The EU INSPIRE Directive and what it might mean for UK academia

The EU INSPIRE Directive.

And what it might mean for UK academia...

INSPIRE - Aims

The AIM of the INSPIRE Directive is to:

create a European Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) toimprove the sharing of spatial information between public authorities and improve accessibility to the public.

This will allow the EC and Member States to design and deliver better environmental policies that will result in improved environmental outcomes.*

INSPIRE will improve the quantity and quality of spatial information and enable information from different sources to be more easily combined.

* While it is intended for use in environmental policy making in the first instance, the intention is that it will be extended wider.

"Whether or not a data set falls under the INSPIRE obligations does not depend on the scale, the specificity of the data sets, or the level of government involved in their management.

When the data sets, at any level of government, are relevant for developing, implementing or monitoring laws or regulations which may have an impact on the environment, INSPIRE obligations should apply. Such conditions could equally apply to data sets collected by a research project activity as the INSPIRE Directive makes no distinction between ‘operational’ and ‘research’ data sets.

INSPIRE could be considered a positive incentive to safeguard valuable research data sets after the ending of a project."

What are the issues and opportunities for opening up content?

INSPIRE activities in the UK have to be set alongside wider initiatives at UK government and EU level which provide simultaneously both obligations and opportunities, specifically:

The UK Location Programme- a cross domain, public sector effort to Establish the UK SDI and to partially realize UK obligations under:

INSPIRE - A pan- European Directive for the establishment of an Infrastructure for Spatial Information (SDI) in the EU

The aim of INSPIRE is to:

improve the sharing of spatial informationbetween public authorities and improve accessibility to the public.

INSPIRE will improve the quality of spatial information and enable information from different sources to be more easily combined

What are the issues and opportunities for opening up content?

The definition of ‘public authority’ (as per FoI) includes universities and Research Councils - the upshot of this is that Universities are required to comply with the Directive*.

Implications of this depend on which perspective we take:

Academia as Data Provider/CreatorAcademia as Data User

In reality, it is likely that BOTH perspectives will pertain!!* Public Task has been defined for most public sector bodies in relation to the Re-use of Public Sector Information. But the PSI does not apply to Universities so there has been no need to create a statement of public task for that legislation. Guidance on public task places the onus on the Body to create the statement and it is reliant on both declared activities and “custom and practice” and it is open to challenge if outside parties disagree with the statement.

The Scottish Information Commissioner has noted:

“I would question, however, whether it is possible to say that a university will never have public tasks for the purposes of [INSPIRE]....it is not unknown for EU Law to deal with universities on the basis that they do discharge public functions.”

UK HFE as INSPIRE Data ProviderFor university institutions it is unlikely that much of the geospatial data they hold

would come under INSPIRE – certainly for the Annex I & II Themes .

However, there are two caveats to this:

1. As the focus shifts to the third annex, it is possible that data held within universities might come within scope e.g. species distribution, habitats, atmospheric conditions.

2. Studies of environmental change require an understanding of how phenomena change over time. This requires access to historic data and earlier editions of data which may be held only by universities (or rather researchers and research teams within universities).

In both cases, Universities would be required* to make these data available.

The Commission has stated that it is “a fundamental right of third parties to enrich the European Spatial Data Infrastructure with data sets currently hidden or difficult to find”.

This philosophy also underpins the UK LP (aka UK SDI)

* see earlier comment on 'public task'

So what does that mean in practice?

Data harmonization (information will adhere to specified common specifications) standards that INSPIRE will lay down) Provision of online services such as:

discovery (find out what data exists), view (to display viewable spatial data sets)download (to obtain the data) transform (to enable data interoperability)

Licensing arrangements that allow information to be shared, accessed and used in accordance with FOI legislation, EIR and the PSI Regulations

It won’t necessarily be free…

Monitoring mechanisms to demonstrate that the information is being made available

Co-ordination mechanisms to ensure effective operation

Whats in scope?The grouping of themes in Annex II and Annex III represents a grouping for addressing different actions concerning harmonisation, dissemination and other actions formulated in the Directive.

Different time schedules are linked to the data in the three annexes I, II and III.

There is no thematic hierarchy in the INSPIRE Directive, however each theme represents a cluster/collection of different data sets.

Data specifications already published

Annex III Themes of possible interest to social science?

Population distribution – demography

Geographical distribution of people, including population characteristics and activitylevels, aggregated by grid, region, administrative unit or other analytical unit.

Important feature types and attributes:

The definition in the Directive specifies kinds of features relevant to demography: The definition includesthe term "aggregated". Non-aggregated data about population is excluded. The mentioned examples of aggregation are by grid, region, administrative unit or other analytical unit.

Underneath are examples. Important attributes however, can be very diverse and aregenerally referred to as 'socio-economic attributes'. Different variables can be relevant for differentaggregation levels.

administrative unit, e.g. from the LAU2 level.• id• socio-economic attributes

grid, e.g. 1x1 km, 100x100m• id• socio-economic attributes

census districts• id• socio-economic attributes as mentioned above

small area statistics "free" regionalisation• id• socio-economic attributes

settlement – small settlement, village, block, township, town, city• id• socio-economic attributes as mentioned above

physical region/area within settlement• category

functional region/area within settlement• category

Can also give population figures at other regional aggregations,

Annex III Themes of possible interest to social science?

Human health and safety

Geographical distribution of dominance of pathologies (allergies, cancers, respiratory diseases, etc.), information indicating the effect on health ( biomarkers, decline of fertility, epidemics) or well-being of humans (fatigue, stress, etc.) linked directly (air pollution, chemicals, depletion of the ozone layer, noise, etc.) or indirectly (food, genetically modified organisms, etc.) to the quality of the environment.

Important feature types and attributes:

To illustrate kinds of geographical information which can be included in this INSPIRE theme, someexamples on medical statistics and medical geography can be given:

General statistics on health - change over time Incidence data on specific diseases or other health issues Causes of poor or good health – risk factors - exposures Geographical distribution over exposure elements Human well-being Security Health services

Scope, use examples:• Health planning and management• Monitoring of marine foods or marine algal blooms that could cause harm to human health• Research on causes of illness and death: Through medical geography and geographical epidemiology different health

issues can be analysed in a geographical context.• Emergency management• Security management: Over the last decade the criminal justice community has begun to reap the valuable analytic

benefits of geographic information systems (GIS) technology. The powerful technology enhances the ability of researchers and practitioners to identify hot spots, analyse spatial patterns of crime and criminal behaviour, and to share disparate data sets across jurisdictional boundaries.

Data Specifications – Relevant Document Relationships

“Data Specifications will provide a detailed definition of data content by means of application schema and feature catalogue. Furthermore the Data Specifications will specify requirements to data quality, data consistency, reference systems and metadata. The theme description, scopes and examples in this deliverable D2.3 may serve as a starting point for the development of the Data Specifications.”

Data Specifications (DS) - Detail

Data Specifications document structure

Each DS starts with two executive summaries:

1. Interoperability of Spatial Data Sets and Services – General Executive Summarya quick overview of the INSPIRE data specification process in general

2. {specific theme} – Executive Summarythe general content of the data specification on {the specific theme}.

These are designed for managers, decision makers, and all thosenew to the INSPIRE process and/or information modelling as astarting point.

What is a DS?

The guideline contains detailed technical documentation of thedata specification highlighting the mandatory and therecommended elements related to the implementation of INSPIRE.

1 Scope2 Overview 2.1 Name and acronyms2.2 Informal description2.3 Normative References2.4 Information about the creation of the specification2.5 Terms and definitions2.6 Symbols and abbreviations2.7 Notation of requirements and recommendations2.8 Conformance

the reference statements of the document

3 Specification scopes

Normally just a brief statement but...

the specification of a data product may not be homogeneous across the whole data product, but may vary for different parts of the data. Each part shall correspond to a specification scope.

4 Identification information

Orientation information – the top level whatis this theme all about

However, this may be removed from Annex II& III specifications (and a blank section inserted).any info then would be:

• for “managers” in the executive summary,• for “domain/data experts” in Chapter 2,

• for “technical experts” in Chapter 5

5 Data content and structure

THE NITTY GRITTY OF THE DS!! (see next)

6 Reference systems6.1 Coordinate reference systems 6.1.1 Datum6.1.2 Coordinate reference systems 6.1.3 Display6.1.4 Identifiers for coordinate reference systems6.2 Temporal reference system

Reminding us of the generic reference systems that areappropriate for the specific theme or expanding on this where the theme needs to

7 Data quality

This chapter includes a description of data quality elements and sub-elements as well as the associated data quality measures. The selected data quality measures are used to evaluate quality of datasets for a specific data quality element / sub-element. The evaluation can be performed at the level of spatial object, spatial object type, dataset or dataset series.

8 Dataset-level Metadata8.1 Mandatory and conditional metadata elements 8.2 Optional metadata elements8.3 Guidelines on using metadata elements defined in Regulation 1205/2008/EC

Metadata can be reported for each individual spatial object (spatialobject-level metadata) or once for a complete dataset or datasetseries (dataset-level metadata). Spatial object-level metadata isfully described in the application schema (section 5).If data quality elements are used at spatial object level, thedocumentation refers to the appropriate definition in section 7. This section only specifies dataset-level metadata elements.

9 Delivery9.1 Delivery medium9.2 Encodings

How the specification is exposed through network services and encoding Includes a GML schema for each theme.

Data Specifications (DS) – Document Structure Detail

10 Data Capture

Data capturing rules are the main element to define the targeted level of detail. For instance, there may be a need for transport networks on two levels of detail (at the European level, scale about 1:1000000 and at the local level, scale about 1:10000) with very similar feature catalogues.

However, the data will be very different. This difference is a result of different capturing rules / selection criteria for both levels of detail.

11 Portrayal11.1 Layer types11.2 Default Styles11.3 Other Well-defined Styles11.4 Layers organization

There is no requirement in the Directive about portrayal, but to guarantee that spatial data is portrayed consistently from the different MS some rules are thought necessary.

The section defines the rules for layers and styles to be used for portrayal of the spatial object types defined for the theme.

The majority of these (currently) are black and white and so there will be work required as part of the developing maintenance process.

Bibliography

Annex A (normative) Abstract Test Suite

Place holder for future conformance test suite

Annex B - E (informative)

These include a description of the use cases on which the data specification is based

Data Specifications (DS) – Document Structure Detail

5.2 Application Schema5.2.1 Description

Narrative Description & UML OverviewConsistency Between DatasetsIdentifier ManagementModelling of Object ReferencesGeometry RepresentationTemporality Representation

Data Specifications (DS) – Ch 5 – Application Schema

Slide content courtesy Debbie Wilson, Snowflake Software

This section provides you with a more detailed overview of each individual application schema comprising the data specification

Provides a set of UML diagrams which summarise the application schema

What is UML?

Formal, graphical modelling language for defining conceptual data models and additional business rules. All documentation and implementation schemas (e.g. XSDs) are automatically generated from UML

class Area Management, Restriction and Regulation Zon...

«codeList»ZoneTypeCode

+ airQualityManagementZone+ noiseManagementZone+ avianInfluenzaRestrictionZone+ bluetongueRestrictionZone+ prospectingAndMiningPermitArea+ regulatedFairwayAtSeaOrLargeInlandWater+ restrictedZonesAroundContaminatedSites+ areaForDumpingOfWaste+ coastalZoneManagementArea+ restrictedAreaAroundDrinkingWater+ nitrateVulnerableZone+ riverBasinDistrict+ marineRegion+ bathingWater A

«dataType»ControlledActiv ityInformation

+ controlMeasure: ControlTypeCode+ activity: ControlledActivityType [1..*]

«voidable»+ specialisedActivity: SpecialisedActivityTypeCode [0..*]+ description: CharacterString [0..1]+ restrictionPeriod: RestrictedPeriod [0..*]+ activityLegalBasis: LegislationReference [0..1]

«codeList»ControlledActiv ityType

+ agricul tureAquacultureAndForestry+ environmentalPollution+ resourceExtraction+ fishingHuntingOrCollecting+ transportation+ landUseAndPlanning+ riskManagement+ conservation

/* Type of geometry shall be GM_Surface or GM_MultiSurface */inv: geometry.oclIsKindOf(GM_Surface) or geometry.ocl IsKindOf(GM_MultiSurface)

«dataType»ManagementInformation

«voidable»+ managementPlan: CI_Citation [1..*]

«featureType»ManagementRestrictionOrRegulationZoneCollection

+ inspireID: Identifier [0..1]+ legalBasis: LegislationReference [0..1]

constraints{legalBasis mandatory if not provided on ManagementRestrictionOrRegulationZone}

/* One of ei ther managementInformation or restrictionOrRegulationInformation is mandatory */inv: self.managementInformation->notEmpty() or self.restrictionOrRegulationInformation->notEmpty()

Encoding recommendation 1: legalBasis the legalBasis shall be defined as a minimum at the highest level of Legislation (e.g. EC).

This is required to enable European scale data discovery.

Encoding recommendation 2: LegalBasisIt is recommended that if the legislation has been transposed into Member State or regional legislation these legislations should be provided.

«featureType»ManagementRestrictionOrRegulationZone

+ inspireID: Identifier+ thematicID: AlternateIdentifier [0..*]+ geometry: GM_Object

«voidable»+ name: GeographicalName [0..*]+ zoneType: ZoneTypeCode+ specialisedZoneType: SpecialisedZoneTypeCode [0..1]+ validTime: TM_Period+ competentAuthority: CI_ResponsibleParty+ legalBasis: LegislationReference [0..1]

«voidable, lifecycleInfo»+ beginLifespanVersion: DateTime+ endLifespanVersion: DateTime [0..1]

constraints{legalBasis mandatory if not provided on SpatialDataSet level}{Geometry shall be surface or multi-surface}{Either managementInformation or controlledActivity is mandatory}

«enumeration»ControlTypeCode

permitted restricted prohibited promoted

«dataType»AlternateIdentifier

+ identifier: CharacterString+ identifierScheme: CharacterString

«union»RestrictedPeriod

+ validTime: TM_Period+ scheduledPeriod: Schedule

«dataType»Schedule

+ day: DayTypeCode+ startTime: TM_Position+ endTime: TM_Position

«codeList»DayTypeCode

+ monday+ tuesday+ wednesday+ thursday+ friday+ saturday+ sunday+ weekdays+ weekends+ publicHoliday«codeList»

SpecialisedActivityTypeCode

«codeList»SpecialisedZoneTypeCode

+controlledActivity«voidable» 0..*

+managementInformation«voidable»

0..1

+member 1..*+relatedZone0..*



This section shall define any requirements or recommendations to ensure consistency and interoperability.

Examples sub-sections include:Consistency along boundaries

Consistency at the same level of detail

Consistency between different spatial objects in the same area

Consistency between spatial objects from different themes

No requirement under INSPIRE legislation to mandate that Annex III themes are assigned a unique, persistent identifier

Each theme has identified requirements for identifiers and their management if they use the Identifier type from GCM

Requirement for making identifiers mandatory in Annex III include:

Linking other information to the object e.g. Management Plans

Defining relationships to other spatial objects e.g. inclusion of references to monitoring facilities in observations

Some themes may also define additional identifiers (backwards compatibility) and should describe any management issues for these too



Consistency & Identifiers



Provides guidance to understand how associations to other spatial objects should be implemented within the scope of the theme

Content of this section varies across the data specifications

Examples from Annex I:

Objects shall carry a thematic identifier to enable linkage with information in national registers

If the same real-world object is exchanged in more than one Hydro application schema then they shall carry the same name or hydroID

Each lower level admin unit shall be linked to an upper level unit

Object References



Geometry Representation

This section shall define any requirements, recommendations and additional guidance describing how the geometry shall be encoded:

Restrict geometry encodings to Simple Features profile

Define which geometries shall be provided where the geometry type is the high level GM_Object type

Geometric/Topological constraints

Geometry must be explicitly defined even if derived from another spatial object vs using referencing for encoding shared geometries



This section shall define any requirements/recommendation or guidelines for understanding how to implement any temporal properties:

Implementing INSPIRE lifecycleInfo properties:

beginLifespanVersion

endLifespanVersion

NOTE: Guidance for lifecycleInfo properties same for all data specifications

Real-world temporal validity properties

validFrom/validTo startTime/endTime

Temporal Representation

5.2.2 Feature Catalogue – consists of tables

Feature Catalogue MetadataTypes defined in the Feature CatalogueSpatial Object TypesData TypesCode listsInformative section – description of types imported from external schemas

The Feature Catalogue is the key section to read as it provides definitions and descriptions of:

Class types (Feature types, data types, code lists/enumerations)Property/Attribute valuesAssociationsConstraints

Feature Catalogue

Timeline

UK HFE as INSPIRE Data Consumer

Academics and researchers in a wide range of fields are likely to benefit directly by easier access to data facilitated by the Directive.

The vast majority of collection development expenditure by JISC and the research councils has focused on the UK and on core reference data sets.

Much UK research is about places outside the UK.

Researchers can face real difficulty in getting access to geospatial data in other countries.

The ability to make seamless connections across the wide range of data types and thematic areas will, as well as reducing the barriers to accessing data, also open up new opportunities for understanding all kinds of change processes and enable nationaland international comparisons.

Draft IR: 03-21 September 2012Done by JRC data specification team with support from

TWGsUntil then:

Still time and need to participate!!

More Info

More Info on INSPIRE at:http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/

More info on UK LP at:http://location.defra.gov.uk/

More info on INSPIRE&UKLP for HE/FE at:http://geco.blogs.edina.ac.uk/category/inspire/

James S ReidGeoservices, EDINAUniversity of Edinburgh

e:[email protected]: +44 (0)131 651 1383 m: 0759 5116988 sk: indolentJ tw: @sixfootdestiny

More Info

What is a Directive?

An EU Directive is a European Union legal instruction or secondary European legislation which is binding on all Member States but which must be implemented through national legislation within a prescribed time-scale.

INSPIRE was translated into the UK legal framework via the INSPIRE Regulations in December 2009.

The clock for delivering key milestones is ticking...

INSPIRE – an European SDI

A little more on the policy drivers...

Implementation of INSPIRE in the UK will deliver a step change in data management, data interoperability and data sharing across the public sector, supported by better integration with mainstream information services.

“citizens will have ready access to the information they need to go about their daily lives, whether at home, in business, in research or in government. Doing this will exploit the full value

of the UK’s spatial information.”

Specifically, this will allow us to:

Know what data we have, and avoid duplicating it;Use common reference data so we know we are talking about the same places;Share spatial information easily through a common infrastructure of standards,

technology and business relationships.

Technology

The EU INSPIRE Directive and what it might mean for UK academia