a software application that allows content management and publishing of geographic data in an interoperable way.

•          The semantics defined in the WMS, WCS and WFS of the OGC specifications are implemented in this layer.

•          Server-side technologies

•          Sw components:

•          mapserver (from UMN)

•          degree (from University of Bonn and the lat/lon German company)

•          ArcIMS or ArcGIS Server (from ESRI)

•          GeoMedia (from Intergraph)

•          In the case of Java Servlets are required:

•          A Java Virtual Machine (J2SE)

•          A Servlet Engine or Application Server (Jakarta Tomcat)

•          Data layer:

•          Geographic data can be stored in different ways:

•          In files (raster data can be stored in raster file formats such as JPEG, TIFF, GeoTIFF, ECW, etc. Vector data can be stored into various formats such as ESRI ShapeFile, DXF, DGN, etc.)

•          In databases, managed by spatial data base management systems such as Oracle Spatial, ESRI ArcSDE, Postgres, etc. Spatial Databases are preferred for higher data volumes, for multi-user data access and updating, for stringent security reasons, for complex spatial and non-spatial operations on the data)

•          The web server and processing layers are generally on the same computer. The data layer, when managed by spatial data base engines, is generally hosted on other computer(s) accessible through the LAN

MEDISOLAE SDI DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

•          MED_ISOLAE SDI BASIC ARCHITECTURE:

•          SPATIAL DATA SETS:

•          Administrative units

•          Transport networks

•          Hydrography

•          Protected sites

•          Elevation

•          Land cover

•          Orthoimagery

•          Geology

•          POIs

•          METADATA:

•          According to ISO 19115

•          WEB SERVER:

•          APACHE 2.2.3

•          MAP SERVER:

•          UMN MAPSERVER 4.10.0

•          PMAPPER 2.1.2

•          PHP 4.4.4

View some live application:

Visit SYROS SDI   KRITI SDI