INSPIRE¶
The INSPIRE Directive aims to create a European Union spatial data infrastructure (SDI) for the purposes of environmental policies. This European SDI will enable the sharing of environmental spatial information among public sector organisations, facilitate public access to spatial information and assist in policy-making across boundaries. INSPIRE is based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the 28 Member States of the European Union. The Directive addresses 34 spatial data themes needed for environmental applications. It came into force on 15 May 2007 and will be implemented in various stages, with full implementation required by 2021. INSPIRE is on a technical level based on international standards, mainly those developed by the OGC and ISO.
Public sector authorities whose data falls within the scope of the Directive shall:
- Document them through metadata.
- Establish network services (discovery, view, download).
- Harmonise their spatial data in accordance with common specifications.
Currently, more than 7,000 institutions contribute their data to INSPIRE. A significant share of them use OSGeo applications throughout the implementation process. OSGeoLive provides an easy entry to the implementation process through an increasing number of readily available examples with sample data European data from multiple application domains. In addition, a dedicated wiki page on INSPIRE and OSGeo is established that gives an overview of the legal and technical aspects of INSPIRE together with selected use cases and an overview of OSGeo tools that implementers may use.