1. Marine Reporting Units (MRUs) - Formats
June 8, 2017
4th meeting of the Technical Group on Marine Data, Copenhagen
Authors:
Irene del Barrio & Jose Rubio (EEA)
Marine Reporting Units (MRUs) - Formats

2. Marine Reporting Units – Introduction
Within the reporting of each article, all elements must be linked to a specific MRU, linking reported information to a specific geographic area
Under 2012 reporting, MS provided a set of geographic areas (GIS files) using very heterogeneous approaches.
This led to substantive differences in GES assessments between MS, making it difficult to compare
For 2018 reporting need to review and where necessary update the geographic areas taking into account:
The assessment scales to be used according to the revised GES Decision.
The boundaries of Marine Regions and Subregions as agreed by MSFD Committee (November 2016)

3. Marine Reporting Units – Layers
Before 2018 reporting, five layers will be developed by the EEA/ETC-ICM, corresponding to the following levels: a)
MSFD Regions (Baltic Sea, North-east Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea) b)
MSFD Subregions (of the North-East Atlantic and Mediterranen Sea) c)
Subdivisions, where available (eg. from HELCOM (HELCOM sub-basins), OSPAR (OSPAR reporting units level 2) and Member States' subdivisions whenever they have been reported, within each region or subregion d)
National part of a region, subregion or subdivision * e)
Further division into **:
Coastal waters per RBD, as reported under WFD
Territorial waters (excl. coastal waters) per RBD, as reported under WFD
Beyond territorial waters
* Note that including national part will inherit topological problems (mainly overlaps and gaps), that have been identified by analysing Member States’ jurisdictional waters submitted in 2012
** The RBDs are not naturally aligned with the MSFD regions/subregions/subdivisions. This can be overcome by splitting WFD RBDs in cases where they are located in more than one MSFD region/subregion/subdivision, as has been done with the OSPAR reporting units. There will possibly be alignment issues remaining inherited from WFD reporting (overlaps, gaps and various coastlines being used)

4. Marine Reporting Units – 2018 Reporting
All schemas in the 2018 reporting guidelines include a required field for the respective MRU code
The MRUs will be coded and a vocabulary created in the EIONET website, to be included in the reporting system
MS will have just to select the MRU code for each part of the reporting.
While it will take some time to have all five layers completed, a working list of MRU codes will be provided in advance of 2018 reporting
In the meantime, MS will still be able to use or update their existing national reporting areas
This to be done by updating the schema 4geo.xml and providing associated GIS files prior to the reporting (if possible, by Sep 17)

5. Marine Reporting Units – INSPIRE alignment
2018 reporting guidance provides for the availability of MRUs according to the INSPIRE Implementing Rules. This would involve the generation of INSPIRE-compliant:
Metadata for each of the five layers according to the INSPIRE Metadata IR (+Technical Guidelines)
Web services (View and Download) according to the Network Services IR (+Technical Guidelines), and corresponding metadata
Interoperable datasets according to the Interoperability of Spatial Datasets and Services IR (+Data Specifications)
INSPIRE metadata files would be created and published through the EEA catalogue web service (OGC CSW)
The metadata would include specific keywords to ensure the datasets can be ultimately identified in INSPIRE geoportal as reporting relevant.
MRU files would be made available through the EEA/EIONET website (and the EEA catalogue)
The implementation of INSPIRE web services (view –WMS- and download –WFS-) would need to be discussed and agreed internally at the agency

6. Marine Reporting Units – INSPIRE alignment
Data Interoperability – First analysis of the Area Management / Restriction / Regulations Zones and Reporting Units (AM) theme
“A Reporting Unit is a spatial object that provides the spatial reference for any non-spatial data exchanged under environmental reporting obligations”
There is no specific Reporting Unit app schema in INSPIRE.
Spatial objects acting as Reporting Units shall be defined and made available according to the requirements of the respective theme
Where environmental reporting data refers to real-world (spatial) entities, the reporting data should include an explicit reference to those spatial datasets.
The AM DS recommend to use the ManagementRestrictionOrRegulationZone FeatureType when a marine region is established for the purpose of management or as a restriction or regulation zones.
Geometry needs to be aligned with Sea Regions spatial objects if it is derived from them (at least at the land-sea boundaries)
It is recommended to use inspireId to link reporting data to the spatial object

7. Use Cases* Area Management, Restriction and Regulation Zones
Find all zones/restrictions
of a certain type
with a certain identifier or name
established under a certain legal obligation
Find all zones/restrictions in this geographic area
Reporting units
Provide spatial reference for reporting data
“put reporting data on a map”
enable spatial analyses
* From Michael Lutz’s presentation on INSPIRE – Introduction

8. AM Core Application Schema*
Generic core model
Zone properties:
Geometry
Designation period
Competent authority
Related zone
Zone Type codelist
airQualityManagementZone
noiseRestrictionZone
animalHealthRestrictionZone
prospectingAndMiningPermitArea
regulatedFairwayAtSeaOrLargeInlandWater
restrictedZonesAroundContaminatedSites
areaForDumpingOfWaste
coastalZoneManagementArea
drinkingWaterProtectionArea
nitrateVulnerableZone
marineRegion
riverBasinDistrict
bathingWaters
floodUnitOfManagement
waterBodyForWFD
sensitiveArea
designatedWaters
plantHealthProtectionZone
forestManagementArea
Legislation & document citation
Environmental Domain codelist
soil
noise
naturalResources
climateChange
healthProtection
air
water
waste
natureAndBiodiversity
sustainableDevelopment
landUse
* From Michael Lutz’s presentation on INSPIRE – Introduction

9. Marine Reporting Units – INSPIRE alignment
AM Data Model - ManagementRestrictionOrRegulationZone FeatureType
Attributes / Association roles*
Comments
inspireId
Unique, external identifier for each MRU, if possible based on an existing thematic identifier
thematicId
The MRUs can be assigned several additional thematic identifiers (together with the corresponding schemas)
geometry
Any geometry representation is allowed (polygons typically GM_Surface, GM_Multisurface –not GM_Curve)
environmentalDomain
“Water” as defined in the codelist included in AM Theme
zoneType
“MarineRegion” as defined in the codelist in AM Theme
specialisedZoneType
An additional codelist to distinguish each level
designationPeriod
Time period when the MRU was legally designated
competentAuthority
Organisation responsible for managing, restricting or regulating measures or activities within the zone
legalBasis
Legal instrument requiring the establishment of the MRU
relatedZone
Modelling any association with another MRU
* Only a subset of attributes and associations are described here

10. Marine Reporting Units – INSPIRE alignment
There is a need to ensure that the layers are in a format and contain the information Member States would need/like to see:
Is there any use of these layers expected beyond reporting?
The AM theme is very broad and the model is very generic
A first quick content mapping has been done for the MR and MSR layers and it looks quite feasible – what are the attributes we want to see in the layers?
The default encoding format in INSPIRE is GML – what about other formats (i.e. SHP)?
It might be appropriate to use inspireId as the code to link the MRUs with the reporting data
This is especially relevant to ensure the identification of the version of the MRU the reporting refers to in case geometry changes over time
The inspireId can be built on top of a thematic identifier
Opinions/suggestions?

11. Marine Reporting Units –timeline
Next steps*
Phase
Due-date
MS marine waters and subdivisions updates submitted to CDR
Aug-17
Draft MRUs layers
Sep-17
Validation of MRUs layers
Nov-17
Codelists and vocabularies
Final MRUs layers
Jan-18
* As presented during the Joint Meeting of WG DIKE, GES and POMESA (27 April 2017)