1. WISE as a pilot for INSPIRE and SEIS
Jean Dusart
European Commission
Joint Research Centre
Spatial Data Infrastructures Unit
WORKSHOP ON WATER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR EUROPE (WISE) 12 November 2008

2. Objectives of the presentation
To give an update of progress on the INSPIRE Directive (transposition and Implementing Rules development)
To illustrate how WISE and INSPIRE are interrelated
To demystify some of the more technical aspects of geospatial interoperability
To stimulate discussion on shared experiences

3. The INSPIRE Directive
The INSPIRE Directive lays down general rules to establish an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe for the purposes of Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment
This infrastructure shall build upon infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the Member States.
Which data/services?
Existing spatial data held by or on behalf of a public authority operating down to the lowest level of government when laws or regulations require their collection or dissemination.

4. How Implementing Rules (will) look like?
A Directive has a framework structure, which needs further technical refinement through Implementing Rules (IRs)
Commission Regulations (even if other forms could be possible)
Deadline for implementation set in the INSPIRE Directive or
directly in the legal act
Published, as the Directive, on the OJ in all official languages
If Regulations, directly applicable without transposition into National legislation
Distinction between proper legal act and accompanying guidelines
Taking into account as much as possible (but avoiding formal binding to) evolving standards

5. Current status of INSPIRE
Preparatory phase ( )
Co-decision procedure
Start of preparation of IRs
Transposition phase ( )
Directive entered into force 15 May 2007
INSPIRE committee starts its activities 26 June 2007
Continuation of preparation of IRs
2nd meeting of the INSPIRE committee on 14 May 2008
Transposition into national legislation by 15 May 2009
Adoption of IRs by Comitology
Implementation phase ( )
Implementation and monitoring of measures

6. Challenges of Becoming compliant in :
Metadata content and existence
Metadata publication and access - Discovery Services
Publishing data online as maps - View Services
Publishing data for access - Download Services
Timeline
INSPIRE MD IR May 2008 adopted by the INSPIRE Committee, +2 years MD available (for Annex I and Annex II data)
INSPIRE NS Discovery / View December 2008 submitted, May 2010 operational
INSPIRE NS Download May 2009 submitted, May 2011 operational
INSPIRE NS Coordinate Transformation May 2009 submitted, May 2011 operational

7. Implementing Rules on Metadata
Result of extensive collaborative work between Drafting Team, Commission, and stakeholders through
Proposal for a Regulation unanimously approved by INSPIRE Regulatory Committee on 14/5/2008.
European Parliament completed its scrutiny on 18/6/2008. Formal adoption by the Commission now started.
Expected adoption End of 2008.
Already transposed in WISE GIS Guidance Document version 2:
Chapter 5.5. Metadata Implementation
Appendix with revised WISE Metadata Profile

8. Key features
Focus on Discovery and elements needed to implement the requirements of the Directive and allow interoperability through standards
Non-binding guidelines that allow conformance with EN ISO (data) and EN ISO (services) + interoperability with e-government through ISO
Technical coherence with standards tested with MD on-line Editor freely available via EU Geoportal:

9. Implementing Rules on the interoperability and harmonisation of spatial data sets and services
The development of INSPIRE Implementing rules for the interoperability and, where practicable, harmonisation of spatial data sets and services follow a two-step approach:
Development of conceptual framework and specification methodology:
Definition of Annex Themes and Scope
Generic Conceptual Model (GCM),
Methodology for Specification Development.
Guidelines for Encoding
Development of data specifications for each data theme based on the
conceptual framework
common specification development methodology
and on the INSPIRE roadmap

10. INSPIRE – Annex I Data DEFINITION (INSPIRE)
Hydrographic elements, including marine areas and all other water bodies and items related to them, including river basins and sub-basins. Where appropriate, according to the definitions set out in Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy *, and in the form of networks.
* OJ L 327, , p.1. Directive as amended by Decision No. 2455/2001/EC (OJ L 331, , p.1.).
Coordinate Reference Systems
Cadastral Parcels
Addresses
Transport Networks
Geographical Grid Systems
Hydrography
Geographical Names
Protected Sites
Administrative Units
Target : Agreed specifications by May 2009

11. Annex I Data Specifications Example – Hydrography
Developed in consultation with the WISE technical group
Source: Draft INSPIRE Data Specification Hydrography v. 1.11

12. Interelations between WISE and INSPIRE
For the data according to point 8 of Annex I – Hydrography), the Member States have
committed themselves to establish and operate a network of services that are described under Article 11 (1).
These are:
discovery services (making it possible to search for spatial data sets and services on the basis of the content of the corresponding metadata and to display the content of the metadata),
view services (making it possible, as a minimum, to display, navigate, zoom in/out, pan, or overlay viewable spatial data sets and to display legend information and any relevant content of metadata),
data download services (enabling spatial data sets, or parts of such sets, to be downloaded and, where practicable, accessed directly full data sets or their parts),
transformation services (enabling spatial data sets to be transformed with a view to achieving interoperability),
services allowing spatial data services to be invoked.

13. Implementing Rules on Network services: Discovery Services
INSPIRE Discovery Services provide the functionality to search through catalogues
Describe, publish, discover, manage, harvest
Mature area of standardisation
Existing standards & specifications available
Community endorsement & deployment
OGC Catalogue Service for the Web ISO 19115/9 Application Profile shall be used as the reference specification for the INSPIRE Discovery Service
WISE Portal will offer searching capabilities

14. Implementing Rules on Network services: View Services
INSPIRE View Services provide the functionality to serve visual representations of the data covered by the Directive Annexes
Publish, request, feature info, manage
Mature area of standardisation
Existing standards available
Community endorsement & deployment
ISO 19128:2005 (OGC Web Map Service 1.3.0) shall be used as the implementation standard for the INSPIRE View Service
WISE supports already distributed connections:

15. Implementing Rules on Network services: Download Services
Download services: enabling copies of spatial data sets, or parts of such sets, to be downloaded, and where practicable, access directly.
Data set:
one or more physical files serialized in an encoding format
Database realized in a concrete database system
part of one of the above specified by some filter(query, …)
Generic use case:
Discover using a discovery service on metadata,
Select desired data sets,
Apply filter to identify part of selected data sets (if appropriate),
Download using one or more download services defined in the IR.

16. Technical overview - Architecture
Architecture diagram (next slide):
Publish-find-bind pattern
Separation between 4 layers: Application, GeoRM, Service, Data
INSPIRE services shall be Web Services (W3C):
SOAP protocol to be used for INSPIRE services
Transport of a Rights Management Key
No standards available for managing licences
GeoRM is a conceptual model, with some test implementations
Multiligualism: rules for each service, language parameter mandatory
Performance requirements => 6 criteria selected
Performance, Capacity, Availability (shall be monitored)
Reliability, Security, Compliance
 Evolution of WISE towards a Distributed Architecture 2

17. DT NS Process Phases Tiers DT MD DT DS Application layer GeoRM Layer
Publish
Find
Agree
Bind
Appl.
Applications and Geoportals
Service Bus
Service
Rights Management Layer
Registry Service
Discovery Service
GeoRM Services
View Service
Download Service
Transf.
Service
InvokeSD Service
Tiers
DT MD
DT DS
Register Data
Service
Metadata
Data Set
Metadata
GeoRM
Data
Spatial Data Set
Data
TWG
TWG
TWG
Thematic DS
Publish-find-bind pattern
Separation between
Application layer
GeoRM Layer
Service Layer
Data Layer
Framework for harmonized DS

18. Other Implementing Rules
Data and service sharing:
IRs governing access and rights of use to spatial data sets and services for Community institutions and bodies
Monitoring and reporting:
MS shall monitor the implementation and use of their infrastructures and shall make the results of this monitoring accessible to the Commission and to the public on a permanent basis

19. WISE as part of SEIS?
SEIS is a collaborative initiative of the European Commission and the EEA. It aims to establish together with the Member States an integrated and shared EU-wide environmental information system. This system would tie in better all existing data gathering and information flows related to EU environmental policies and legislation.
SEIS Could be an important overarching initiative with focus towards public access to information, complementing INSPIRE with non-geographic content, and integrating services coming from Kopernikus.
The Commission also intends to update the standardised Reporting directive  to bring it in line with the SEIS principles.

20. SEIS Highlights 2008 SEIS Communication (2008) 46 final
Need for political support in MS
Ensure SEIS, INSPIRE, GMES (Kopernikus) mutually supportive
Streamlining of reporting obligations
SEIS as a centre-piece of EEA strategy
Prioritising environmental data and information needs
Assessment of feasibility of harmonisation/co-ordination of monitoring systems
Funding through existing financial instruments.
SEIS implementation plan by 2010
Initial outline prepared in September 2008
first SEIS Task Force Meeting with MS in September
INSPIRE recognized as underpinning infrastructure
Detailed work plan to follow

21. Conclusions
INSPIRE Directive in the middle of transposition (May 08 – May 09)
- most countries preparing legal acts
- nomination of INSPIRE Contact Points
- first set of Implementing Rules available/under adoption
= Ambitious and unprecedented process
= Truly stakeholder driven process
= Real test of the specifications
WISE seen as a test case for deploying distributed architecture supporting the INSPIRE Implementing Rules 21

22. Thank you for your attention !