1. Which INSPIRE theme to use for MSFD datasets?
Michael Lutz
TG Data meeting February 2018

2. Relevant INSPIRE themes & spatial object types
Habitats and Biotopes (HB)
IR: Habitat – geometry + habitat type(s) + (species) + (vegetation)
TG: Habitat distribution unit – grid or tessellation of habitat occurrence

3. Relevant INSPIRE themes & spatial object types
Species distribution (SD)
IR: Species distribution data set & unit – grid or tessellation of species occurrence (one per species)
TG extension: additional metadata on sources and (optionally) the underlying observations

4. Relevant INSPIRE themes & spatial object types
Oceanographic Geographical Features (OF)
PointObservation
PointTimeSeriesObservation
MultiPointObservation
GridObservation
GridSeriesObservation
PointObservationCollection
Profile Observation
Trajectory Observation
 D2.9 Guidelines for the use of Observations & Measurements and Sensor Web Enablement-related standards in INSPIRE

5. Relevant INSPIRE themes & spatial object types
Sea Regions (SR)
SeaArea (Sea, MarineCirculationZone) – area defined by parameter-value pair(s)
Shore – defined area
IntertidalArea – area (between high and low water)
MarineContour – contour line for a specific parameter and value [should probably be defined in OF]

6. Relevant INSPIRE themes & spatial object types
Examples of Sea Regions
North Sea (i.e. any common-usage named sea or ocean)
A water body with an identified boundary based on land and/or common circulation patterns around the sea
Sediment Cell
A water body where the net sediment budget is (close to) zero, typically used for coastal erosion management
Circulation Cell
A water body which is the fate for all pollutants entering the water body, typically used for coastal water quality management
Seabed Area
Any area of sea characterised by common seabed coverage or depth (e.g. Dogger Bank)
What a Sea Region is not
anything with boundaries that not based or linked to physical or chemical conditions such as Marsden Squares used by ICES
the bathymetry (depth of the sea)
an Ocean Feature such as 'temperature' or 'tidal currents' (but note, analysis of an Ocean Feature can define a Sea Region and Ocean Geographic Features will be properties of a Sea Region)
an administrative area, for example an Exclusive Economic Zone

7. Relevant INSPIRE themes & spatial object types
Other relevant (?) themes
Maritime units (AU)
Management Restriction and Regulation Zones (AM)
Elevation (EL)
Geology (GE)
Land use (LU)
Environmental monitoring facilities (EF)
Protected Sites (PS)
Statistical units (SU)
Geographical grid systems (GG)

8. Principle approaches
Named area with specific attributes/observations (already defined in INSPIRE), e.g. Habitat (HB)
Named area + additional attributes/observations (extension / linking), e.g. SeaArea (SR), EEZ (AU), Reporting units (AM)
Gridded observation data, e.g. SpeciesDistributionUnit, HabitatDistributionUnit (HB), GridObservation (OF)
Point / trajectory observation data, e.g. PointObservation, ProfileObservation, TrajectoryObservation (OF)

9. Principle approaches – Reporting units
Spatial objects that are used for providing a spatial reference for the data reported under environmental reporting obligations shall be defined and made available according to the requirements of their respective INSPIRE spatial data theme.
Where environmental reporting data refers to a spatial object within the scope of INSPIRE, the reporting data shall reference these INSPIRE spatial objects.
Recommendation:
use inspireID - reporting data can be referenced to the spatial object

10. Any questions?
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