1 The JRC SDI Unit Policy support and Research for Environmental Information in Europe Michael Lutz European Commission – Joint Research Centre Institute for Environment and Sustainability Spatial Data Infrastructures Unit EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle

2 … is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of special interests, whether private or national. The Mission of the JRC …

3 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Our objectives Coordinate the scientific and technical development of INSPIRE Support INSPIRE implementation Lead research towards the next generation environmental information infrastructures at European and Global level Policy Support Research

4 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Our objectives Coordinate the scientific and technical development of INSPIRE Support INSPIRE implementation Lead research towards the next generation environmental information infrastructures at European and Global level Policy Support Research

5 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle EuropeEurope – INSPIRE  European SDI – SEIS  INSPIRE++ (data + information + knowledge) – GMES  Uses and Supports INSPIRE implementation GlobalGlobal – GEO/GEOSS  INSPIRE++ / GMES+ HowHow –Cover all phases of the Policy Cycle –Promote coherent development –Support other relevant thematic policies Policy support

6 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle What is INSPIRE? European legislation “Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community” General rules for establishment 34 spatial data themes Distributed infrastructure 27 countries 23 languages Environment

7 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle INSPIRE – A Participatory Approach EC inter-services groups COGI, GEO HLWG, SEIS Go4 Sherpa Group, … External networks Global: GEO, OGC, ISO TC211, GSDI,... UN: UNIGW-UNSDI, UNEP European: ESA, EEA-EIONET, EUSC, … Research: ISDE, IEEE, AGILE, … Data specifications 7500 comments on Data Specifications 358 meetings & phone conferences for annex I development process DS Testing: 325 approx registered on testing wiki INSPIRE Community 361 Spatial Data Interest Communities (SDICs) 198 Legally Mandated Organisations (LMOs) 3087 users registered on the INSPIRE site 230 Experts (Drafting teams) 72 Experts (Thematic Working Groups) 238 Experts for annex II/III latest call 3087 users registered on the INSPIRE site 485 registered on INSPIRE Forum 32 Groups already set up

8 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Metadata Data specs Network services INSPIRE Status Metadata Metadata Regulation published 4th December years for Member States to create metadata Metadata editor publicly available as part of prototype INSPIRE geo- portal

9 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Metadata Data specs Network services INSPIRE Status Network Services Discovery & View Service Regulation published 2009 Draft Amendment on Download & Transformation Service Regulation on Invoke Service to be finalised by 2012 Initial Operating Capability Task Force to support Member States in the implementation

10 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Metadata Data specs Network services INSPIRE Status Data Interoperability Draft Regulation on data interoperability for Annex I data themes Common UML data model for all themes 2-7 years (after adoption) for Member States to make data compliant Work on Annex II/III data themes starting in 2010

11 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Metadata Data specs Network services INSPIRE Status Architecture Components

12 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Metadata Data specs Network services INSPIRE Status INSPIRE GeoPortal

13 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle user dataset... Access to spatial data in various ways User has to deal with interpreting heterogeneous data in different formats, identify, extract and post-process the data he needs  lack of interoperability Data interoperability The starting point …

14 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle... and what INSPIRE is aiming at... Network Service Network Service Network Service Provide access to spatial data via network services and according to a harmonised data specification to achieve interoperability of data !Datasets used in Member States may stay as they are !Data or service providers have to provide a transformation between their internal data model and the harmonised data specification dataset user Data interoperability

15 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle dataset... Network Service Network Service Network Service dataset Network Service Data providers may also choose to align their internal data model with the harmonised data specifications and extend these based on their requirements user... and what INSPIRE is aiming at Data interoperability

16 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle “The Balance Challenge” Which level of interoperability is “just right”? Simple Complex Too simple: Identified requirements can not be supported Insufficient harmonisation Few benefits Too complex: Difficult to implement Substantial benefits available only to few users High costs

17 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle What is SEIS? SEIS Communication (not a legal act!) Presents “an approach” – Modernise and simplify collection, exchange and use of the data and information required for the design and implementation of environmental policy – progressively replace the current, mostly centralised systems for reporting by systems based on access, sharing and interoperability

18 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle SEIS – Technical Achievements Geospatial component can be added to statistics  maps published as service  new technique to allow dynamic user selection of statistical maps within the INSPIRE guidelines Interoperability demonstrated  Soil, Forest and Waste layers can be viewed simultaneously  Discovery client demonstrating search across Waste metadata and the Soil and Forest catalogue European Data Centres Pilot Soil & Forest (JRC) and Waste (ESTAT)

19 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle SEIS-BASIS SEIS Baseline Assessment & Evolution Study – address our current limited understanding of both the comparability and quality of data about the environment – to provide necessary facts and evidence on which possible Community initiatives will be based

20 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle SEIS-BASIS Objectives 1.Baseline assessment of the operational capacity of the 27 EU Member States (+ Norway, Switzerland) when collecting data required for a)implementation of the environmental Acquis, including reporting obligations  SEIS-BASIS Information System b)integration of environmental concerns in other policies  Survey of EIA and SEA practitioners 2.Comparative analysis and fitness-for-purpose assessment of environmental data and related information  Analysis of the Acquis for ‘monitoring requirements’  Interviews with thematic community end-users 3.Identify and assess policy options that address the identified gaps and barriers

21 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Our objectives Coordinate the scientific and technical development of INSPIRE Support INSPIRE implementation Lead research towards the next generation environmental information infrastructures at European and Global level Policy Support Research

22 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Research and Policy Cycle

23 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Towards Next Generation Digital Earth Panel of experts identified priority research areas (2008) Contribution to policy shift in international initiatives (GEOSS, GSDI, ISDE, …) to take into account volunteered information Research project to harness information volunteered by citizens and assess added value to existing information systems (e.g. Forest Fires) in collaboration with New lines of research on observation data (sensor web) to explore implications for real time and near-real time SDIs Crowd-sourcing applied to Forest Fires

24 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Volunteered Geographic Information VGI is a special case of the Web phenomenon of user-generated content where such contents has a geographic dimension Wide consensus about its huge potential as a significant, timely and cost-effective source data The big (research) issue: quality control Michael Goodchild, “Citizens as Voluntary Sensors: Spatial Data Infrastructure in the World of Web 2.0,” International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research 2 (2007): Just Landed! - real-time geoprocessing based on Twitter

25 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Extracting events from VGI

26 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Extracting events from VGI © Rueters – Darren Staples

27 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Extend Digital Earth with a sensor web infrastructure to become the Digital Nervous System of the Planet Digital Nervous System of the Planet Next Generation Digital Earth extended with a nervous system When a large number of users (the cells) send a similar signal an alert is generated: The cells The digital alerts What’s there? Why does it hurt? Did I injure myself? I better go and check! The network

28 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle The Future Sensor Web and its Applications JRC and EEA workshop – January 2010, Ispra, Italy Scope: – The Sensor Web and its future development – Up-coming challenges in the Sensor Web – Future research projects on Sensor Web 25 Participants from academia and industry Expected outcome: – Potential research proposal(s) – The Sensor Web: Status of Development, Challenges and Research Questions

29 EcoInformatics Meeting, January 2010, Seattle Thank you!