Explanatory Note regarding: 1) a draft COMMISSION REGULATION amending Regulation (EU) No 976/2009 as regards services allowing spatial data services to be invoked, as part of the implementing rules on network services referred to in article 11.1(e) of 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), and 2) a draft COMMISSION REGULATION amending Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC as regards interoperability of spatial data services, as part of the implementing rules on the interoperability of spatial data sets and services referred to in Article 7(1) of 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).
Rational
Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, adopted on 14 March 2007 aims at establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) for environmental policies, or policies and activities that have an impact on the environment. INSPIRE makes available relevant, harmonised and quality geographic information to support the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and activities, which have a direct or indirect impact on the environment.
INSPIRE is based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the 27 MemberStates of the European Union. The Directive addresses 34 spatial data themes needed for environmental applications, with key components specified through technical implementing rules.
To ensure that the spatial data infrastructures of the MemberStates are compatible and usable in a Community and trans-boundary context, the Directive requires that common Implementing Rules are adopted in the following areas:
•Metadata;
•The interoperability, and harmonisation, of spatial data and services for selected themes (as described in Annexes I, II, III of the Directive);
•Network Services;
•Measures on sharing spatial data and services;
•Co-ordination and monitoring measures.
The implementing rules for the spatial data services and the network services of type invoke are that last implementing rules to be adopted. Therefore the proposed amendments close the legislative phase of the INSPIRE framework Directive by putting forward the implementing rules for the interoperability and harmonisation of spatial services and for the implementing rule of the Network service of type invoke.
Process leading to the Proposals
The development of these implementing rules was performed in 2 different phases:
-An exploratory phase.
-A development phase.
Exploratory Phase
The European Commission consulted the National Contact Points on the scope of the spatial data services, of the corresponding implementing rules and on the associated development process during a workshop before the 2010 INSPIRE conference. Subsequently the Commission requested the National Contact Points to nominate experts for the set-upin October 2010 of a working group[1] for the provision of recommendations before the effective start of the implementing rules drafting.
The spatial data services working group, in association with the Network Services Drafting Team, supported the European Commission for the definition and refinement of the technical and organizational elements required for the development of the draft Implementing Rules for the spatial data services through the provision of recommendations[2]published in their final version in May 2011. In addition and taking account the strong link between the Spatial Data Services Implementing Rules and the Implementing Rules for the Network Service of type Invoke, the Network Services Drafting Team wrote a position paper on the Implementing Rules for the Invoke Spatial Data Services Service[3].
The consultation of the INSPIRE stakeholders on the recommendations involved:
-The National Contact Points,
-The initial Operating Capability Task Force,
-The INSPIRE Drafting Teams,
-The INSPIRE Thematic Working Groups,
The SDIC and LMO who answered to the recommendations consultation[4], indicated a fairly high level of agreement with the recommendations (figure 1)
Figure 1: Recommendations Survey agreement synthesis
Development Phase
In accordance with the recommendations and in line with the transparent and collaborative spirit that has been the basis of the collaboration with the MemberStates and the stakeholders, the technical content of these implementing rules have been drafted by the Network Services Drafting Team. Also to allow for the widest as possible consultation of interested parties, the technical content of the implementing rules have been submitted to several review iterations starting with the other drafting teams, then extending the audience to the interested parties registered on the INSPIRE web site (i.e. SDIC and LMOs) and ending with the informal feedback from the INSPIRE Committee with the INSPIRE National Contact Points being given the opportunity to comment during all, except the first one, review stages. More precisely the review timeline for the draft Implementing Rules authored by the Network Services Drafting team is available in table 1.
Version / End of review date / INSPIRE Stakeholders Consulted1.0 / January 2012 /
- National Contact Points.
- Drafting Teams.
- Initial Operating Capability Task Force.
2.0 / September 2012 /
- National Contact Points.
- SDIC/LMO.
- Initial Operating Capability Task Force.
3.0 / April 2013 /
- National Contact Points with INSPIRE Committee in Copy.
Table 1: NS DT IR review timeline
Finally the first version of the draft legal acts has been sent to the INSPIRE Committee for informal feedback in July 2013 and the comments have been taken into account for the creation of the second version of the draft legal acts sent for information to the INSPIRE Committee in December 2013 at the start of the Commission Inter Service Consultation.
Content
In a Nutshell
The implementing rules for the spatial data services and for the network service of type invoke are proposed for adoption together taking into account that interoperability and harmonisation of the services are indeed the ultimate goal, it requires all the necessary documentation to be available to users in an harmonised and meaningful way.
That’s why and in accordance with the feedback received, the emphasis has been put on the provision of additional documentation in the form of additional metadata elements, or provision of additional information in existing metadata elements, to provide as much as possible the information that would be required for the remote execution of a service rather than on attempting to fully harmonise the spatial data services for a direct invocation.
In addition and to secure the interoperability, the legal acts are complemented by detailed technical guidance submitted as well to the scrutiny of the INSPIRE stakeholders in the same review process.
The Service Provider Perspective
To demonstrate the effect of the implementing rules on a spatial data service provider, the following examples are used to show what would be required and when:
-The network service example
-The non-invocable spatial data service example
-The invocable spatial data service example
-The harmonised spatial service example
Network service example
A MemberState institution has already implemented anetwork service allowing protected sites to be viewed according to Regulation No 976/2009 and it has made publicly available the service metadata, according to Regulation No 1205/2008. These implementing Rules will not have effect on theMemberStateinstitution; no changes will be required to the service implementation, nor to the data served.
The non-invocable spatial data service example
A Member State institution has created INSPIRE metadata for a transformation service included in a complex workflow leading to the creation of mineral resources spatial data sets conformant with Regulation 1089/2010 and this service is not available on the Internet. These implementing Rules will not have any effect on the Member State institution; no changes will be required to the service implementation.
The invocable spatial data service example
A MemberState institution is making available on the internet an oil spill service that predicts the fate and effects of the spilled oil and for the time being it uses wind andcurrent, coast line and sea depth data in their original representation. 1 year after the implementing rules have entered into force, the MemberState institution will clarify in the service description that the service can effectively be executed from the internet and will in particular provide the information necessary to reach it for execution. It will consequently increase the awareness of its service.
Also and once the relevant spatial data sets are put in compliance with Regulation 1089/2010 (e.g. oceanographic geographical features) the Member State institution will provide additional metadata allowing a user to make an informed choice to effectively use the serviceconsequently avoiding wrong expectations as the service is already discoverable.
The harmonised spatial data example
A MemberState institution is making available on the internet a service performing flood mapping using a Digital Elevation Model. Once the related spatial data sets have been harmonised according to Regulation 1089/2010 and after the implementing rules have entered into force the MemberState institution maydecide to guarantee a minimum level of availability, to provide details for machine to machine communication and to add a harmonised operation providing the characteristics and capabilities of the service therefore promoting its achievement and allowing the automatic invocation of the service.
Feasibility Considerations
Based on the countries monitoring indicators for 2013[5] and assuming that all spatial data services that are not network services are indeed invocable spatial data services not planned to become network services at a later stage, these implementing rules will impactin average less than 15 % of the listed spatial data services while keeping in mind that this percentage is the maximum achievable.
Consequently the Feasibility considerations concentrated on ensuring that the modifications to the metadata put forward are indeed feasible and can be implemented in a reasonable amount of time by a small team.
To do so 3 different components of the INSPIRE geo-portal have been modified according to the technical specifications and tested. More precisely the following software packages that are the ones mainly affected by the proposal have been updated according to the last version of the Technical Guidelines:
-The INSPIRE metadata editor.
-The INSPIRE geo-portal validator.
-The INSPIRE geo-portal discovery service.
The results of the testing are available in one of the provided documentation, but it is worth stressing that the outcome is positive as it is indeed feasible tomodify existing software packages in a few weeks by one person. In addition the practical experience gained led to additional refinement of the technical guidance.
The beta versions of software packages are temporarily available for demonstration purposes (see table 2) and these beta versions can also be downloaded as open source in Joinup[6].
Software Package / URLMetadata Validator /
Metadata Editor /
INSPIRE Geoportal OGC CSW 2.0.2 adapter /
Table 2: beta software packages URL
[1]Spatial Data Services working group terms of reference,
[2]Recommendations for INSPIRE Spatial Data Services,
[3]Position Paper on the Implementing Rules for INSPIRE Services allowing Spatial Data Services to be invoked (Invoke Spatial Data Services Services)
[4] Preparation file for the spatial data services recommendations survey.
[5]
[6]