Download - geoinformatics 2012 vol03

Geomarketing Big Data TomTom Luxembourgs INSPIRE Geoportal

Magazine for Survey ing, Mapping & GIS Profess iona ls April/May2 0 1 2Volume 15

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Navigating Airports andOceansReaders of this magazine might have noticed a shift in the topics of articles overthe last two or three years, and its not coincidental, the geospatial market haschanged dramatically. Not only has technology driven this change, but what Imreferring to here is the rapprochement of geospatial companies with the consumermarket one might as well speak of a blur between the consumer market andgeospatial market. Of course, geospatial is something different and a uniqueselling point of software, products and data, but the once so clearly visible distinction between spatial and non-spatial just isnt valid anymore.

Its all too easy to mention Google as the main reason for change, but its focus ondata rather than maps has been important and continues to be important (moreon this below). The other way around, this vision doesnt exclude the notion thatmaps are not powerful by their own means they represent data and are, there-fore, an information source by themselves, and a powerful one at that. Explanatorymotives, for a large area of interest outside of the geospatial market, have beenbig IT infrastructures, data and devices aimed at the consumer market to allowindividuals to use geospatial technology as a way to organize or leverage dailylife by themselves as well as governments and enterprises.

A recent and promising example of this is smartphone apps for travelers. An arti-cle in The International Herald Tribune (March 12, 2012) discussed how smart-phone apps ease the stress and legwork for airline travelers by offering themmobile apps to navigate the airport, assist with check in, track flights and monitorluggage. With half of all travelers carrying smartphones, this has to be an inter-esting market to follow in the coming years. The last line of the article offers possi-bilities for map providers worldwide, where it says that the travel industry is still inthe crawl stage when it comes to mobile applications. This is illustrated by the factthat as yet, there are very few airport navigation maps available, and the onesthat do exist, tend to be pretty basic.

Another recent initiative mentioned in the mass media is Seaview, ascience project in which Google, among others, is involved (seeseaview.org). What it offers is comparable to Google Street View,but from an underwater perspective, with features such as panoram-ic images of The Great Barrier Reef. The uses are multiple: science for example is provided with data on underwater life,which can be used to study wildlife and climate change frombehind a computer. By offering the imagery to consumers,Google has played yet another great trump card in aneffort to lure a larger audience to its site and/or ser-vices. Just as what happened with Google Maps, thiswill offer business opportunities for the future proba-bly most of all for tourism. Id be interested to know howgeospatial companies will react to this new move fromGoogle.

Enjoy your reading,

Eric van [email protected]

GeoInformatics is the leading publication for GeospatialProfessionals worldwide. Published in both hardcopy anddigital, GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis andcommentary with respect to the international surveying,mapping and GIS industry.GeoInformatics is published 8 times a year.

Editor-in-chiefEric van Rees [email protected]

Copy EditorFrank Arts [email protected]

EditorsFlorian [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Contributing Writers:Florian Fischer, Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk, Henk Key,Karen Richardson, Ian Masser, Stuart Proctor, Armin Grn, Oliver Giehsel, Pete Davie, Philippe van den Berge.

ColumnistsSteven Ramage, Matt Sheehan.

[email protected]

Marketing & SalesRuud [email protected]

SubscriptionsGeoInformatics is available against a yearly subscription rate (8 issues) of 89,00.To subscribe, fill in and return the electronic replycard on our website www.geoinformatics.com

Webstitewww.geoinformatics.com

Graphic DesignSander van der [email protected]

ISSN 13870858

Copyright 2012. GeoInformatics: no material maybe reproduced without written permission.

P.O. Box 2318300 AEEmmeloordThe NetherlandsTel.: +31 (0) 527 619 000 Fax: +31 (0) 527 620 989 E-mail: [email protected]

GeoInformatics has a collaboration withthe Council of European GeodeticSurveyors (CLGE) whereby all individualmembers of every national Geodeticassociation in Europe will receive themagazine.

3April/May 2012

Photo

graphy: Bestp

icture

s.nl


C o n t e n t

A r t i c l e sEveryday Geomatics 10

An INSPIRED Country 18

Storm season has started 24

Regional and local SDIs in Europe 28

Early wake up call 32

UAV Flight over Singapore 34

Geomarketing 38

The Navigation and Location Ecosystem 42

VGI as Big Data 46

N e w s l e t t e rThe First Day of the European Surveyor and GI 6

Interview with Danko Markovinovi, CLGE 7

The GNSS Application Congress in Prague 2012 8

I n t e r v i e wEye on Earth 14

C o l u m n sPPPs and International Open Standards 23

Mobile Transforming the Work Place 48

C a l e n d a r / A d v e r t i s e r s I n d e x 50

At the cover:This is a satellite image of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant almost ayear after an earthquake and tsunami caused significant damage at the facility. The image was taken on February 2, 2012. Source: DigitalGlobe


38

14

18For its INSPIRE geoportal, anumber of different softwaresolutions are used, in order totranslate disparate geographicdata into the INSPIRE standards.

24

Professor Jacqueline McGladeis Executive Director of theEuropean EnvironmentAgency (EEA), located in

Copenhagen, Denmark. Shehas been

promoting the Eye on Earthprogram around the world.

On the first of March 2012, anew EU system for forecastingspace weather went live andwith a new sunspot maximumexpected around 2013, somewould say it was none too

soon.

Geomarketing analyses yieldinsights into the factors that determine a company's

success, the exploitation of regional potential and

locations that offer favorableconditions.

10This Photograph shows a motorcycle equipped with

a GNSS antenna accomplishing a bicycle-race.

46APIs from popular geo-socialapplications like Foursquare

provide big data with geographical context.

These data also termedVolunteered Geographic

Information are a valuableinformation base for real-timegeodemographics for user

profiling.

42TomToms strategy is centered

around the insight that navigation use cases will befit for use and may not always be device specific.

34For the first time Singaporeanauthorities have given permis-sion for a photogrammetric

UAV mapping/modeling flightover an important area of the

city.


A Report on the Event

The First Day of the European Surveyor and GICLGE took the initiative to launch the first day of the European Surveyor and GeoInformation. Hereafterwe give a short report. Future will show how this event will develop and where it will lead the profession.

5March 2012 saw the firstday of the European Sur -veyor and GeoInfor ma tion.Coincidently, it was the occasionto honour the first of a long seriesof famous surveyors. For 2012,the CLGE General Assembly gath-ered in Tallinn in September 2011,had chosen Gerardus Mercator.The 500th anniversary of the birthof Mercator on this very day, gavean excellent opportunity for asplendid celebration. The size ofthe event was only possible withthe help our long-time partnerTrimble and the very professionalsupport given by the Belgian RoyalMilitary Academy.In presence of Philippe Busquin,Minister of State, former EUCommissioner for Research andPresident of the Belgian MappingAgency NGI, distinguished speak-ers have described the live, thework and the legacy of our illustri-ous predecessor.M. Carlo des Dorides, ExecutiveDirector of the European GNSSAgency, gave a remarked keynote

speech about the future of Galileo,its use for the high precision sectorand the excellent collaboration thatwas established between CLGE andhis Agency.The FIG president CheeHai Teo hashonoured the European Surveyorsof his presence. He not only gavean interesting speech about hisview on the role of the surveyor inmodern society but he also unveiledthe artwork about Mercator bythe Belgian artist Arianne Weyrich that will adorn the House of theEuropean Surveyor and Geo Infor -mation from now on.In the same time a lot of other cele-brations were held in the CLGEmember countries. We will reportabout some of these events in thefollowing issues of GeoInformatics.This kind of activities will of coursebe repeated every year now, toraise the profile of the EuropeanSurveyor.

The presentations of that day areavailable on www.clge.eu.

April/May 20126

Carlo des Dorides in front of an interested audience of 300 + Surveyors, gathered in the main conferenceroom of the Belgian Royal Military Academy, Brussels (source: Marcel Ponthier)

N e w s l e t t e r

Jean-Yves Pirlot, CLGE President, calls for a joint international week of surveyors, to be organized everyyear. Talks with FIG will start soon (source: Alain Boon)

CheeHai Teo, FIG president, and Michelle Camilleri, CLGE secretary general, unveiling the Mercatormemorial plate (source: Alain Boon)


GeoInformatics: Mr. Mark ovi no -vi, youre the CLGE Vice-Presi -dent in charge of Geodesy andGI, what does this mean?CLGE has a bureau, composed by PresidentJean-Yves Pirlot (BE), Secretary General MichelleCamilleri (MT) and Treasurer Dieter Seitz (DE).There are also three ordinary Vice-Presidents:Pierre Bibollet (FR), Rudolf Kolbe (AT) and LeivBjarte Mjs (NO). They share the traditionaltasks of our organization, oriented towards theEducation, Professional Practice and EuropeanAffairs. The board has the opportunity toappoint additional VP, in charge of develop-ments of special interest. The previous Treasurer,Ren Sonney (CH), was always insisting on theimportance of GeoInformation and the outstand-ing role CLGE should play in this field. This wasvisionary. A few years later it became evidentthat CLGE could not remain inactive in thesematters, hence my recent nomination.It suffices to think about new topics such asGalileo, EGNOS, GNSS, GIS, INSPIRE, NSDI,ESDI, to be convinced that something is goingon. We know of course that Surveyors have animportant role to play in the European GeodeticInfrastructure but everybody isnt aware ofwhats an evidence for us.

But there are so many organiza-tions already active in geodesyand GI. Whats the added valueof CLGE?Youre right. We do not want to duplicate whatFIG, IGA and EuroGeographics as well as theEuropean National Mapping and CadastralAgencies are doing, of course not.We want to be active in the political field, antic-ipate new regulations and stimulate better panEuropean Cooperation.For instance, we think that theres a lack of coor-dination when it comes to the EuropeanGeodetic Infrastructure. Although a certain levelof scientific and technical coordination exists,we are convinced that it should be improved. Inthe field of CORS, a lot of people managing thedifferent networks will say that the existing coop-eration based on the results of EUREF and bilat-eral talks are sufficient. However, this coopera-tion is not homogeneous over the wholeEuropean continent. Moreover, cooperation canalways be improved.If we take Nord Rhein Westfalen (NRW) andRheinland Pfalz, two neighbouring GermanLnder for instance, their cooperation is verygood, within SAPOS. The cooperation between

NRW and Flanders is probably good as well,but undoubtedly it could be even more effectiveto come on the same level than within SAPOS.Does EUREF have the same possibilities?Wouldnt it be interesting to give EUREF and orEuro Geo gra phics or any other Agency such atask? In the field of the use of the true ETRS 89,wouldnt it be interesting to oblige or at leastencourage member states to use it? What aboutthe example of EUPOS uniting central and EastEuropean states? These are only some examplesof questions that we are pondering for the timebeing.

Do you think that your questionsare heard?We are uniting 36 member states with close to100.000 individual professionals. Of course,as we always say, this is still a very small num-ber when compared to the European popula-tion but you will not deny that within the GI com-munity our association has a respectable size.In front of the European Geodetic Infrastructureone can think of us as a huge user group.

During the Galileo Applications Congress inPrague, end of January 2012, the ExecutiveDirector of the European GNSS Agency, Carlodes Dorides, has heavily insisted on the cooper-ation of his agency, with organisations such asours. My answer is: CLGE is ready to take itsresponsibilities.As weve stated during the Ume seminar, heldon 22-23 June 2011, CLGE is willing to pro-vide a platform via which this tremendous usergroup can voice its needs and remarks aboutexisting or lacking services.

Indeed, CLGE seems to haveclose contacts with GSA, tell usmore about it.We are very proud about our cooperation withthis Agency. It is the first time that the policy start-ed under our previous President, HenningElmstroem (DK), has achieved really tangibleresults. We have to anticipate professional devel-opments and not endure them passively.First GSA has asked us to conduct a study withthem about the penetration of EGNOS (theEuropean Geostationary Overlay System). Thentheyve appointed some of our experts to assistthem in writing a market report about GNSS.Finally, President Pirlot, had the honour to chairone of the sessions of the Galileo ApplicationsCongress 2012, in Prague [see our inset].We feel that eventually weve raised profiletowards the European Bodies in charge ofGeodesy and GeoInformation. However, theway to appear on the radar of the Europeanand national politicians with the intensity wewould deserve is still long, I am afraid.

INSPIrE is an enormous initiative,isnt it? Can you really take partin the game?We are aware of the size of INSPIRE and do notwant to play Don Quixote. We know that theNMCAs and EuroGeographics are very deeplyinvolved in these topics. We do not want to inter-fere with them. Bear in mind that we are repre-senting the profession as a whole. It means thatwe unite civil servants, academics as well aspublicly appointed and private surveyors.Knowing this, it makes no sense trying to com-pete with the employers of many of our mem-bers. As a matter of fact our current president isDeputy Director General of the BelgianMapping Agency and I was recently appointedas Director General of the Croatian StateGeodetic Administration. We would neverdestroy during weekends what is painstakingly

7Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.comApril/May 2012

Danko Markovinovi

Jean-Yves Pirlot chairing the High Precision and Agriculture GNSSApplications panel (Courtesy of GSA Peter Gutierrez)

N e w s l e t t e r

Vice-President for Geodesy and GI, Director of the Croatian State Geodetic Administration

Interview with Danko Markovinovi, CLGE


built during the week No, CLGE wants toliaise with the professionals from the differentsectors and only intervene when weve a realadded value.Ive mentioned our ideas about the GeodeticInfrastructure. Another example is in the initia-tive weve taken to define new measurementcode for the surfaces of buildings. This was themissing link within INSPIRE and were happy thatweve helped to raise awareness about that fact.

What are the prospects?Ive reported about what weve done. Its a goodstart but we have to go on, pushing for morecooperation at the state level and CLGE play-ing its role as a user group.However, we feel that other tasks are awaitingus.Especially in Western Europe we are facingproblems in recruiting youngsters. We have to

increase our presence in political discussionsabout academic issues. For CLGE, the geodeticengineers need a solid initial education com-pleted with a trustworthy ContinuousProfessional Education.At several occasions CLGE has underlined theabsolute need of a Master diploma completedwith a one or two year traineeship as well asan additional examination, when it comes tocadastral surveyors. This does not mean thatGeodetic Technicians are of no use, of coursenot!But the technical field (geodetic infrastructure,GNSS, ) is yet another domain implying thishigh level education for the surveyors takingresponsibilities in that aspect.Moreover, sufficient proportion of Master stu-dents should access the PhD studies, to ensurethe preservation of high level knowledge, espe-cially in Geodesy.

The offer of high level geodetic education isdeclining, at least in several western Europeancountries whereas the number of students is alsovanishing in the last years.Thus, there is an urgent need to react.

And the prospects with theEuropean Commission?Were still eager to interact with the EuropeanCommission as well. About my speciality, wethink that Article 26 of the Services Directivegives room for quality management and qualitycertification initiatives.A lot to do, huge challenges but theres a say-ing that we follow One need no hope in orderto undertake, nor success in order to persevere.But, as we have hope and experience some suc-cess, its even easier to go on.

N e w s l e t t e r

8April/May 2012

The GNSS Application Congress in Prague 2012On 26 and 27 January, the CLGE president tookpart in a high level congress about the future ofGNSS in Europe.In his report, Jean-Yves Pirlot insisted on the verygood organisation ensured by the Czech host.He had the honour to chair a session aboutGNSS applications for the High Precision andAgriculture segment.During this session, the meeting room was total-ly full. It could even have been a bit larger buton the other hand the high attendance hasshown the interest for this section.The attendants were invited to take a very activepart in the discussion and they did it above allexpectations. Even at the end of the session, dis-cussions went on for a long while, despite thelunch going on in the hallFollowing remarks or conclusions can be drawn: In the farming sector, EGNOS is perceived

as a valuable tool that has still a relevantgrowth potential. Moreover this potentialshould absolutely be exploited since thediminishing land resources and growing pop-ulation will require getting the full intelligence

out of the sparse number of available m. EGNOS is also perceived as a genuine

democratisation, reducing the hurdle new-comers have to take.

Without surprise, the applications/servicesare very important and our session hasshown several successful examples as wellas a candidate application that could easilyfind solutions.

There was clear demand from the farmingsector to channel research activities in uni-versities and institutions towards high addedvalue applications (work in the logistic appli-cations, consider GNSS solutions combinedwith other sensors, ).

This confirms the need of a better communi-cation between the stakeholders of givenuser segments, here the agricultural sector.We definitely have to take on board farm-ers, vendors, suppliers, SW and HW devel-opers, Universities, Research centres,

Similar groups could be formed for otheruser segments, for instance the Surveyingcommunity.

Galileo is eagerly awaited by some actorsof the Farming sectors whilst others are won-dering what the benefit will be. However,buyers currently always ask if devices areGalileo compatible. Some farmers esteemthat since money was diverted from agricul-tural subsidies to the European GNSS pro-gramme, they are entitled to earn the

The very high precision sector also awaitsGalileo to improve the availability of GNSS.

Both sectors would like the European author-ities to take into account the numerousground based augmentation systems thatexist across Europe. Coordinating these, fre-quently public initiatives, would be an addi-tional asset for the user segments when oper-ating at borders or in international projects.

CLGE should be regarded as a strong usercommunity available for cooperation with theGSA and other relevant authorities, especial-ly when it comes to voice the needs remarksand suggestions about existing or missingservices.

First STEP in professional liveCLGE has developed an initiative called First STEP (First Students and Trainees Exchange Programme).We are looking for companies willing to take part in this effort by offering traineeship or studentjobs for 2012 and 2013.Pease read the advertisement in the First STEP section of our website www.clge.eu or contact Michelle Camilleri for additional information ([email protected]).

If you want to know the latest |news about CLGE on

twitter, follow CLGEPresident.

In the last issue of GeoInformatics (2012-2) weve provided a lot of short news. This was an invitation to follow

us on Twitter.


10

A r t i c l e

April/May 2012


A r t i c l e

11Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com

Everyday GeomaticsIts spring, and traditionally during this season a series of classic bicycle races are organized. Theseclassic events are one-day professional races which run mostly in Western Europe, and are held roughlyat the same time of the year and preferably on the same track. Some of them have been fixtures onthe international calendar for decades, dating back to the 19th century.

By Henk Key

Five of these classic races are called the monuments of cycling and they are generallyconsidered the oldest and most prestigious. Milan - San Remo (Italy), nickname La Primavera, first run 1907. Tour of Flanders (Belgium), nickname Vlaanderens mooiste, first run 1913. Paris Roubaix (France), nickname Hell of the North, first run1896 Lige Bastogne Lige (Belgium), nickname La Doyenne, first run 1894 Giro de Lombardia (Italy), nickname Race of the falling leaves, first run 1905

All of these races attract a huge number of spectators, with hundreds of thousands along thecourse and millions at home watching the race on their television screens, all in need of thesame information, where are they now? Who is in the lead? What are the margins?

And that's were Geomatics comes inDuring the race, the competitors are accompanied by numerous cars and motorcycles trans-porting mechanics, team managers, officials, journalists, VIPs etc., from the starting point tothe finish line. Most of these cars and motorcycles are equipped with track and tracingdevices based on GNSS technology. The actual location is transmitted to a control room,and time differences between the frontrunners and pursuers are calculated and displayed onTV screens at home to keep the fans informed.

Having seen the potential in this type of geoinformation, the authorities are now using thisdata for a variety of situations. For example, crowd management. It is a great advantageknowing an accurate ETA (estimated time of arrival) because within an hour after the bicycleracers cross the finish line tens of thousands spectators will leave the area almost at thesame time, causing an enormous traffic jam which has to be controlled.

This photograph shows a motorcycle equipped with a GNSS antenna accomplishing a bicycle-race. (Photo Rob Hendriks)

April/May 2012


Copyright Hexagon AB, 2011. All rights reserved. All trademarks or servicemarks used herein are property of their respective owners. Hexagon makes no representation or warranty regarding the accuracy of the information in this publication. This document gives only a general descrip-tion of the product(s) or service(s) offered by Hexagon and, except where expressly provided otherwise, shall not form part of any contract. Such information, the products and conditions of supply is subject to change without notice.

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A Global Environmental Cloud Platform

Eye on Earth Eye on Earth is a global public information service for sharing data and information from diversesources. It is an example of cloud technology that facilitates interaction. It includes official data man-dated by countries and data from many other sources. Professor Jacqueline McGlade is ExecutiveDirector of the European Environment Agency (EEA), located in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has beenpromoting the Eye on Earth program around the world. In this interview, McGlade talks about the Eyeon Earth program, its users and contributors, as well as the technology and data sharing paradigmsbehind it.

I n t e r v i e w

By Eric van Rees

14 April/May 2012


The European Environment Agency (EEA)is an agency of the European Union andits task is to provide sound, independentinformation about the environment. As such,it acts as an information source for both pol-icy makers, politicians and the general pub-lic in 32 member countries and seven coop-erating countries, to ensure that decisionmakers and the public are kept informedabout the state and outlook of the environ-ment. Information about the environment isgathered from many different sources forexample, governments, satellite observa-tions, sensor stations and citizens themselves. An example of how the EEA informs the pub-lic is by using Eye on Earth, a global publicinformation service for sharing data andinformation from diverse sources. It is anexample of cloud technology that facilitatesinteraction, and includes the official datamandated by countries and allows citizensto contribute their observations. For exam-ple, users can view a map with air qualityor water quality and compare the rating fromthe Agency with that of others. The data isdisplayed on a map where it was gathered,with crowd sourcing data shown whereavailable. In this way the EEA hopes to bringdata from many different sources into oneplace.

First of all, the system is unique in that it com-bines the work of the Agency, a EuropeanUnion body, and many countries that arecontributing data to the Agency, as well ascitizens. McGlade: We designed a systemthat was really accommodating two-way traf-fic for citizens and not only taking intoaccount that they were there, but that theycould generally indicate something importantabout their environment and then give themsomething that would engage them.

This means that citizens can see the effectsof environmental policy as well as noticewhere action should be taken if things arebad, such as poor air quality or high noiselevels. By bringing information into the pub-lic eye and engaging countries within Europeand outside, the EEA has a powerful instru-ment with Eye on Earth to engage citizensas well as local and national governments,says McGlade. This engagement representsthe way governments think they should beworking, certainly in Europe. And then onthe other side, showing that they are reallyrecognizing that people want to know howtheir taxpayer money is being spent, if gov-ernments are doing a good job and takinginto account their citizens comments.

Health issuesTo engage citizens, the Agency chose top-ics for inclusion in Eye on Earth that affectpeoples daily lives, such as air quality andbathing water. McGlade explains that theEEA covers many different topic areas, andmany of them have a geospatial underpin-ning. Also on Eye on Earth, air quality iscovered by AirWatch. McGlade: Air quali-ty is extremely important because we havelarge scale models from the top of the atmo-sphere down to the surface, and those mod-els are used to supplement the monitoringstations. At this stage were fairly good atbeing able to give the user an estimate forair quality, no matter where you are in thePan-European region.

WaterWatch covers designated bathingwater sites, both inland and coastal, a topicthat has huge public interest. NatureWatchwill be about invasive alien species, as wellas protected areas. NoiseWatch covers abig health issue: People want to know if

I n t e r v i e w

15April/May 2012

The living facade at the EuropeanEnvironment Agency (source: EEA)


they are exposed to nighttime noise in thearea where they live. This is now known tohave long-term effects, not only on a per-sons physical health, but also on their men-tal health.

Crowd sourcing as early warningEye on Earth makes use of both authorita-tive data and crowd sourced data. The col-lection of authoritative data is ratherstraightforward: For example, we have astation that's part of a monitoring networkand has a quality assurance on it thats partof a regular procedure. So a country willhave to collect data and then send it to us,we check it and then we publish it. But many countries have very strong finan-cial pressures, people are being let gowhich means that there's huge pressure onthe monitoring networks. At the same time,theres a growing interest by the generalpublic to get involved, and thats wherecrowd sourcing comes in: people who wantto get involved can buy cheap sensors to

monitor the environment, and then sharethis data via Eye on Earth.

Crowd sourcing supplements the qualityassurance undertaken by the instrumentsand intensifies, as well as extends, the sam-pling, says McGlade. We see that crowdsourcing, in its own right, is important. It tellsus where people are interested, it tells ushotspots, so we get not just that they arethere but they actually tell us a lot aboutwhat's happening when they are therethrough a text messaging system thatslinked to our own system. It gives us a rich-er diversity and a more rich data sourcethan the simple instrument that's just measur-ing. Although crowd sourcing mainly hap-pens in convocations, people will also useit when they go out in their free time: theygo to protected areas and then want to tellpeople what's happening on the ground.These are remote regions, so of course youdon't always have an observing station inplace.

As well as being a kind of confirmation thatpeople are out there and participating,crowd sourcing could in fact be an interest-ing early warning, since quite often peopleare detecting poor air quality before theinstruments do. McGlade: The one thingthat can be detected by many people whoare very sensitive to air quality because ofbreathing disorders, is ozone. So whenthere's an ozone event, which is very dan-gerous for people with breathing disorders,it usually precedes a heat wave, and whatwe can see in certain places is that the pop-ulation will already sense a drop in air qual-ity before the instrument actually picks it up.

Data exhaustionIt so happens that when a local environmen-tal issue is reported, such as bad air quali-ty, people go to the website and start down-loading data immediately. A server activityheat map shows the intensity of whats beingdownloaded, as a result of what peoplenotice through social media or the press.

I n t e r v i e w

16April/May 2012

Prof. Jacqueline McGlade and Environmental expert Axel Volkery atthe Arctic Team Challenge in Greenland (source: EEA)


As well as being an early warning system,it shows what people will react to as well,says McGlade.This approach means data needs to be time-ly, and this is something the EEA watchesvery carefully. McGlade: We will need toimprove on what we have done in the past.Its no good if politicians are standing upsaying theyve got the latest report on airquality, and its data from two years ago.This is not an acceptable way for scienceand the environment movement to be work-ing. Thats why we really went for thisapproach, to try to speed up the way inwhich we would gather information, quali-ty-ensured and make it available.

This approach does not differ from the wayemployment statistics are put together everymonth. So in a way what the EEA does isnothing new: There are instantaneous fig-ures collected on a weekly and a monthlybasis. They are published and then theyrerevised after a three-month period, theyrerevised again after a six-month period andthen they become, so to speak, gold-plated.And in fact thats exactly what were tryingto do in the environment.

The idea was to give people an early signor trend, or if things are going up or downand then gradually, through the EEAs inter-nal processes and quality assurance thatcountries have, to make this data moreauthoritative. However, the approach hadsome unforeseen positive consequences,says McGlade: What were seeing is thatthe near real-time monitoring that weve putin place is giving us a tremendous insightinto events that we werent previously awareof, or werent picking up. Thats why we aretrying to augment the use of telephones andcameras by the general public, so that amobile phone could easily be a noise moni-tor. And thats essentially the point: wevehad to radically review the way in whichinformation is used by decision makers.

Geographical scopeAlthough the EEA covers its 32 memberstates, the EEA also works with other coun-tries, organizations and volunteers.McGlade: Since its the only thing in townthat combines this enormous cloud comput-ing capacity together with the kinds of toolsand with a rich content, many countries andmany organizations are saying that theywant to come on board and display theirinformation and to use it for their own citi-zen processes. Singapore and China forexample are already well on the way todoing near real-time data processing.

McGlade thinks the EEA is right at the frontof a wave of how people will begin to per-ceive the ability to bring the program on,helped by the fact that technology is somuch cheaper and much more availablethan before. In remote areas like Turkey forexample, the idea is to place monitoringdevices such as ruggedized devices, allalong the borders with Iran and Iraq.

Because its such a large area, the EEA hasalso targeted Russia and Central Asia.McGlade: We helping to extend good datagathering practices in Kazakhstan,Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, the Caucasusand also North Africa, which meansMorocco, Algeria, Niger, Tunisia, Israel,Palestine and Egypt.

Bringing on new member states fits in withthe tradition of the agency, helping them putin place strong environmental legislationand monitoring. McGlade: It has beenpolitically long-decided that the environmentis a top priority for working in the neighbor-hood, including the Arctic, because we havemany cross-boundary environmental issues,for example water, air, waste, nuclearpower plants, all in the neighborhood ofEurope.

There are various programs in which volun-teers can participate, and theres no short-age of public interest. And often, once theyparticipate, they come back and stay in theprograms: There are various not-for-profitorganisations, where people spend time tolearn and then they have a huge return rate.There are communities like Citizen Scienceand voluntary participation. I could point toa thousand people today who say sign usup, wed like to be a citizen observer, orwed like our group to be onboard, andso on. There is no shortage of people whoactually want to be involved. The mostimpressive thing about where weve got towith technology is that now there is a wayto do that.

The EEA acts as a beneficiary of all of this,and can supplement its assessments with alot more information than before. Theyrealso learning how to use this information tomake sure it has some meaning. McGlade:Its not without its problems, to be honest,but what Im hoping is that therell be moreacademic interest. The research communitystill remains a little stand off-ish. They arestill constrained by the authoritative role thatthey hold when they receive a researchgrant. This, however, seems to be a matterof time, as science institutes are now start-

ing to encourage people who utilize infor-mation that has already been collected.

The cloudEye on Earth is an example of cloud tech-nology. McGlade: We went into the cloudwith our eyes open and discovered thatthere was nobody there. So that has beenquite an interesting journey, to actuallyencourage our colleagues in the countriesand others that working in the cloud is thenext step. Working in the cloud means thatwe can adopt a model that says that youcan handle huge amounts of traffic simulta-neously for images, pictures, raster mapsand everything. To make this happen, the EEA teamed upwith both Microsoft and Esri: with Microsoftfor the Azure platform, with Esri for GIStools. McGlade: We use SQL Server anda marketplace called Dallas, so we can com-bine geospatial data with point data andmany other forms. Well use the Esri tools,such as ArcGIS Online, to not only enableGIS professionals but actually the generalpublic, to work with us. We hope that manylayers of society will then just use it not onlyas a repository for information, but as a wayto make new knowledge, which previouslythey have never been able to do.

The website of the European Environment Agency:www.eea.europa.eu

The website of Eye on Earth: www.eyeonearth.org

I n t e r v i e w



Luxembourgs INSPIRE Geoportal

An INSPIRED CountryOne area where Luxembourg is excelling is in complying with the Infrastructure for Spatial Informationin Europe (INSPIrE) Directive. For its INSPIrE geoportal, a number of different software solutions are used,in order to translate disparate geographic data into the INSPIrE standards. Luxembourgs SDI (LSDI) wascreated not solely to respond to the INSPIrE obligations but to meet the need for a more coordinatedand organized approach to a national geodatabase.

Luxembourg is a magnet for tourists readyto lose themselves in its medieval cas-tles, lush forests, highland, and valleys.Although the country, which is nestled in thenorthern Ardennes mountain range, containsonly 2,598 square kilometers and has apopulation of less than half a million, thepeople of Luxembourg take pride in keep-ing abreast with their larger neighbors inEurope. One area where Luxembourg is excelling isin complying with the Infrastructure forSpatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE)Directive. Compliance with INSPIRE, which isrequired by all countries in the EuropeanUnion (EU), establishes a Europe-wide spa-tial data infrastructure (SDI). INSPIRE was first

brought into force in 2007 and is a crucialdriver for the development of SDIs in Europe.Since INSPIREs inception, Luxem bourg hasmet all of the directives milestones. For itsINSPIRE geoportal, Luxem bourg uses a com-bination of software, including Esris ArcGISand ArcGIS for INSPIRE, open source prod-ucts, Oracle as the database, and SafeSoftwares FME, to translate disparate geo-graphic data into the INSPIRE standards.EU member states must report annually tothe INSPIRE governing body on a number ofindicators for monitoring the implementationand use of their spatial information infras-tructure. The information Luxembourg, likeall EU member states, must provide to thecommission includes a list of spatial datasets

and services belonging to those infrastruc-tures. This is not an easy task, consideringthe complexity and need for all data inINSPIRE Annexes I, II, and III to work seam-lessly together.

ArcGIS for INSPIrEINSPIRE involves the participation of organi-zations that operate at several levels, includ-ing local, municipal, and national, to con-nect the dots by integrating the core INSPIREnetwork with other national and departmen-tal SDIs, building new constituent networks,and meeting the needs of a wide range ofusers. Sharing, discovering, and using exist-ing spatial datasets and services is bringingbenefits not only to Europe and its member

18 April/May 2012

A r t i c l e

By Karen Richardson

Luxembourg's web mapping platform bringsLuxembourg's spatial data to the general public in aneasily discoverable manner.


states through INSPIRE, but also helping indi-vidual organizations improve their efficien-cy and effectiveness, as well.

Many organizations desire a solution tostreamline their entire workflow from datacollection and quality assurance to manage-ment and sharing of their organizationsassets for INSPIRE. Organizations may alsowant to use data and services provided byother organizations via INSPIRE, as well asother SDIs. These functions require a fluidSDI that connects, selects, uses, and sharesgeospatial resources provided on the webregardless of the SDI organizational level orgeographic scale. The challenge is to findsustainable solutions that avoid multipleefforts and disconnected workflows betweenenterprise solutions and sharing platforms.

Esri has addressed this challenge throughthe release of ArcGIS for INSPIRE, a productspecifically engineered to create and share

INSPIRE-compliant data and services. ArcGISfor INSPIRE is fully integrated with solutionsfor content sharing, application develop-ment, information products creation, anddelivery tools for sharing, making theseaccessible virtually everywhere.

Getting Their ACT TogetherLuxembourgs SDI (LSDI) was created not sole-ly to respond to the INSPIRE obligations but tomeet the need for a more coordinated andorganized approach to a national geo-database. Before implementing the LSDI, datasharing was difficult even among closely relat-ed administrations and services because datawas in many different formats and methodsof access. More and more public authoritiesneeded maps to make informed decisions,and the demand for GIS, web mapping, anddata exchange was on the rise, pushing gov-ernment staff to create a more organized andcentralized approach to data management. The response was the creation of an interdis-ciplinary and interministerial task force totake care of the LSDI. The group is led by theAdministration of Cadastre and Topography(ACT), which is responsible for creating andmaintaining most of the geographic dataavailable in the country. This includes thecadastral map and its subsets, the differenttopographic and cartographic maps anddatabases, the digital terrain model, and theofficial national orthophoto layer. ACTensures that use of public geodatasets is opti-mized for government users and there is eas-

A r t i c l e

April/May 2012

Map layers including basemap data, infrastructure and communication, land cover and environmental, biological and geological data are all available through the Luxembourg SDI geoportal.

Cadastral - Cadastral parcels and buildings for the country of Luxembourg.

Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 19


ier access to geodata, forming a better basisfor decision making. ACT staff wanted to use open source softwarebut found that by using ArcGIS for INSPIRE, thetasks of service configuration and data modelconstruction had already been completed forthem. Using FME, all data could be trans-formed into INSPIRE specifications and easilyloaded into ArcGIS. Using this finely tunedsolution, Luxembourg was able to meet itslegal deadline and look forward to deliver-ing all download and transformation servicesrequired of it before the deadline ofNovember 2011. According to ACT staff,ArcGIS for INSPIRE allowed them to implementINSPIRE view and download services with theleast possible effort. Without ArcGIS forINSPIRE, staff feel they may not have met theirdeadline.

Mapping for EveryoneThe geoportal, which is the backbone ofLuxembourgs IT infrastructure, runs on afarm of 60 clustered virtualized machinesand 12 physical servers. The machines areconnected to a storage area network with12 terabytes of data available. WhileLuxembourg manages many more geo-datasets than those that are INSPIRE specific,all datasets and services that are relevant toINSPIRE are contained in the countrys geo-portal; metadata catalog. The data can beviewed using the geoportal map viewer,accessed and downloaded through OpenGeospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), webservices; and ordered online through thegeoportals shop module. The web mapping platform brings LSDIsdata to the general public. The portal is sim-

ple to understand and contains basic func-tions for people to use including pan, zoom,and search. The speed of the data displayis comparable to other popular map portalsand has been a huge success more than1,400 hits a day, resulting in more than fourgigabytes of traffic and an average of 200PDFs printed each day. All metadata is managed using the onlinemetadata editor and validator of the ACTsgeoportal and is compliant with INSPIRE. Themetadata editor is available to every stake-holder so anyone can create and define themetadata of the datasets and services beingdefined, keeping the metadata in compli-ance with INSPIRE.

A Coordinated FutureSince it was first implemented, LSDI hashelped resolve many problems the countryhad in creating accessible, authoritativegeodata. Today, stakeholders meet regular-ly to discuss, decide, and collaborate onhow to meet obligations derived from theINSPIRE Directive. Since the geoportal was inplace before the INSPIRE Directive was putinto force, many necessities had alreadybeen realized and were operational. Thisincluded INSPIRE compliance, web services,view services, and a centralized metadataeditor, for example. Since Luxembourg is smaller than most of itsEU counterparts, fewer political bodies havehad to be involved; this, and the implemen-tation of ArcGIS for INSPIRE, allowed thecountry to move forward more quickly thanothers. A long tradition of cooperationamong the ministries responsible for geoda-ta makes implementing and sharing geoda-ta more straightforward. For all the datasetsrequired thus far by INSPIRE, metadata existsand is fully compliant. Although the datasetsthemselves are not yet compliant with INSPIRE,they are expected to be in the future, accord-ing to the INSPIRE timeline. Over the next several years, Luxembourgofficials will find, create, and identify newdatasets to add to the list of INSPIRE datasetsthat are available; modify the datasets forbetter or more complete compliance; andcontinue to adapt access to the data.

Karen Richardson, Esri writer.Links:

www.geoportal.luhttp://map.geoportal.lu

April/May 2012

A r t i c l e

Geoportal metadata - The geoportal is the back of Luxembourg's IT infrastructure and provides access to all datasets and services relevant to INSPIRE.

INSPIRE Web Viewer - Built with ArcGIS Viewer for Flex, users can browse Luxembourg's data holdings.

20

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COLU

MN

Steven Ramage, Executive Director,Marketing and Communications Open

Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

C o l u m n


The theme of Geospatial World Forum 2012, to be held in Amsterdam April23-27, is 'Geospatial Industry & World Economy'. This column focuses on OGCs activities during the event and public-private partnerships in general.

Geospatial World Forum 2012 will include a ses-sion called Exchange Forum Public-PrivatePartnerships for SDI. The goal of the ExchangeForum is to bring together industry leaders from across theworld to assess key challenges and opportunities for PublicPrivate Partner ships (PPP) related to Spatial DataInfrastructures (SDIs).

This forum will feature twenty-four speakers, including fourwho are actively involved with the OGC: Steven Ramagefrom the OGC; Rob van de Velde, a member of the OGCBoard of Directors and also Director, Geonovum, theNetherlands; Dr. R Siva Kumar, an OGC Director Emeritusand also CEO, National Spatial Data Infrastructure, India;and Ed Parsons, a member of the OGC PlanningCommittee and also Geospatial Technologist, Google.

Among the main conference's Key Speakers are: DavidSchell, an OGC Director Emeritus and the Founder of theOGC; Jacqueline McGlade, an OGC Director andExecutive Director, European Environment Agency; SteveHagan, an OGC Director and Vice President ofDevelopment for Server Technologies at OracleCorporation. In addition, Dr. Vanessa Lawrence CB, anOGC Director and also Director General and ChiefExecutive Ordnance Survey Great Britain; and MarkReichardt, CEO and President, OGC, will be among theconference's Chairpersons and Moderators.

Two other OGC Directors are also speaking at the confer-ence: Dr. Christopher K Tucker, Chairman and ChiefExecutive Officer, The MapStory Foundation and a formergeospatial software entrepreneur and executive; andFrancois Robida, Deputy Head Information Systems &Technologies, BRGM, France.

I mention these names with their public sector and privatesector titles to illustrate that the Open Geospatial Consortium(OGC) is a key Public-Private Partnership in the geospatialtechnology industry. During my presentation I will explainsome of the activities involving the OGC, including emerg-ing activities specifically relating to organizations involvedin PPP, such as the European Commission Future InternetPublic-Private Partnership Programme (FI-PPP) and the Tele -com munication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) of the UnitedNations International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

PPPsThe OGC was founded to bring public and private sec-tor industry actors together to develop standards, bestpractices and relationships that support improved sharingof geospatial resources, both data and processingresources. The speakers listed above will be talking about

the challenges the OGC has overcome and the opportu-nities the OGC has successfully embraced on behalf ofits many stakeholders.

Everything the OGC does is based on consensus and col-laboration, two key elements of any Public PrivatePartnership.

One of the main reasons the OGC has been so success-ful is that we have focused on technical interoperability,and technical interoperability supports other kinds of inter-operability. Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) confront theneed not only for technical interoperability, but also social,institutional, cultural, and linguistic interoperability. SDIsface political and educational challenges, and they facethe challenge of getting individuals to use technology dif-ferently. These are all difficult to address, but the OGCgives them a leveraged lever: The OGC's efforts toenable technical interoperability have been highly lever-aged by the continual advances in information and com-munications technology, and technical interoperabilityserves as a powerful lever for solving all of the other inter-operability challenges.

Networking is keyToday, many people in our industry understand that buy-ing, selling and sharing geospatial information requiresopen standards for software interfaces and encodings,but this was not so obvious twenty years ago. In the mid-1990s, the OGC provided a forum for hypercompetitivesoftware vendors to sit down together and begin dis-cussing how they might all benefit from improved flow ofdata and client/server communication. Major institutionalusers of geospatial software discussed how they might allbenefit from a new way not the market and not govern-ment regulation to influence the vendors' software devel-opment plans.

Like most Public Private Partnerships, in the OGC the part-ners determine the partnership's vision, mission, goalsand objectives. Board and staff serve as facilitators andnetworkers.

Networking is key. The OGC has benefited from the grow-ing global appreciation of the value of networks: businessnetworks, social networks, and everything-as-a-network:Economies, professions, bureaucracies and academic dis-ciplines all have nodes, connections, hubs and so on. SDIs and standards organizations -- depend on these humannetworks as well as digital ones. As David Schell has said,Interoperability seems to be about the integration of infor-mation. What its really about is the coordination of orga-nizational behavior.

PPPs and International Open Standards


GNSS Update

Storm season has startedOn the first of March 2012, a new EU system for forecasting space weather went live and with a newsunspot maximum expected around 2013, some would say it was none too soon. The new systemshould help satellite operators prevent damage to their satellites. The forecasts are available on theinternet (http://fp7-spacecast.eu/). Over the next two years Spacecast will try to improve the forecasts.

Meanwhile the strongestsolar storm in the pasteight years passed inJanuary 2012. The effect on GPSwas very small however. Thestorm was rated at 3 on a maxi-mum scale of 5, nowhere near asstrong as those seen in2000/2001.

GPSIt is rumored that the clock on oneof the two IIF satellites currently inorbit has a problem. Although notseen as a problem to the user (aresult of back-up clocks), it may shorten the design life of the satellite.This could impact the budgeting for GPS. At the moment the US budgetfor 2013 is under scrutiny but it seems that satellite navigation, includ-ing GPS, is escaping cutbacks. The plan for GPS III is therefore still ontrack with a first launch planned in 2014. In January this year, a con-tract for EUR 181 million was awarded to Lockheed Martin for build-ing the third and fourth GPS III satellites securing at least the first foursatellites.

Part of the budget is research into the possibility of launching morethan a single satellite per missile launch. At the moment launch costsare very high and launch vehicles scarce. This could potentially threat-en the renewal of GPS satellites, which, considering the age of the cur-rent satellites, will need to happen in the years to come. A further bud-get allocation is requested for the Wide Area Augmentation System aswell as for the alternative to GPS, the Alternative Positioning, Navigationand Timing (APNT) system.

LightSquaredNo money has been scheduled to go to testing. In the past year a lotof money was spent in that area due to interference testing withLightSquared. The situation with LightSquared haschanged considerably. A US House committee islooking into the procedures followed by US feder-al agencies in the conflict and has sent outrequests to the agencies informed to supply themwith all available information and communica-tions. One of the agencies under investigation isthe Federal Commission on Tele com muni ca tions(FCC), which initially issued the permit toLightSquared. The FCC as well as the National Tele com muni -

cations and Information Admini -stration (NTIA) have concluded thatthere is at the moment no viablemeans to mitigate the interferenceeffects. As a result, the permitissued to LightSquared was sus-pended. In the meantime, Light -Squared is considering a lawsuitagainst this latest ruling by theFCC. At the same time the maininvestors of LightSquared havefiled a lawsuit against the FCC.Another result of the discussionaround the FCC and LightSquaredis that the US government has been

asked to develop GPS receiver standards that would prevent futureinterference from similar systems operating near or adjacent to the GPSbands.

GlonassThere is rumor of an agreement between the Russian economics min-istry and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, concerning a EUR 9billion program for further development in the period 2012-2020.Roscosmos an nounced in early February that it expects to spend aroundEUR 500 million this year. Plans include the launch of three additionalsatellites in the first half of 2012. The complete plan includes provisionsto have a total of 30 satellites in space by 2020, of which the majorityshould be the next generation Glonass-K type. The Glonass-K satellitelaunched last year has yet to be set active and is currently undergoingtests.

GalileoThe Galileo ground segment is now ready and has reached one of themost isolated places in the world, the Kerguelen Islands. However, thiswill not be the loneliest place for very long as a sensor station is plannedfor Jan Mayen, an island in the Arctic Ocean belonging to Norway.

Other stations are located on Reunion Island(Indian Ocean) and New Caledonia (Pacific).These locations with a tropical climate are morea challenge to the electronics than that they areto their human operators.

An agreement has been reached with OHB sys-tem AG (Germany) to build another eight Galileosatellites at a cost of EUR 250 million. Otheragreements ask for the modification of the Ariane5 launcher, which will carry four satellites at a

24April/May 2012

A r t i c l e

By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

Galileo control segment (source: www.esa.int)

Compass/Beidou-2 satellite (source: www.gpsworld.com)


time. The modified launcher should be availablein the second half of 2014 and will operatetogether with the Soyuz launcher currently used.The Soyuz launcher can handle two satellites ata time.

With the new contract, the total number of satel-lites will come to 22. Together with the four InOrbit Validation satellites to be built this willbring the total up to 26 satellites, almost enoughfor a full constellation of 30 satellites. This is a

big improvement over the earlier plan to launchonly 18 satellites as a result of budget overruns.

CompassOn February 24/25 China launched yet anoth-er Compass/Beidou-2 satellite into space. Thisis the fifth geostationary satellite of the Beidou-2 constellation.

Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk [email protected] a freelance writer and trainer in the fields of positioning

and hydrography.

A r t i c l e


Top side for launch vehicle for Compass/Beidou-2 satellite (source: www.gpsworld)

Sensor station at Jan Mayen (source: www.esa.int)

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Theory and Practice

Regional and local SDIs in EuropeThis article considers the findings of some recent projects in Europe that highlight the importance ofregional and local spatial data infrastructures. The discussion is divided into three main sections. Thefirst of these sets out a theoretical framework for the evaluation of regional and local SDIs based onthe notion of multi level governance. The second reviews the findings of three recent European initia-tives that have considered some of the experiences of regional and local SDIs in Europe while the thirdand final section considers the implications of these findings for future SDI development.

IntroductionSpatial data infrastructures (SDIs) have tradi-tionally been assumed to exist at the nationallevel. But SDIs also have to operate at the subnational level not only because they have tomeet local and regional needs but alsobecause they are an integral part of anynational SDI. The article considers the findingsof some recent projects in Europe that high-light the importance of regional and local spa-tial data infrastructures in the context in theimplementation of the INSPIRE Directive. The dis-cussion is divided into three main sections. Thefirst of these sets out a theoretical frameworkfor the evaluation of regional and local SDIsbased on the notion of multi level governance.The second reviews the findings of three recentinitiatives that have considered the experi-ences of regional and local SDIs in Europewhile the third and final section considers theimplications of these findings for future SDIdevelopment.

Theoretical frameworkThe notion of multilevel governance providesa useful theoretical framework for the analysisof SDIs at the regional and local levels.Originally developed by Liesbet Hooghe andGary Marks from a study of EU policy, theconcept of multilevel governance raised someimportant questions about the role, power andauthority of states. In the process it identified

two different types of multi level governancethat are also appropriate for the analysis ofregional and local SDIs. The key features ofthese two types are summarised in Table 1.

Type 1 governance describes jurisdictions ata limited number of hierarchical levels. Thesejurisdictions are essentially general purposein that they bundle together many differentfunctions such a housing, education, roadsand environmental affairs. Membership ofsuch jurisdictions is usually territorial in termsof nation, region or community and they arecharacterised by non intersecting member-ships between different jurisdictions at thesame level. In other words, a citizen maybelong to only one of these jurisdictions ateach level in the hierarchy. An important fea-ture of these jurisdictions is that they are tendto be stable for periods of several decades ormore. In essence, every citizen is located in aRussian Doll of nested jurisdictions where thereis only one relevant jurisdiction at each levelof the administrative hierarchy.

Type 2 governance, on the other hand, is com-posed of specialised task specific jurisdictionssuch as school catchment areas, watershedmanagement regions, and travel to workareas. It is fragmented in nature with everypiece fulfilling its own function. There is noreason with respect to type 2 governance why

smaller jurisdictions should be neatly con-tained within larger ones while others maydefine a small segment of a larger area as isthe case with a site of special scientific inter-est within a National Park. Unlike type 1 gov-ernance, there is no limit to the number of juris-dictional levels as each case is designed torespond flexibly to new needs and circum-stances.

This distinction between the two types of multi-level governance is graphically illustrated inFigure 1. This shows that the SDI that emergesfrom the type 1 process will have many fea-tures in common with a patchwork quilt of sim-ilar, but often quite distinctive components(Masser, 2010, p. 84-86). This is particularlyuseful where SDIs participants are closely relat-ed to administrative regions with similar func-tions in the hierarchy. Type 2 governancereflects the collage analogy which is based onthe notion of a picture that is built up from dif-ferent materials. This is most useful where theparticipants such as transportation and envi-ronmental agencies straddle administrative dis-tricts. This is the case in most thematic SDIs.

reviewA number of European initiatives have collectedinformation about regional and local SDI devel-opment in the last four years. The main findingsof three of these are summarised below.

The Advanced Regional Spatial DataInfrastructures WorkshopThe primary objectives of the AdvancedRegional Spatial Data Infrastructures work-shop that was organised by the Joint ResearchCentre at Ispra in May 2008, were to reviewthe state of progress, analyse the differentorganisational models established with localand regional stakeholders, and assess thesocial and economic impacts of the regionalSDIs (http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu). The

28April/May 2012

A r t i c l e

By Ian Masser

Figure 1: Patchwork quilt or collage? (Source: Masser 2010, 85, Esri Press)


work of 11 regional/subnational SDIs fromseven European countries was presented atthe workshop: Lombardy and Piedmont inItaly, Catalonia and Navarra in Spain,Flanders and Wallonia in Belgium, NorthRhine Westphalia and Bavaria in Germany,Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom,Brittany in France and Vysocina in the CzechRepublic.

The report edited by Max Craglia andMichele Campagna on the findings of theworkshop drew attention to the regionaldimension of SDIs and showed that they arenot just an intermediate level from global tolocal, subservient to the higher administrativeauthority...(and that) in some instances as inItaly, Spain, Belgium and Germany they arethe key building blocks of the national SDIs,with the national level providing a thin layeron the regional infrastructures. The workshopalso highlighted the efforts that the regionalSDIs had made in involving local authoritiesin their operations through many differentkinds of organisational arrangement whichbuilt up and maintained relationships and trustbetween different levels of government. Theselevels of government are also closer to largenummbers of potential SDI users in conectionwith the operational services provided region-al and local governments.

The eSDI-Net+ project This Thematic Network aimed to promotecross-border dialogue and stimulate theexchange of best practices on sub nationalSDIs in Europe. It was co-funded by theeContentplus Programme and coordinated bythe Technical University of Darmstadt inGermany. The project started in September2007 and ended in August 2010(www.esdinetplus.eu).It brought together a substantial number of SDIplayers and created a range of opportunities

for the exchange of ideas and experiencesbetween the different stakeholders involved inthe creation of SDIs throughout Europe. In theprocess it collected information about morethan 200 working solutions using a uniqueSDI assessment methodology developed bythe consortium. Between the last half of 2008 and the first halfof 2009 12 workshops were held which cov-ered all the European countries. These result-ed in 135 submissions for the Best PracticeAwards and twelve outstanding SDIs from 9European countries were invited to the Awardsceremony in Turin in November 2009.Awards were made with respect to the follow-ing categories: technology, (3 awards), organ-isational and institutional aspects (3 awards),user involvement (2 awards), and thematicSDIs (4 awards).Only three of the 12 selected SDIs had beenfeatured in the JRC workshop (Catalonia,Lombardy and North Rhine Westphalia) andonly one other SDI (Rioja in Spain) related toa similar type of administrative region. Twoothers (Forth Valley in Scotland and the CentreRegional de Information Geo grap hique forProvence-Alpes-Cote dAzur) were collabora-tive ventures between a number of localauthorities. X Border GDI was a collaborativeventure involving four Dutch provinces, threeBelgian provinces and 12 districts (Kreis) fromGermany in a densely populated borderregion while Portugals Sistema Nacionale deInformacao Geo grafica had played an impor-tant role in modernising local government. Some 43 out of the original 135 submissionsfell into the thematic category. These submis-sions came from various kinds of type 2 gov-ernance structures. The National Land andProperty Gazetteer and the National StreetGazetteer in England and Wales were highlydecentralised initiatives that provided a con-sistent platform for nearly 500 local authori-ties to develop various thematic applications.

The French SIG Pyrenees created bespokesolutions for each of five groups of profession-al users from agriculture, forestry, climate,economy and spatial planning respectivelywhile the Danish Spatial Planning Systemsought to eliminate duplication in the report-ing of the 30,000 local plans prepared by the98 municipalities in Denmark. The last awardin this category was made to Digital Norway,a nation-wide program for multi level govern-mental co-operation with respect to the estab-lishment, maintenance and distribution of dig-ital geographic data.

The best practice awards raised some impor-tant questions about the nature of SDIs. Whilesome presentations dealt with the classic caseof a SDI that has been translated from thenational level of the type 1 administrative hier-archy to the regional level the thematic SDIsthat were limited to single application fieldsfell into the type 2 category of multi level gov-ernance.

The findings of the eSDI-NET+ project alsodrew attention to the importance of taking thedynamics of SDI development into account infuture research. Many of the subnational SDIsconsidered in the project began life as rela-tively straightforward GIS applications whichhave steadily evolved over time into SDIs.

The EUROGI/eSDI-Net+ initiative In the closing stages of the eSDI-NET+ pro-ject it was agreed that the European UmbrellaOrganisation for Geographic Information(EUROGI) should take over its work to ensurethe long-term sustainability of the investmentof the European Com mission. Future activitiesincluded the maintenance of the website andthe updating of the SDI database. It was alsoagreed that EUROGI should undertake furtherrounds of best practice awards at about twoyear intervals.

A r t i c l e


Table 1: Types of multi level governance (Hooghe and Marks, 2003, p. 236)


The second round of awards was an noun cedduring summer 2011 and the awards cere-mony took place in Brussels in October. Some46 submissions from 13 European countrieswere made for these awards using the SDIself assessment framework devised during theoriginal project. Most of these came fromregional or municipal bodies although therewere also seven submissions from thematicSDIs. The seven award winners included threethematic SDIs. (www.eurogi.org/down-loads/file/77-presentation-eurogi-esdi-net-awards-2011-chairman-jury-presentation-ian-masser.html#10)

The submissions of two of these award win-ners highlight the extent to which they haveevolved since the two earlier studies. TheNational address gazetteer hub for Englandand Wales has replaced the two gazetteersthat appeared in the Turin awards. This50/50 publically owned joint venture by theOrdnance Survey of Great Britain and theLocal Government Association provides a sin-gle definitive spatial database that resolvesmore than ten years of conflict between com-peting bodies. GeoBretagne has also evolvedas a partnership between public bodies atthe local, departmental and regional level in

Brittany since it was set up in 2007 thatmakes geographic information available toeveryone for use without any restrictions.

Only two regional SDIs featured among theother award winners: Brittany, and theautonomous Portuguese region of Madeira.The latter won the networking award for itsInfraestrutura Regional de Informacao whichinvolves the collaboration of a large numberof public agencies as well as the districtauthorities on the island. Awards were alsomade to two local SDIs: IDEZar, the SDI forthe city of Zaragoza in Spain, is the outcomeof a collaborative agreement between the citycouncil and the University of Zaragoza tomake the spatial data services of the citycouncil available for all users as part of itsopen data policy, while the county of CieszynSDI in Poland demonstrates what can bedone with limited resources to facilitate thesharing of information between the countyand its 12 component districts.

The geoportal of the Swiss confederationshared the technology award with theCieszyn SDI. This involved the establishmentof a publically accessible national platformfor geographic information services by the

Federal Office for Topography (swisstopo)based on the concept of infrastructure as aservice which is based on access rather thanownership. The sustainability category waswon by the Property Council in the Ministryof Finance of the Dutch government who havecreated a SDI for staff from eight differentorganisations to facilitate the management ofgovernment land holdings throughout thecountry. This SDI provided an internal servicefor more than 300 government officials.

An important outcome of the last two projectsis an online database which contains detailsof 124 SDIs from the first round of submis-sions and data about all 46 submissions fromthe latest round (www.esdinetplus.eu/best_practice/database.html). These providea valuable resource for further analysis.

EvaluationThe findings of this analysis suggest that thatthe theory of multi level governance offers auseful framework for the evaluation of region-al and local SDIs and that the distinctionbetween Type 1 and Type 2 types of gover-nance explains the difference between SDIsbased on administrative areas and thematicSDIs. The properties of each type of gover-

A r t i c l e

30April/May 2012


nance are worth examining in more detail with reference to their impactson SDI development.

The most striking feature of the regional and local SDIs reviewed aboveis their diversity in practice. Each SDI reflects the cultural diversity of theorganisations that are involved and the institutional environment thatsurrounds them. There are also important differences in the emphasisthat is given to particular SDI components in practice. Some SDIs arevery much technology driven while others place greater on facilitatinguser involvement. Other criteria identified during the eSDI-Net+ selec-tion process included sustainability, networking facilities, and organisa-tional characteristics. The lists of award winners also include a SDI thatstraddles the borders of three different countries and a SDI that is onlyavailable to government officials from a limited number of governmentdepartments via an intranet facility.

There are also considerable differences between the thematic SDIswhich are linked to specific applications. The range of potential appli-cations in the SDIs reviewed above includes fields such as addressing,agriculture, climate, economy, emergency management, forestry andspatial planning and this is by no means an exhaustive list.

Another important feature of the SDIs under review is their dynamism.According to the theory of multi level governance this is something thatmight be expected in the case of thematic SDIs but it is also a featureof more conventional SDIs as can seen from the example ofGeoBretagne. The size of the geographic areas that are involved alsovaries considerably. The population of North Rhine Westphalia (morethan 18 million), for example, is more than that of the majority of the27 national member states in the European Union.

Given the findings of the analysis it is also necessary to address thequestion as to what constitutes a SDI. Most current definitions followmore or less along the lines of that in the SDI Cookbook (www.gsdi-docs.org/GSDIWiki/index.php/Main_Page)produced by the GlobalSpatial Infrastructure Association. This states that the term Spatial DataInfrastructure (SDI) is often used to denote the relevant base collectionof technologies, policies and institutional arrangements that facilitate theavailability of and access to spatial data. The SDI provides a basis forspatial data discovery, evaluation, and application for users andproviders within all levels of government, the commercial sector, the non-profit sector, academia and by citizens in general.

All the SDIs reviewed meet the requirements of the general definition withone possible exception. The SDI developed by the Dutch Property Councilprovides only an internal service for government officials. However, itcan be argued that this SDI should be included as it facilitates the workof more than 300 officials from eight different organisations.

The findings of the analysis suggest that longevity is a useful indica-tor of a successful SDI as some of the reviewed SDIs have devel-oped over periods of twenty years or more. This points to the needfor more case studies that trace the factors that led to the evolutionof particular SDIs over time and in some cases force them to rein-vent themselves to respond to changing circumstances. The findingsof these studies could make an important contribution to the imple-mentation of the INSPIRE Directive.

Ian Masser retired as Professor of Urban Planning at ITC in the Netherlands in 2002. Educated in geography and town planning at Liverpool University Ian received his PhD in 1975 and a LittD

in 1993 from the same University. His most recent books, GIS worlds: creating spatial data infrastructures (ESRI Press 2005) and Building European SDIs (ESRI Press 2007, second edition 2010),

deal with SDI policy issues, governance and institutional networking.

A r t i c l e


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32April/May 2012

A r t i c l e

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A Pilot Study

UAV Flight over SingaporeFor the first time Singaporean authorities have given permission for a photogrammetric UAV map-ping/modeling flight over an important area of the city. In the context of the SEC-FCL (Future CitiesLaboratory) project a pilot study is conducted with the goal to generate a high quality 3D city model ofthe NUS campus from UAV images. 800 images were needed to cover the area. Data processing is inprogress.

UAVs Unmanned Aerial Vehicles haverecently become a strong focus of atten-tion, since fairly inexpensive platforms,navigation and control devices and sensors forinstantaneous digital data production havebecome available.

Nowadays many groups worldwide areengaged in UAV- related R&D. Beyond that,these devices are increasingly finding their wayinto a great variety of practical applications.Low altitude UAV systems are small, of low tomoderate cost, very flexible in terms of use andimage acquisition (vertical, oblique and quasi-terrestrial imaging modes) and the images areinstantly available for on-line processing. Also,the ability to fly below a layer of clouds makesthem usable in cases where other platforms withoptical sensors like standard surveying aircraftwill fail. They constitute thus a most flexible dataacquisition platform.

There are many diverse systems in use, rang-ing from fairly big, heavy, long-range and thusexpensive drones to small, inexpensive plat-forms. For obtaining flight permissions a num-ber of factors like weight, size, radio frequen-cy, remote control equipment, experience andcertifications of operators, redundancies, safetymeasures during flight, object distance fromnext airport and military facilities, etc. play akey role. In general it can be said that the lighter(and thus less dangerous) the platform, the morereadily permissions are given. Sometimes ittakes a long time to obtain those permissions.We have experienced cases where permissionsfrom up to six agencies/groups had to beobtained. Singapore ranks among the morerestrictive countries worldwide as far as accessto certain kind of geodata is concerned.

Simulation PlatformThe author is engaged as PrincipalInvestigator on the Simulation Platform of theFuture Cities Laboratory (FCL). FCL was estab-

34April/May 2012

A r t i c l e

By Armin Gruen

Falcon-8, ready for take-off, infront of the CRISP satelliteimage receiving station


lished by ETH Zurich and SingaporesNational Research Foundation (NRF). It is rununder the auspices of the Singapore-ETHCentre for Global Environmental Sustain ability(SEC). Collaborating academic partnersinclude the National University of Singapore(NUS), Nanyang Technological University(NTU), and the cole Poly tech nique Fdralede Lausanne (EPFL). The Future CitiesLaboratory (FCL) is a trans-disciplinaryresearch centre focusing on urban sustainabil-ity in a global frame. It is the first research pro-gramme of the Singapore-ETH Centre forGlobal Environmental Sustain ability (SEC). Itis home to a community of over 100 PhD, post-

doctoral and Professorial researchers workingon diverse themes related to future cities andenvironmental sustainability.

The Simulation Platform, as one of nineresearch modules, provides for services andre

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