inspire thematic cluster #3 - phases 1 & 2 - final … · web view3.3.1. analyse problems in...

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONJOINT RESEARCH CENTRE

Institute for Environment and SustainabilityDigital Earth and Reference Data Unit

INSPIRE Thematic cluster on Elevation, Orthoimagery, Reference systems and Geographical grids

Phases 1 & 2 & 3 - Report

Author(s) Jordi Escriu

Reviewed by

Approved by Robert Tomas

Date of Approval

Title INSPIRE Thematic cluster Elevation, Orthoimagery, Reference systems and Geographical grids. Phases 1 & 2 & 3 – Report

Creator Jordi EscriuDate of last revision 19.12.2016SubjectType of Deliverable ReportStatus Draft

Publisher European Commission JRCDescription Report on the use of Thematic Cluster #3 on-line collaboration platform,

including the resources uploaded, issues encountered, proposals for endorsement by MIG-T, main activities organized by the cluster and proposals for changes to the setting up and operation of the platform and the Thematic Cluster initiative. It is the 2016 yearly report for the third phase of the platform including an overview of the results from the beginning of the initiative.

Contributor

Rights Internal

Language EN

Distribution List JRC , ENV, ..

Identifier INSPIRE Thematic clusters – report

INSPIRE Thematic cluster on Elevation, Orthoimagery, Reference systems and Geographical grids p. 2 of 37

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Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

Table of Contents1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 5

1.1. Purpose and Scope...................................................................................................................51.2. Structure of the report.............................................................................................................5

2. THE USE OF THE INSPIRE THEMATIC CLUSTER ON ELEVATION, ORTHOIMAGERY, REFERENCE SYSTEMS AND GEOGRAPHICAL GRIDS.............................................................................6

2.1. Members..................................................................................................................................62.2. Content.....................................................................................................................................8

2.2.1. Type of resources.........................................................................................................82.2.2. Resources per category..............................................................................................11

2.3. Discussion topics....................................................................................................................142.3.1. Number, status and distribution of discussions.........................................................142.3.2. Overview of discussions.............................................................................................15

2.4. Activity....................................................................................................................................162.4.1. Most active discussions topics...................................................................................16

2.5. Cluster activities.....................................................................................................................182.5.1. Alignment of the Thematic Cluster with the relevant communities...........................182.5.2. Additional promotional activities...............................................................................202.5.3. Networking................................................................................................................222.5.4. Future activities..........................................................................................................22

3. INSPIRE THEMATIC CLUSTERS – SW ENVIRONMENT............................................................23

3.1. Information on how to use the platform................................................................................233.1.1. Add a page with clear instructions to use the platform..............................................23

3.2. Structure.................................................................................................................................233.2.1. Create a new read-only cluster to deal with cross-cluster discussions......................23

3.3. Functionality...........................................................................................................................243.3.1. Analyse problems in accessing to the platform due to the authentication process.. .243.3.2. System to trace and award active participation from cluster members.....................24

4. CURRENT AND PLANNED SUPPORT AND PILOT ACTIVITIES..................................................26

4.1. Overview of the experience supporting Thematic Cluster community...................................264.1.1. Phase 1.......................................................................................................................264.1.2. Phase 2.......................................................................................................................274.1.3. Phase 3.......................................................................................................................27

4.2. Proposals for MIG-T MIWP-14 – Main outcomes from the cluster.........................................284.3. Workshop Implementation and Potential of Coverage Data and WCS – outcomes and results294.4. Upcoming and planned support activities..............................................................................34

5. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS..........................................................................35

5.1. Empowering engagement and activity...................................................................................355.2. Proposals for future activities.................................................................................................365.3. Final conclusions.....................................................................................................................37


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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Purpose and Scope

This report is the deliverable D1 “Report on the use of the on-line thematic platform” as defined in Annex 2: Chapter 7 of the Expert contract C393271. The report describes the activities that have taken place in the INSPIRE thematic cluster on Elevation (EL), Orthoimagery (OI), Coordinate Reference systems (RS), and Geographical grids (GG) - Thematic Cluster #3 from the beginning of its activity. Additionally, it provides facilitator’s recommendations or improvements on the used SW environment as well as general recommendations to promote INSPIRE implementation in the community addressed by the cluster.

Thematic Cluster #3 is the natural extension of the Topographic and Cadastral Reference Data Cluster (Thematic Cluster #6 – covering the Administrative units, Addresses, Buildings, Cadastral parcels, Geographical names, Hydrography and Transport networks themes), complementing the list of reference data sets which are usually gathered and produced by mapping agencies and similar organizations (Elevation and Orthoimagery data sets) and establishing the geo-referencing framework to be utilized in the INSPIRE context (Coordinate reference systems and Geographical grid systems).

1.2. Structure of the report

Section 2 describes statistically the activity taken place in the thematic cluster platform (e.g. number of members, discussion topics, replies, uploaded resources and good practices, etc.). The chapter also describes the methodology used by the facilitator to promote and facilitate the platform, including the activities carried out.

Section 3 presents facilitator’s view and improvement recommendations (if relevant) on the structure as well as functionality of the SW collaboration tool.

Section 4 summarises facilitator’s experience with supporting the community in implementing INSPIRE, with an evaluation of the activity in the cluster during Phases 1 and 2, and the first stage of Phase 3. It highlights information about:

a) The proposals for changes and amendments to the INSPIRE technical guidelines agreed in the cluster, which were forwarded to and endorsed by MIG-T MIWP-14.

b) The workshop activity organized as the main activity of the cluster during the initial stage of Phase 3.

Section 5 presents facilitator’s recommendations and conclusions, if relevant, for improvements related to potential follow up activities.


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2. THE USE OF THE INSPIRE THEMATIC CLUSTER ON ELEVATION, ORTHOIMAGERY, REFERENCE SYSTEMS AND GEOGRAPHICAL GRIDS

This section provides an overview of the content already included to the thematic cluster platform and describes statistically the activity that has taken place in it.

In summary:

Number and type of members, as well as their distribution across the themes belonging to the cluster.

Type of contents or resources already uploaded to the platform, together with information about their classification in categories.

Number of discussion topics, content pages and description of their types.

Activity registered from members of the platform, through their responses and participation in the discussion topics (number of replies and views).

Moreover, it also describes the methodology and the enumeration of activities put in place to promote and facilitate the platform.

The cluster platform is structured in a main group and four sub-groups (one per each theme in the cluster). The main group is intended to be the place to look up for information, share resources and have discussions which are common to more than one INSPIRE theme within the Thematic Cluster. Each of the sub-groups has the same function, but the content is relevant to a specific single theme.

2.1. Members

Thematic Cluster #3 is composed of 123 members till the date of last revision of this report, corresponding to the first part of Phase 3 at the end of the year 2016. This constitutes an increment of a 17 % with respect to the end of Phase 2 (105 members).

Current membership may be classified according to the following categories:

a. Producers of data in the scope of the cluster, i.e. data belonging to the Elevation and Orthoimagery themes, mainly using the raster spatial representation type.

These usually comprise public sector professionals and technical experts responsible for INSPIRE implementation in Mapping Agencies at all levels of administration, which need specific support to deal with the interpretation and application of the Directive in the scope of the present cluster.

This category is widely represented by the EuroGeographics community, mainly through the link with the INSPIRE Knowledge Exchange Network, INSPIRE-KEN. However, additional important data producer communities are being progressively involved in the cluster through the cluster activities: EMODnet bathymetry, IHO, national hydrographic offices and river basin district offices from Member States, or Copernicus stakeholders.

b. Existing and potential users of this data.

Elevation and Orthoimagery data is present in many of the use cases identified during the development of INSPIRE Annex I, II and III. It constitutes important reference data which is used a multiple GIS analyses and applications.

This category includes a variety of communities, those working at the European level - e.g. European Commission agencies and related organizations and Copernicus users


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utilizing satellite imagery and DEM data, but also user communities from Member States, at different levels of administration.

c. People working for software development companies.

These are willing to show and demonstrate the capabilities of their software tools when trying to solve specific implementation issues, such as data transformation or validation or setting-up of network services.

The thematic cluster is the perfect place to share these contents, as a meeting point between implementers and software vendors complementing the ARE3NA project.

The underlying idea is to support Member States in the solution of specific needs and problems that have been clearly identified by implementers and connect them with existing software solutions, as well as to identify existing software gaps when no solutions are available.

d. Producers and consumers of data belonging to any INSPIRE theme, which need to understand and comply with the INSPIRE geo-referencing framework1.

These involve communities which have to implement the requirements and recommendations of the Coordinate reference systems and Geographical grid systems themes.

The Thematic Cluster shall continue encouraging the involvement and participation of the mentioned communities by aligning the cluster activity with the events organized by them and sharing common objectives.

Further efforts shall be done to improve the link of the Cluster with existing projects and initiatives like ARE3NA or FOSS4G related to best practices and software implementation, by reusing the outcomes and avoiding duplicities.

The following pie chart shows the distribution of current membership across the sub-groups in the cluster (in absolute number and percentage with respect the total number of members which joined to any of the subgroups in the cluster).

Thematic Cluster #3Distribution of membership at different levels of the platform

3227%

3328%

2925%

2320% EL sub-group members

OI sub-group members

RS sub-group members

GG sub-group members

The graphic reflects a quite uniform distribution of the cluster members in the diffreent subgroups. Those more populated are the Orthoimagery subgroup (33 members) and the Elevation subgroup (32 members).

1 The INSPIRE geo-referencing framework, which is composed by the Coordinate reference systems and Geographical grid systems themes foreseen in the INSPIRE Directive, does not mandate the provision of any type of data.


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It is worth to mention that members of the cluster are always joined to the main group, but not necessarily to the subgroups, which are devoted to theme-specific content and discussion. This depends on the specific interests each member has. Hence, the percentage showed in the chart above is only indicative of the relative difference in membership between the four subgroups, but not relative to the total number of members of the cluster (i.e. the number of members of the main group).

It shall be noted that a cluster member (necessarily joined to the main group) may also be joined to more that one sub-group.

2.2. Content

2.2.1. Type of resources

The content that is currently available through Thematic Cluster #3 may be summarized accord-ing to the following list of resource types:

A. Discussion topics

Discussion topics are probably the most interesting type of resource in the platform. These are open and live pages published by members in the platform, aimed at sharing views, ask ques-tions, resolving specific problems, warn about specific implementation issues and/or looking for advice. Participation in these discussions is only available for people who joined the cluster, i.e. members either of the main group or one of its sub-groups – wherever this discussion takes place. Nonetheless, non-members are able to look at the content which is already published in the discussion thread.

Till the date of last revision of this report (part of Phase 3 corresponding to 2016), the platform is provided with 50 discussion topics. A description of the current discussion topics is provided in section 2.3 of this document.

B. Content pages

Outcomes from the cluster are usually documented in static content pages in the platform, either at the level of the main group or at the sub-group level.

In this first part of Phase 3, the cluster has 21 top-level pages used for structuring and classifying contents. Such contents, which are those really helpful, are documented in 29 static pages de-voted to different resource types:

B.1) Successful experiences in delivering pan-European products

This kind of resources represents existing best practices which constitute successful data in -teroperability implementation cases, e.g. the process to obtain the EuroGeographics EuroDEM pan-European data set or the EMODnet bathymetry portal.

Certain differences may exist between the approach applied in these practices and the IN-SPIRE process, but known solutions to specific issues may be really helpful for the later.

B.2) Leading projects, at European and national level

These projects deal with specific aspects on INSPIRE implementation in the scope of the cluster. Knowledge of the content and outcomes from them is extremely useful to share re-sources and efforts, as well as key for a successful implementation.

Some examples are provided below:

Elevation and/or Orthoimagery data:


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- Transformation and validation of data (including available tools).

- Provision of data through network services.

E.g.: ELF (European Location Framework - http://www.elfproject.eu/), eENVplus (www.eenvplus.eu), ARE3NA.

Coordinate reference systems and Geographical grids

- Establishment of an official registry of reference systems and geodetic paramet-ers.

- Spreading of knowledge about existing official transformations from national coordinate reference systems to those required and used in INSPIRE.

- Support to the transformation between these coordinate reference systems.

- Transformation of data referenced to national grids to the INSPIRE geographical grids.

E.g.: CRS-EU (Coordinate Reference Systems in Europe - www.crs-geo.eu).

INSPIRE Generic

- Establishment and management of processes to achieve interoperability.

- Cooperation between administrations and organizations at different levels.

E.g.: PNOT (PNOA - http://pnoa.ign.es/; PNT - http://pnt.ign.es/; SIOSE - http://www.-siose.es/).

B.3) Existing pan-European products

This is an inventory of existing pan-European products, or cross-national data sets which has been used in an international, cross-border context to satisfy certain needs.

Information about the past or current use of such data sets may help to identify their lacks and gaps (up-to-date condition, insufficient resolution, poor quality, new prototypes) - e.g. EU-DEM, EURODEM, prototypes for a new EURODEM30 product and a new ELF Orthoim-agery service, or EMODnet Bathymetry data.

B.4) Information on data transformation experiences and software tools applicable in the scope

Experiences from participating members when transforming their data according to the IN-SPIRE rules, including the use and application of software tools, could be helpful in drafting a list of existing solutions to be applied and followed for the INSPIRE implementation - e.g. FME, HALE.

Such experiences may illustrate other participants to deal with specific doubts or difficulties by learning from good examples from expert members, which are ahead in the implementa -tion.

B.5) Proposals for MIG-T MIWP14 subgroup

A number of discussion topics were mature enough to start producing outcomes in the cluster. These results have been documented in pages. They are often common agreements from the communities to solve specific issues or errors, and constitute proposals for chan-ging the INSPIRE technical guidelines, or even the implementing rules in certain cases.

http://www.siose.es/

http://www.siose.es/

http://pnt.ign.es/

http://pnoa.ign.es/

http://www.crs-geo.eu/

http://www.eenvplus.eu/

http://www.elfproject.eu/


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The first collection of proposals changes and additions to the Implementing Rule on Interop-erability of Spatial Datasets and Services and the INSPIRE Technical Guidelines was forwar-ded to MIG-T MIWP-14 subgroup at the end of Phase 2.

See section 4.2 for more information about the status of these outcomes.

B.6) Relevant and useful documentation

The platform also includes useful documentation that may help people accessing to be intro-duced in the technical guidelines (e.g. presentations explaining the last version of the data specifications), to know about relevant events that influenced their content, to understand specific issues (e.g. technical workshops or reports), etc.

B.7) News and upcoming events

News and events related to the scope of the thematic cluster, including its own activities (e.g. upcoming conferences, congresses, symposiums, workshops, webinars, courses, ap-proval and development of new standards, etc.) are regularly announced to properly inform people accessing to the platform.

Till the end of 2016, Thematic Cluster #3 counts with 26 news items published in the plat-form, all of them in the main group of the cluster.

C. Files uploaded

Apart from linking external resources available on the Internet, the platform has the possibility to upload files to both, discussion topics and content pages.

During this the first part of Phase 3, Thematic Cluster #3 counts with 75 files uploaded to the platform.


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2.2.2. Resources per category

The resources included in the platform, regardless of their type (section 2.2.1), may be classified according to predefined categories, managed by the administrator of the Thematic Clusters site. Each category provides an orientation about the subject to which the resource is related to. The list of available categories is shown in the following chart.

Such classification may help cluster members and other people accessing to the platform to fil-ter and identify the resources related to a specific category, according to their interests.

When members open a new discussion topic, they are also able to assign their own classification keywords to the reported issue, question, experience, etc. by using appropriate tags. Tagging provides additional capabilities to filter and identify interesting resources.

The pie chart below shows the number of resources in Thematic Cluster #3 related to each cat -egory foreseen in the platform, accompanied by the corresponding percentage.

Thematic Cluster #3Number and percentage of resources per category

at the whole cluster level

173%

41% 1

0%

6913%

112%

194%

10%

275%

479%

8116%

194%

10%

306%

7915%

9118%

41%

133%

Thematic use-case Data model / ScopeCommon terminology EncodingData quality Evolution / Thematic extensionsPortrayal EU Thematic databasesSW Tools Member State issuesPolitical / Organisational framework CodelistsBest Practice InteroperabilityData provision Data used for e-reportingRecommended implementation examples


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It is really interesting to highlight that the categories most used across the platform, in decreas-ing order of usage, are:

‘Data provision’ (18% of resources);

‘Member State issues’ (16%);

‘Interoperability’ (15%);

‘Encoding’ (13%);

‘SW Tools’, i.e. software tools (9%);

‘Best practices’ (6%);

‘EU Thematic databases’ (5%);

Other categories which lower percentages;

This reveals the final objective of the thematic clusters initiative, which is supporting Member States in solving issues related to the implementation of the Directive (INSPIRE data provision, implementation issues, solutions for the interoperability, how to encode the data, examples of applications and experiences, best practices, etc.).

These figures also demonstrate that the activity of Thematic Cluster #3 has been well-oriented at content level during Phases 1 and 2, and continuing in the first part of Phase 3.

In addition, the stacked column chart provided below these lines shows the percentage of re-sources per each category foreseen in the platform2, at different levels of it.

2 The platform has an additional category: ‘Platform utilisation’, which does not appear in the charts in this section. At the moment, the cluster platform does not include resources classified with it.


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In shall be noted that contents and resources at the level of the main group are potentially re-lated to more that one theme in the cluster. This means that if a category is not present in a sub-group (theme-specific), the main group may include some resources related to such cat-egory and specific INSPIRE theme.

2.3. Discussion topics

2.3.1. Number, status and distribution of discussions

At the end of 2016 (Phase 3) Thematic Cluster #3 is currently running 50 discussion topics, ex-periencing an increase of discussion threads of a 25% with respect to the end of Phase 2 (where we count with 40 threads). From these 50 threads, 20 are taking place at the main group level of the cluster (12 of them cross-cluster, i.e. also related to other clusters and themes), and the 30 remaining are taking place at sub-group level (theme-specific discussions).

The following stacked column chart reproduces the mentioned figures, showing the distribution of the discussion topics across the main group and the corresponding subgroups of the cluster, and specifying their status (open and closed discussions).

Thematic Cluster #3Number of discussion topics and current status

at different levels of the platform

20

115 3 1

30

9

8

55

300

10

20

30

40

50

60

Whole clusterlevel

Main group level EL sub-grouplevel

OI sub-grouplevel

RS sub-grouplevel

GG sub-grouplevel

Open discussion topics Closed discussion topics

The figure above shows that the Elevation and the Coordinate reference systems subgroups re-gister the largest number of discussion topics (13 and 8, respectively), followed by the sub-groups on Orthoimagery (with 5) and Geographical grid systems (with 4).

Open discussions represent threads where the discussion is still ongoing or a specific question remains open and waiting for feedback in the platform. Additionally, they may correspond to threads which just try to collect experiences, opinions and feedback from participants, rather than being issues to be solved. This kind of threads may remain open a larger period of time.


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On the other hand, closed discussions correspond to threads where active participants arrived to an agreed and mature solution to a specific issue through the platform, where a question got a proper and acceptable answer from other members or which was moved to other group or sub-group, once better identified its scope and the INSPIRE themes related to it. Closed threads may also correspond to discussion which collected enough materials and feedback related to the topic.

The current percentage of closed discussion topics is 60%. This figure has increased till the end of Phase 2, when a 20% was registered – This shows the effort that has been done during the first part of Phase 3 to close pending issues.

Some of the closed discussions correspond to those which have delivered proposals for changes and amendments of the data specifications – inputs for MIG-T MIWP-14 subgroup (Section 4).

2.3.2. Overview of discussions

A short overview about the types of discussions taking place in the platform is provided below, corresponding to a variety of aspects:

Direct support, dealing with issues to empower successful implementation.

- Encoding raster data as GMLCOV INSPIRE Coverages.- Potential and implementation of Web Coverage Services (WCS).- Existing transformation and validation tools.

Clarifying questions stemming from the interpretation of the Technical Guidelines.

- Use of the INSPIRE ‘Equal Area Grid’.- Transverse Mercator projections allowed in INSPIRE.- Clarification of specific sections of the Technical Guidelines.

Influencing the evolution of the Technical Guidelines (MIF), coping with interop-erability blocking factors (including the proposals forwarded to MIG-T MIWP-14 sub-group3).

- Need and feasibility of a usable European Common Geographical Grid for raster data.

- Correction of errors and inconsistencies identified in the Technical Guidelines & related change proposals.

Existing examples and best practices, showing the need for INSPIRE and its be-nefits:

- Pan-European datasets (e.g. EuroDEM, EU-DEM, EMODnet bathymetry portal). - Projects and initiatives (e.g. ELF, Seamless Orthoimagery coverage for the Grand

Genève cross-border area).- Prototypes (e.g. EuroDEM30, ELF OI Service).

3 Thematic Cluster #3 proposed a number of changes and amendments to the technical guidelines in the scope of the cluster. They have been endorsed by MIG, and are described in section 4 of this document.


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2.4. Activity

The total number of replies to discussion topics for the whole cluster is 292 at the end of 2016 (first part of Phase 3), which represents an increase of the activity in a 25% since the end of Phase 2 (where 234 replies were registered).

This figure shall be improved during the rest of Phase 3 - All the thematic clusters are making an effort to better involve the implementers from Member States and the MIG-T.

On the other hand, the average number of replies per discussion is roughly 6 – stable since the end of Phase 2. Nonetheless, such figure is not much representative of the activity in the cluster, since participation of members is irregularly distributed across the platform (between main group and sub-groups) – as show in the following pie chart - and across the different dis-cussions.

Thematic Cluster #3Distribution of replies to discussion topics

at different levels of the platform

4816%

238%

259%

6422%

13245%

Replies at main group level

Replies at EL sub-group level

Replies at OI sub-group level

Replies at RS sub-group level

Replies at GG sub-group level

The graphic above shows that the 45% of the replies are registered at the level of the main group of the cluster. In addition, the Elevation and the Geographical grid systems sub-groups are the most active ones - with a 22% and a 16% of the total replies, respectively.

The situation is quite similar to the end of Phase 2, whereas at the end of Phase 1 the Geo-graphical grids and Coordinate reference systems sub-groups were the most active ones.

2.4.1. Most active discussions topics

In addition to the statistics on replies, the platform is also able to indicate how many times a dis -cussion topic (or other resource type) was viewed (‘Views’), throwing good results as well.

The most active threads in the cluster are discussions about encoding of raster data as INSPIRE coverages, with 124 replies in total (and 8525 views):

How to encode the extent of coverages - domainExtent vs. gml:boundedBy (45 replies / 1741 views).

Requests to add guidance and clear implementation examples to the technical guidelines – Elevation coverage example based on GMLCOV schema (24 replies / 1162 views).

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/42326/need-more-guidance-for-elevation-encoding-and-correct-example-for-elevationgridcoverage-on-the-basis-of-gmlcov-schema

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/12901/domainextent-vs-gmlboundedby-el-oi-coverages-encoding


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Experiences on encoding of Elevation and Orthoimagery coverages in GML - GMLCOV (15 replies / 1856 views).

Web Coverage Service (WCS) - A missing piece in INSPIRE? (11 replies / 1058 views).

Question about the encoding options in the Elevation theme (10 replies / 165 views).

Limited encoding guidance in the Technical Guidelines for the Elevation theme (6 replies / 546 views).

Clarify the structure of coverage encoding-related sections in the technical guidelines - "Default encoding(s)" and "Alternative encoding(s)" (5 replies / 362 views).

Other threads related with the topic, some of them published very recently (8 replies / 1635 views).

Their common basis is the provision of INSPIRE conformant data according the standards (GML-COV) and agreeing on interoperability solutions when doubts / issues appear or different op-tions are allowed.

In second position, the most active ones are those threads discussing about the use, usability and feasibility of INSPIRE Geographic Grids, with 45 replies in total:

Usability of the ‘Zoned Geographic Grid’ - Grid_ETRS89-GRS80 (33 replies / 1550 views).

Use of the ‘Equal Area Grid’ - Grid_ETRS89-LAEA (12 replies / 817 views).

Following the decreasing order of activity, we find the following discussion topics (after those already mentioned):

Inconsistencies/errors found in the technical guidelines on Orthoimagery (16 replies / 748 views).

Existing validation rules (10 replies / 789 views).

Usefulness of Contour Lines transformed to EVRS from a national height refer - ence system (10 replies / 589 views).

Many of them related to questions about Coordinate reference systems and Projections:

Transverse Mercator projections allowed in INSPIRE - ETRS89-TMzn and raster data for OI and EL (9 replies / 642 views).

Projections (data provisions vs. data visualization) and grids (9 replies / 43 views).

What coordinate reference systems to document in the metadata when serving a dataset through WFS (8 replies / 478 views).

Coordinate reference systems & geographical grids for Orthoimagery (7 replies / 367 views).

Collecting proposals for change the Technical Guidelines on EL, OI, RS & GG (7 replies / 245 views).

European Grid Coordinate System naming used for EU-DEM tiles - Copernicus RDA EU-DEM EGCS naming (7 replies / 699 views).

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/8899/copernicus-rda-eu-dem-egcs-naming

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/8899/copernicus-rda-eu-dem-egcs-naming

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/53423/collecting-proposals-for-change-the-technical-guidelines-on-el-oi-rs-gg

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/64337/orthoimagery-crs-grids

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/64808/what-crss-to-document-in-metadata-when-serving-a-dataset-through-a-wfs

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/64808/what-crss-to-document-in-metadata-when-serving-a-dataset-through-a-wfs

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/97699/projections

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/21436/etrs89-tmzn-and-raster-data-for-oi-and-el

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/21436/etrs89-tmzn-and-raster-data-for-oi-and-el

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/3709/usefulness-of-contour-lines-transformed-to-evrs-from-a-national-height-reference-system

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/3709/usefulness-of-contour-lines-transformed-to-evrs-from-a-national-height-reference-system

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/16525/existing-validation-rules-for-inspire-data-sets-el-oi-other-themes

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/32920/inconsistencieserrors-found-in-the-inspire-tgs-on-orthoimagery

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/10928/use-of-the-equal-area-grid-grid-etrs89-laea

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/10935/usability-of-the-zoned-geographic-grid-grid-etrs89-grs80

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/49915/clarify-the-structure-of-coverage-encoding-related-sections-in-the-tgs-default-encodings-and-alternative-encodings

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/49915/clarify-the-structure-of-coverage-encoding-related-sections-in-the-tgs-default-encodings-and-alternative-encodings

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/34434/limited-guidance-in-technical-guidelines-for-el-theme

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/94285/question-about-encoding-option-in-the-elevation-theme

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/22150/web-coverage-service-wcs-a-missing-piece-in-inspire

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/2843/experiences-on-encoding-of-elevation-and-orthoimagery-coverages


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

2.5. Cluster activities

The subsections below describe the methodology promoted by the facilitation of Thematic Cluster #3 and the activities carried out during Phases 1, 2 and the first part of Phase 3 (2016).

In total, the following cluster events have been held: 4 promotional presentations (one of them structured as a promotional workshop), 4 Workshops, 2 Webinars, 4 Teleconferences (apart from regular teleconferences between the European Commission and the facilitators of the Thematic Clusters).

2.5.1. Alignment of the Thematic Cluster with the relevant communities

The main and most relevant step to promote and engage the community of implementers of Thematic Cluster #3 has been the alignment of this initiative with the work plan of he EuroGeographics INSPIRE Knowledge Exchange Network (INSPIRE-KEN).

The basis of the action was accomplished jointly with the Topographic and Cadastral Reference Data Cluster (Thematic Cluster #6), by organizing a teleconference on 17th December 2014 with Dominique Laurent (chair of the INSPIRE-KEN).

As a result of this virtual meeting, the INSPIRE-KEN coordination committee established in January 2015 (Brussels) the work plan for the year, with most activities focused on the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters. An overview of these activities is provided in the following sub-sections.

Additionally, Thematic Cluster #3 is progressively engaging the bathymetric data community represented by EMODnet. Relevant members of this community were represented in the Workshop on Transformation of Coverage Data Themes and WCS and the Workshop on Implementation and potential of INSPIRE coverage data and WCS (both described below).

It is foreseen to strengthen the links with this community during the rest of Phase 3 of the cluster, as well involve Copernicus stakeholders.

A. Webinar on the Thematic Clusters on Topographic and Cadastral Reference Data

This was an online introduction to the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters initiative and a very successful promotion of the clusters on Topographic and Cadastral Reference Data (Thematic Cluster #3 and #6), celebrated in 6th March 2015.

This webinar was open to people outside the membership of the EuroGeographics association, with 75 attendees, and proved to be successful to promote the cluster mainly across National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies (NMCAs) – After the webinar, Thematic Cluster #3 increased its membership approximately in a 10%, from 49 to 54 people.

The slides and the webinar recording are available from the EuroGeographics website:

http://www.eurogeographics.org/content/webinar-inspire-thematic-clusters-march-2015

D. Workshop on transformation of vector data related to Thematic Cluster #6

This was a workshop celebrated in Budapest on 16th - 17th April 2015, focused on the transform-ation of data for the Administrative units, Addresses, Buildings, Cadastral parcels and Geograph-ical names themes. It complemented the data transformation workshop for the Hydrography and Transport networks themes celebrated in 2014.

Several aspects and issues were also common to Thematic Cluster #3.

http://www.eurogeographics.org/event/inspire-ken-workshop-16-and-17-april-2015

http://www.eurogeographics.org/event/inspire-ken-workshop-16-and-17-april-2015

http://www.eurogeographics.org/content/webinar-inspire-thematic-clusters-march-2015


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

E. INSPIRE GWF 2015 Workshop on INSPIRE Thematic Clusters for Topographic and Cadastral Reference Data

Supporting INSPIRE implementation: the Thematic Clusters for topographic and cadastral ref-erence data

The workshop, scheduled on 28th May 2015 in Lisbon during the INSPIRE Conference 2015, in-troduced the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters Collaboration Platform, developed to support INSPIRE implementation in the Members States as part of the Maintenance and Implementation Frame -work (MIF).

It was focused on the Clusters concerned to data in the scope of Mapping and Cadastral Agen -cies (topographic and cadastral reference data), involving Thematic Clusters #3 and #6.

The main goal was to discuss with the audience (implementers, users, technical experts and in-terested persons) about selected relevant implementation issues in the scope of these clusters, with the view to get feedback and results on these topics:

Vector data: flattening of data models; how to make and deliver extensions of INSPIRE data models.

Raster data: encoding of coverages; WCS services. Additional implementation topics: management of persistent identifiers and

temporal aspects; handling of big features.

A description of the workshop and the presentations and outcomes are accessible through the collaborative platform:

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/view/45496/inspire-gwf-2015-workshop-the-thematic-clusters-for-topographic-and-cadastral-reference-data

F. Workshop on Transformation of Coverage Data Themes and WCS

This workshop was the main and most useful activity in Thematic Cluster #3 during Phase 2. It was scheduled on 28th -29th September 2015 in Barcelona, at the venues of the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC).

The event was mainly dedicated to share experiences on transformation and encoding of Eleva-tion and Orthoimagery data (also related to other INSPIRE themes and clusters with similar is -sues), but also to other issues such as the use and application of WCS services. It counted 23 at-tendees with a very interesting training session on coverages and produced useful materials and documentation for the cluster.

The agenda, minutes, presentations and videos are accessible through the thematic cluster platform:

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/view/45690/workshop-about-transformation-of-coverage-based-data-themes-and-wcs-barcelona-29-30-september-2015






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G. Follow-up Webinar on Coverage Data and Services

This webinar, organized by the EuroGeographics INSPIRE KEN and scheduled on 18th January 2016 (from 10:00 h to 11:30 h CET), was mainly dedicated to solve issues, questions and doubts that remained open from the Workshop on Transformation of Coverage Data Themes and WCS, in Barcelona (September 2015).

The webinar reflected the need to clarify the different terminology and concepts from the im-plementer and the standardization / OGC community regarding coverage data and services. It was agreed to carry on with this task before discussing in detail the relevant issues identified.

H. Joint informal meeting of Thematic Clusters #3 and #6 - INSPIRE Conference 2016

A joint informal meeting of Thematic Cluster #3 and Thematic Cluster 6 (Topographic and Cadas-tral Reference Data) took place in the exhibition area of the INSPIRE Conference 2016 congress centre on 27th (16:30 h).

Few members of the cluster attended but it helped in identifying burning issues, implementa-tion examples and some suggestion for improvement the operation of the cluster.

Find more details in section 4.1.3.

I. Workshop Implementation and potential of INSPIRE coverage data and WCS - INSPIRE Conference 2016

This activity was organized by Thematic Cluster #3 during the last INSPIRE Conference in Barcelona (on 30th September 2016). It had the crucial support of members from the Jacobs University and the EuroGeographics INSPIRE-KEN.

The agenda of the workshop was structured in 2 Sessions of 90 minutes each, the first one more informative and the second one dedicated to direct discussion with the attendees.

The following page of the platform provides a summary of the results (agenda, minutes, links to presentations and videos):

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/view/115418/results-from-the-ws-on-implementation-and-potential-of-inspire-coverage-data-and-wcs

Section 4.3 of this document provides a summary of the main outcomes from this activity.

2.5.2. Additional promotional activities

A. Presentation in the JIIDE 2014 congress

This is the leading event on spatial data infrastructures (SDI) in the geographical scope of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) - http://www.jiide.org

It was host in the Lisbon University Institute, on 5th -7th November 2014.

The Thematic Clusters and Thematic Cluster #3 were promoted across the Spanish and Portuguese experts participating in the national working groups for the implementation of INSPIRE in such Member States.

Additionally, a presentation was given in the plenary meeting of the GT-IDEE (Spanish SDI Working Group) – on 7th November, and the following promotional video was produced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vw7Tu80gxw (available in Spanish language)

An update about the state of play of Thematic Clusters #3 was also presented in the last plenary of the GT-IDEE working group in Madrid, on 24th April.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vw7Tu80gxw

http://www.jiide.org/





Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

J. Presentations in the International Workshop on Spatial Data and Map Quality (SDMQ 2015) and in the EuroGeographics Q-KEN Plenary meeting

The event was celebrated in Valletta (Malta), on 20th – 21st January 2015.

This was a two-day international event that met professionals actively involved in spatial data and map quality issues (data quality and quality management).

It became a nice opportunity to spread the existence and objectives of the Thematic Clusters ini-tiative across the audience and their respective organizations, since the workshop included a dedicated section to the ELF project (www.elfproject.eu). ELF deals with the harmonization of Elevation and Orthoimagery data in Europe, apart from data belonging to other themes.

http://www.eurogeographics.org/event/international-workshop-spatial-data-and-map-quality

Furthermore, a presentation of Thematic Cluster #3 was given in the plenary meeting of the EuroGeographics Quality knowledge Exchange Network (Q-KEN), in Valletta on 22nd January.

K. Workshop on the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters - Iberian SDI Conference / JIIDE 2015

This workshop was celebrated in Seville (Spain) on 5th November, from 15:00 to 16:00 h - See agenda here ('Taller 3' as stated in the agenda).

This event, co-organized by the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters & the Spanish SDI Team / IDEE, was ran with the following structure:

First part: Short introduction to the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters initiative.

Second part: Overview of the activity in each Thematic Cluster.

The main objective was to provide an overview of the main concerns from implementers by in -troducing the most relevant discussion in each cluster, and promote the participation of the audience.

B. Presentation at the GBIF 2016

This the Conference on Biodiversity Information and Public Administrations, which is yearly or-ganized in the context of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) by the Spanish node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), forming part of a global information infrastruc-ture focused on biodiversity.

http://www.gbif.es/AdministracionesAmbientales.php

It was host in the venues of the Diputació de Barcelona, on 8th -9th November 2016 (Barcelona).

A general presentation promoting the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters was given, together with an overview of the current status and the trends in the implementation of INSPIRE.

L. Teleconferences with MIG-T liaison

Aside from the periodical teleconferences between the thematic clusters facilitators and the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), 3 additional teleconferences were scheduled during the initial phase of the thematic clusters initiative with the MIG-T liaison for Thematic Cluster #3, Markus Seifert (Germany).

These took place on Wednesday 3rd December 2014, Wednesday 4th March 2015 and Friday 18th

September 2015, being really helpful to orientate the activity of the cluster and the first activit -ies with MIG-T MIWP-14 subgroup.

The last one counted with the in-kind collaboration of Ouns Kissiyar, geographic information ex-pert from Belgium.

https://correu.icgc.cat/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=2Sa_e38W_xAzxDm5Q4dUy0UrypqYjgHruP2cAw-R5EM0rFXnNSfUCGgAdAB0AHAAOgAvAC8AdwB3AHcALgBnAGIAaQBmAC4AZQBzAC8AQQBkAG0AaQBuAGkAcwB0AHIAYQBjAGkAbwBuAGUAcwBBAG0AYgBpAGUAbgB0AGEAbABlAHMALgBwAGgAcAA.&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gbif.es%2FAdministracionesAmbientales.php

http://www.jiide.org/web/guest/jiide2015/agenda

http://www.jiide.org/web/guest/jiide2015/agenda

http://www.eurogeographics.org/event/international-workshop-spatial-data-and-map-quality

http://www.elfproject.eu/


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

It is foreseen to organize a new teleconference in early 2017, with the principal aim to find out solutions for a better engagement of INSPIRE MIG-T representatives.

2.5.3. Networking

In addition to the promotional activities enumerated and explained in the previous sections (2.5.1 and 2.5.2), the facilitator of Thematic Cluster #3 has contacted with relevant communities and contacts in order to promote the platform, with the aim to get these people join the cluster and participate. This activity has been carried out mostly through an emailing campaign.

Contacted communities included EU umbrella organizations, such as the EuroGeographics IN-SPIRE and Quality Knowledge Exchange Networks (INSPIRE-KEN and Q-KEN). These were reached through their own internal communication channels (EuroGeographics Basecamp). At the same time, the EuroGeographics association published news in its website to inform about the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters initiative and to announce the related activities of INSPIRE-KEN in 2015 (stated in section 2.5.1).

People contacted were mainly:

Producers, users and domain experts in the scope of the cluster, some of them involved in related European and national projects.

Members from the former INSPIRE Thematic Working Groups.

Members from the working groups currently established for the implementation of the Directive in Member States.

Experts from the European Space Agency (ESA) involved in the Copernicus European community.

Software vendors (e.g. FME software, from SAFE and conterra).

More effort is necessary to involve experts from:

The ISA initiative and the Copernicus community.

The ARE3NA and FOSS4G projects, focused on applicable software tools.

Thematic working groups from OGC/ISO/CEN.

Member States National Contact Points (NCPs), to effectively engage a wide range of active members involved in the INSPIRE implementation which are representative in the whole European geographical scope.

2.5.4. Future activities

Section 5.2 proposes a number of future activities to be scheduled in the scope of Thematic Cluster #3 during the continuation of Phase 3.


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

3. INSPIRE THEMATIC CLUSTERS – SW ENVIRONMENT

Apart from the tuning performed during the initial phase of operation of the platform, the software collaboration tool is working correctly. It fits the purposes of the Thematic Clusters activity and no major issues have been detected during the facilitation of Thematic Cluster #3.

However, this section highlights some aspects that may require specific improvement, either at organizational and/or functional level of the platform.

3.1. Information on how to use the platform

3.1.1. Add a page with clear instructions to use the platform

The landing page of the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters platform could include a link to a page containing synthetic, clear instructions for users in order to help them to use and interact with the platform.

One of the aspects that may hamper the participation from members is just unknown the existence of contents and discussions that are of their interest.

A recommended approach to avoid this situation is to provide clear guidelines on how to find and filter contents in the platform. These operations may be easily explained in the instructions page proposed here. Note that filtering information is currently crucial to find e.g. cross-cluster discussions and issues.

3.2. Structure

3.2.1. Create a new read-only cluster to deal with cross-cluster discussions

This proposal was already done in the report at the end of Phase 2. It is maintained here, with some simplifications.

This would be a new space in the Thematic Clusters site – i.e. an additional cluster - for helping people accessing and consulting the platform to follow the progress of cross-cluster discussion topics, and indirectly promoting their participation in such thematic and/or technical debates. The next paragraphs explain the proposed functional workflow.

The discussions could be opened in the native cluster (e.g. could be Thematic Cluster #3).

If the cross-cluster nature of the discussion was identified when opening it, it would be therefore assigned the ‘cross-cluster’ tag and the thread would be automatically visualized in the Cross-Cluster.

If the cross-cluster nature of the discussion was identified time after its opening, it would be automatically visualized in the Cross-Cluster once it received the ‘cross-cluster’ tag (when this nature was identified).

Despite of being visualized in the Cross-Cluster, the discussion would still belong to the native cluster, being editable from it. In other words, the Cross-Cluster would be a reading-only cluster (since it would not accept participation directly), just showing all the discussions which were identified with the ‘cross-cluster’ tag.

Participation in the cross-cluster discussion would require being a member of the cluster in which it was originated. If not, the platform may warn the member to join this cluster.


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

The “cross-cluster” could be accessed from the landing page of the Thematic Clusters platform (concretely from the cross-group discussions widget) and also from the clusters (groups) page of the platform.

The new read-only Cross-Cluster proposed would be extremely helpful, not only for cluster member but also for facilitators to follow-up new appearing cross-cluster discussion as well as trace the status of the existing ones.

3.3. Functionality

Minor functionality issues were reported in the platform during Phase 1, by notifying them through the facilitators cluster. Most of them were corrected in due course.

This section presents some proposals for amendments and new functionality in the platform, aimed at improving its usability and trying to improve the activity registered.

3.3.1. Analyse problems in accessing to the platform due to the authentication process

People accessing to the platform is sometimes experiencing problems when trying to log in with their ECAS account.

As already reported in the final report of Phase 2, once introduced the username and password, the user is sometimes not redirected to the Thematic Clusters platform, receiving instead a ‘languages.js' file or a small icon of the cluster (identified as an issue with the navigator cookies).

The problem seems not to be solved. It is reproduced sometimes when accessing to the platform. Additionally, some clusters members reported problems to access the platform. In certain cases, they requested to post some content in the platform to another person.

Despite this is not a blocking factor, it is certainly annoying for such users and a potential reason to leave the platform without having published the content – i.e. losing the participation of members.

Additionally, some changes in the ECAS authentication system has been implemented during Phase 3 which makes the log in process a bit disorienting for the users of the platform.

It is proposed here the possibility of making this process transparent to the users: i.e. people accessing may introduce the user (or email) and password details in a form belonging to the own Thematic Clusters platform, whereas the ECAS authentication process could be done afterwards in the background without redirecting the user to the ECAS page. To be further explored.

3.3.2. System to trace and award active participation from cluster members

Many discussion topics during the initial phases of activity of the platform were proposed by the facilitator, especially at the beginning of Phase 1.

At the same time, the fact of obtaining a good rate of replies in Thematic Cluster #3 discussion topics during this period not only depended on facilitator’s follow-up tasks, but also on his high participation in ongoing discussions, i.e. expressing opinions and making new questions related to the topic in order to keep the thread alive and active for getting more feedback from membership.

Nonetheless, the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters platform is based on the in-kind collaboration from members. Contacts from Member States declared lack of time to devote in participating in the platform, aspect that clearly constitutes a barrier for increasing the activity.


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

At the end of Phase 2, it was perceived a need to empower a more proactive behaviour from membership, so that opening their own new discussion topics or intervene in existing discussions becomes regular and natural.

The solution proposed in that moment was to fight against this barrier providing incentives for the participation which have visibility in the platform, concretely implementing a system assigning point awards to members for opening a relevant discussion topic, or for replying to existing discussions in the platform. These awards might be doubled in some cases, when the interaction of further members occurs. This solution has been implemented in the initial stage of Phase 3, and the ranking of awards is nowadays publicly visible in the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters collaboration platform. However, it is not clear that this new incentivizing system has produced the desired results to sort out the situation.

It is proposed here that the rewarding of points to the participation of facilitators is not appearing in the landing page of the platform, since almost all top places in the ranking are occupied by them - something expectable due to their facilitation tasks. The rest of members of the clusters should be the ones appearing in such ranking list instead.


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

4. CURRENT AND PLANNED SUPPORT AND PILOT ACTIVITIES

4.1. Overview of the experience supporting Thematic Cluster community

Facilitation of Thematic Cluster #3 is a fascinating opportunity to help implementers in the journey from the conceptual to the implementation level, validating the editorial work performed during the process of drafting the technical guidelines and contrasting it with reality. This work is currently on-going and shall be followed-up and continued in the future.

The increase of membership in the cluster - from 105 members at the end of Phase 2 to 123 at the end of 2016 in Phase 3 is positive, but more efforts has to be done for making further progress during 2017. The good results obtained with the proposals for changes and amendments of the Technical Guidelines in the context of the Maintenance and Implementation Framework (MIF) in Phase 2 has to be complemented by getting useful support for the implementers, especially as far as the implementation of coverage data and WCS services is concerned. This is planned for the rest of Phase 3.

The evaluation of the orientation of the facilitation tasks continues being positive:

The content, resources and discussion topics shared through the platform are useful for the implementation – They are fully described in Sections 2.2 and 2.3 of this document.

The different activities planned and scheduled through this initiative received positive feedback and have proven to be helpful for the different communities of implementers – An overview of such activities is provided in Section 2.5 of this document.

The following three subsections shortly explain the orientation of the facilitation tasks during the consecutive phases of the cluster activity.

Summing up, the activity of the cluster is in line with the aims of the INSPIRE Thematic Clusters initiative: supporting Member States in the implementation of the Directive.

4.1.1. Phase 1

During Phase 1 the cluster was mainly focused on getting membership and expertise from the communities in the scope (mainly NMCAs within EuroGeographics), while documenting and collecting a starting set of relevant content, information and discussion topics.

As a result, the first outcomes and proposals for changing the INSPIRE Technical Guidelines (proposals for MIG-T MIWP-14) started to be outlined. The final report from this phase (dated on 13th May 2015) provides a comprehensive description of such discussion topics, as well as an overview of the first proposals mentioned before.

As for the activity is concerned, most NMCAs in Member States were focusing their efforts in implementing the INSPIRE Annex I data themes – whereas Elevation and Orthoimagery themes belong to Annex II. This situation was confirmed by the EuroGeographics INSPIRE-KEN and explains the higher participation in the Reference systems and Geographical grid sub-groups during this phase, since the requirements stated for such themes applies to data from all INSPIRE themes.

For this reason, the main facilitation tasks were the planning and promotion of cluster activities focused on supporting the implementation of themes Elevation and Orthoimagery. Provision of data for these themes is mostly based on the raster spatial representation type (coverage-encoding data).

Phase 1 of Thematic Cluster #3 ended with 62 members, 28 discussion topics and 88 replies in total.


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

4.1.2. Phase 2

In contrast, during Phase 2 the cluster has concentrated the efforts in processing this starting set of contents and discussion topics by celebrating the activities planned during the previous phase. This has allowed identifying some problems and resolving issues from the Technical Guidelines in the scope, by agreement of the communities in the cluster - i.e. completing the initial set of proposals to start the activity of MIG-T MIWP-14.

This was the main progress in the cluster since Phase 1. Most of this initial set of proposals is currently endorsed by the MIG - See section 4.2 to know more details.

Meanwhile, the collection of experiences, best practices, as well as new discussions and feedback from such communities has continued in the platform.

The final report from this phase (dated on 15 th January 2016) provides a comprehensive description of such proposals, as well as an overview of the different supporting materials collected, also mentioned before.

As for the activity is concerned, during Phase 2 the Elevation and the Geographical grid systems sub-groups were the most active ones - with an 18% and 15% of the replies, respectively. The situation changed since the end of Phase 1, when the Geographical grids and Coordinate reference systems sub-groups were the most active ones.

Phase 2 of Thematic Cluster #3 ended with 105 members, 40 discussion topics and 234 replies in total.

4.1.3. Phase 3

The main activity of the cluster has been focused in the INSPIRE Conference 2016, which was celebrated in Barcelona - atypically at the end of September. This is probably the reason for a slight decrease of the activity in the platform, due to the summer period and the subsequent dedication of the implementers to the appointments in the Conference. After the event, the proximity of the Christmas period has not helped in turning the situation.

Nonetheless, the rest of Phase 3 is foreseen more productive, despite the possibility that implementers concentrate the efforts in the implementation of Annex I themes – Note that all spatial data sets of this annex shall be conformant to Implementing Rule on Interoperability of Spatial Data Sets and Services and available through network services on 23 rd November 2017, according the INSPIRE roadmap.

Two activities were organized in the INSPIRE Conference 2016:

A joint informal meeting of Thematic Cluster #3 and Thematic Cluster 6 (Topographic and Cadastral Reference Data).

The event took place in the exhibition area of the congress centre on 27th (16:30 h).

Few members of the cluster attended (7 persons) but some burning issues, implementation examples and suggestions for improvement of the operation of the cluster were identified. Additionally a number of short term actions were agreed in cooperation with the Topographic and Cadastral Reference Data cluster.

To be outlined, the existence of INSPIRE Elevation and Orthoimagery services in Belgium and Spain. Information about these recommended implementation examples is almost ready to be published through the platform (expected for the 2nd semester of 2017).

The Workshop Implementation and Potential of Coverage Data and WCS.

This has been with difference the most important activity of the cluster during the first stage of Phase 3. In order to show the progress since Phase 2, Section 4.3 of this report is


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

focused on the description of the main results from this event, celebrated on 30 th

September.

It was focused to set up a common understanding and terminology for coverages and WCS services, show the potential of suck kind of data and services and make progress on the issues that has been identified in their implementation since the beginning of the cluster activity.

The initial stage of Phase 3 of Thematic Cluster #3, corresponding to the end of 2016, has ended with 123 members, 50 discussion topics and 292 replies in total.

4.2. Proposals for MIG-T MIWP-14 – Main outcomes from the cluster

A comprehensive description of the proposals for changes and amendments of the INSPIRE Technical Guidelines in the scope of Thematic Cluster #3, the Implementing Rule on Interoperability of Spatial Datasets and Services and other INSPIRE components was already provided in the Final Report for Phase 2 of Thematic Cluster 3 cluster.

They constitute one of the main outcomes from the cluster and were defined by agreement of the community inside the platform during the two initial phases of the platform.

Summary

In total, 21 proposals were forwarded to MIG-T MIWP-14 subgroup. These were previously evaluated by the facilitator depending on the importance of their impacts and the maturity of the proposals, assigning each of them a priority correspondingly:

Highest priority - Well-debated: 18 proposals.

Highest priority - Not enough debated: 1 proposal.

Second priority – Not enough debated: 2 proposals.

During the Kick-off Meeting of MIG-T MIWP-14 subgroup hold in Rome from 30 th November till 1st December 2015, all the proposals classified as “Highest priority - Well-debated” were processed. This consisted of an explanation of each issue and a subsequent discussion by the group, ending up with a final categorization of the proposal depending on the ease to take the change forward (straight forward change vs. need of follow-up actions to get it implemented) and the implications (type of change, INSPIRE documents or components effected, etc.).

According to such criteria, all these 18 highest priority and well-debated proposals were accepted and categorized as follows:

Full acceptance – No follow-up actions: 14 proposals.

Full acceptance – Minor follow-up actions needed: 2 proposals.

Full acceptance – Heavier follow-up actions needed: 2 proposals.

Not accepted this time: 0 proposals.

The description of the proposals stemming from Thematic Cluster #3, their priority and categorization is available in the following GoogleDocs spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ePklItpMItBLWrduf2S1CMIyU0zIaBxzMX9FoZePwC8/edit?pli=1#gid=544959477&vpid=A1

Status

Processing of proposals not enough debated through the platform (with less priority) were postponed to an additional meeting of MIWP-14 subgroup, which is still to be scheduled.




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The proposals that were accepted by MIG-T are currently agreed and endorsed by the MIG, but their implementation is pending. As informed by JRC, they will be published soon as a corri -gendum list in the INSPIRE website.

4.3. Workshop Implementation and Potential of Coverage Data and WCS – outcomes and results

The last INSPIRE Conference in Barcelona was a big opportunity to retake the discussion activities in Thematic Cluster #3 after the summer period.

On 30th September 2016, few but really active members of the cluster participated in this fruitful and interesting workshop. It represents the continuation of the cluster discussion activities about the main issues and questions from implementers of coverage data and related services in the Member States, which were already summarized and explained during the 29th INSPIRE MIG-T in Ispra (19-20 April 2016).

The initial collection of information for this new activity (issues and first reactions related) were originally gathered during the INSPIRE KEN / Thematic Clusters Workshop on Transformation of Coverage-Based Data Themes and WCS and the subsequent Follow-up Webinar on Coverage Data and Services (See previous activities D and E).

The event was possible thanks to the crucial support of Peter Baummann and Alex Dumitru, from the Jacobs University in Bremen & Rasdaman GmbH. Dominique Laurent, chair of the EuroGeographics INSPIRE-KEN, also participated actively in the meeting.

Agenda (including links to presentations and videos)

Session 1 – INSPIRE Coverages and WCS – State of the Art

Welcome - Video

Introduction:

- INSPIRE-KEN & Thematic Cluster #3 activities on coverages and WCS - Presenta-tion / Video

- INSPIRE Coverages and WCS – Basic concepts & Overview of relevant implement-ation issues - Presentation / Video

The new INSPIRE WCS: Progress in MIWP-7b - Presentation / Video

Experiences and expectations on coverages, WCS and applications

- Experience from ECMWF - Presentation / Video

- Potential of WCPS (Web Coverage Processing Service) - Presentation / Video / Video cont.

Session 2 – INSPIRE Coverages and WCS Implementation

Challenges of INSPIRE & Copernicus - Presentation / Video

Discussion: Coverage data and service implementation - Presentation / Video:

- How to deal with the huge volume of coverage data.

- How to implement the concept of coverage aggregation.

- How to implement the concept of mosaicking.

- INSPIRE coverage extensions vs. OGC standard coverages.

- Purpose of the metadata hook.

https://youtu.be/i80vj3zYt5A?t=1842

http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/30%20FRIDAY_WORKSHOPS_B3_11.00-12.30______20160930_S2_02_Workshop_Coverages_and_WCS_Discussion.pdf


http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/INSP16-WS328_COP&INSP_PS.pdf


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUh2BdktAeE&feature=youtu.be&t=4495

http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/30%20FRIDAY_WORKSHOPS_B3_9.00-10.30______20160930_S1_05_Inspire_WCS_Alex_Dumitru.pdf


http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/30%20FRIDAY_WORKSHOPS_B3_9.00-10.30______20160930_S1_04_Inspire_WCS_Julia_Wagemann.pdf


http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/30%20FRIDAY_WORKSHOPS_B3_9.00-10.30______20160930_S1_03_INSPIRE_WCS.pdf


http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/30%20FRIDAY_WORKSHOPS_B3_9.00-10.30______20160930_S1_02_INSPIRE_Coverages_and_Implementation_Issues_Jordi_Escriu.pdf


http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/30%20FRIDAY_WORKSHOPS_B3_9.00-10.30______20160930_S1_01_Coverage_Workshop_Introduction_Dominique_Laurent.pdf

http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/30%20FRIDAY_WORKSHOPS_B3_9.00-10.30______20160930_S1_01_Coverage_Workshop_Introduction_Dominique_Laurent.pdf


https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/view/77136/results-from-the-ws-on-transformation-of-coverage-based-data-themes-and-wcs-and-related-follow-up-webinar



https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/projects/mig-inspire/wiki/29th_MIG-T_meeting



Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

Coverage standardization evolution: From GMLCOV to CIS v1.1 - Video

Wrap-up & Conclusions

Minutes

An overview of the whole event, including the agenda and the minutes is provided in the following page in the platform:


Summary of discussion

How to deal with the huge volume of coverage data

Case 1 - Delivery through Predefined datasets

Summary

This approach splits coverage data based on existing distribution units (e.g. like map sheets). These distribution units are then delivered using the same download services than INSPIRE vector data (ATOM or WFS). In such cases, the distribution units are equival-ent to a specific tiling scheme.

Any particular tiling scheme supports a particular purpose; in case of conflicting require-ments compromises have to be found.

Since handling raster data is costly (big data), the only way to achieve efficiency using such kind of services (i.e. ATOM or WFS) is splitting it in digestible pieces or tiles.

At the moment, this is the only option regulated in INSPIRE for delivering raster data, but the rules for delivering it through appropriate services (WCS) are close to be adopted.

Conclusions

- Use of predefined datasets is not the most flexible way for delivering coverage data.

- To handle big coverage data, the only way to achieve efficiency using ATOM or WFS services is splitting it in digestible pieces or tiles.

- Choice of tiling parameters is up to each data provider.

These results have been consolidated in a dedicated page in the platform:

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/view/116444/how-to-deal-with-huge-volume-of-coverage-data-case-1-delivery-through-predefined-datasets

Case 2 - Delivery through WCS

Summary

WCS is a service explicitly designed to deliver and exploit coverage data.

For user convenience, data providers may offer all data files based on a common grid (common space allocation defined in a specific CRS, with predefined resolution levels) and range type, as one single coverage. Users have the opportunity to request only a subset of it. Nevertheless, the coverage may be tiled internally by some server for increasing effi-ciency of data access.

WCS allows hiding the complexity of tiles from the user so that any subset can be reques -ted and is internally – in the server – reassembled to the desired result. Such a result can







Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

be internally tiled again when using some suitable data format such as TIFF which sup-ports internal tiling.

Thus, the complexity of tiling schemas is hidden from the user who always just sees “a coverage”.

With the new CIS v1.1 standard, user may exploit the data according their needs – it sup -ports flexible management of space (tiling), time, range format, etc. This enhances hand-ling and exploiting raster data.

Regarding efficiency issues with WCS:

- WCS services have proven to scale up to 250 TB serving 1-D to 5-D spatio-temporal data sets.

- If any efficiency issues emerge from a specific implementation, an appropriate tuning shall be performed to the service or data architecture in order to achieve efficiency, as it was also mentioned in the case of ATOM or WFS.

Conclusions

- WCS is the natural way to deliver and exploit coverage data.

- There is no need to prescribe any tiling on the client side, contrary to the case of de-livering coverages data through predefined datasets.

- It is highly advisable to limit the maximum volume of data that may be requested in a single query. As this is not part of the OGC standard, this has to be done at imple -mentation level taking into account the capacities of the server (bandwidth) and of the client (RAM, storage).

These results have been consolidated in a dedicated page in the platform:

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/view/116581/how-to-deal-with-huge-volume-of-coverage-data-case-2-delivery-through-wcs

How to implement the concept of coverage aggregation

Summary

The benefit of modelling “coverage aggregation” in INSPIRE raster data models shall be examined. In principle it was included by TWG-OI in the INSPIRE Technical Guidelines on Orthoimagery as a result of a request from ESA as a user requirement (also included in the INSPIRE Technical Guidelines on Elevation).

An “aggregated coverage” is a collection of contributions from different individual cover-ages. The concept is explained in the minutes of the workshop.

The coverages to be aggregated are determined by the tiling schema, which is again se-lected by the data provider (tiling schema to be used for delivering data through pre-defined datasets).

- A tiling schema is needed in the user / client side when delivering coverage data through Predefined Datasets. The tiling schema selected is just suited for a particular purpose.

- The tiling schema is not needed in the user / client side when delivering coverage data through WCS, where tiling is usually managed by the server in order to store the information and operate in an efficient way.

Therefore, modelling of coverage aggregation is dependent on the tiling schema used in the user / client side (if any is used).




Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

Any change in the tiling schema would require a change of the corresponding coverages (tiles). Additionally, the INSPIRE model proposes a recursive modelling of coverage ag-gregation (coverages can contain coverages, which in turn can contain further coverages themselves, and so on) which introduces further complexity.

All these facts make this information very costly and tedious to maintain for INSPIRE. Fur-thermore, implementing sophisticated features, such as overlapping tiles (which are al-lowed), would maximize the issues.

On the other hand, WCS is tiling schema independent. It does neither require any particu-lar tiling at the client nor the server side - although most WCS servers use an internal tiling for data storage, which is transparent to the user / implementer. Data can be stored in the server as a whole (even though it is not recommendable) or tiled, leaving to the user the freedom to select the tiling schema (between other parameters, such the CRS) in which they want to obtain the data. In other words, it makes neither sense to model the data based on any tiling schema, nor maintain relationship information (e.g. coverage ag-gregation) based on it.

Finally, the modelling of “coverage aggregation” constitutes an INSPIRE Extension – i.e. it is not implemented by the underlying OGC standards. As a result, it will be ignored by the standard WCS interfaces.

Pending discussion

The proposal to be discussed would be to remove coverage aggregation from the INSPIRE raster data models, leaving to data providers the freedom to select what they consider a coverage without asking to fill-in additional tiling schema dependent information. This would simplify a lot the INSPIRE data models and schemas, making them more independ-ent from the delivery options, while facilitate their maintenance a lot - In line with the IN -SPIRE REFIT.

It would be necessary to contact ESA to check if all their needs could then be satisfied by using WCS to exploit their raster data.

Action

An online webinar will be scheduled in early 2017 to discuss this implementation aspect.

In the meantime, a new post has been recently open in the cluster for going on with the discussion:

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/117028/how-to-implement-the-concept-of-coverage-aggregation

How to implement the concept of mosaicking

Summary

The concept of mosaicking as used in the INSPIRE Technical Guidelines on Orthoimagery is totally linked to the production of such kind of data in this thematic domain. It is ex-plained in the minutes of the workshop.

According to this concept, the orthoimage mosaic (‘Mosaic’ feature type) supports the provision of the acquisition dates related to each of the orthorectified scenes participat-ing in the orthoimage coverage – i.e. related to the range set values of different areas of the mosaicked coverage.

There is implementation experience available on how to model this feature type using the current implementation standard (GMLCOV/CIS).




Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

Usefulness of this information is clear at INSPIRE level. However, there might be different ways to store this temporal ancillary information – To be further explored.

Modelling this concept as it is proposed in the current Technical Guidelines on Orthoim-agery adds complexity. Additionally, it also constitutes an INSPIRE Extension. As justified before, it will be ignored by standard WCS interfaces. Besides, the maintenance of “mosa-icking” is as costly as “coverage aggregation” is.

Pending discussion

It is suggested to provide guidelines for including this "mosaicking" information.

The coverage metadata hook could be used in case of delivering data by means of WCS (to be further analysed how to do it).

Other pending issues which came up during the discussion on this topic in the workshop:

- The concept of “mosaicking” is only proposed in the INSPIRE Technical Guidelines on Orthoimagery, while it is also useful (but not currently modelled) in the Technical Guidelines on Elevation. It might be also applicable to other INSPIRE themes, like Land Cover. Therefore, there is a lack of cross-theme harmonization that should be addressed.

- It would be also interesting to explore the potential of coverage temporal analysis, e.g. modelling this information in the INSPIRE coverage models (such as representing image timeseries as 3-D datacubes for easy slicing, etc).

Action

An online webinar will be scheduled in early 2017 to discuss this implementation aspect.

In the meantime, a new post has been recently open in the cluster for going on with the discussion:

https://themes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/discussion/view/117135/how-to-implement-the-concept-of-mosaicking

INSPIRE coverage extensions vs. OGC standard coverages

Summary

The INSPIRE model extends the OGC coverage model in ways not anticipated by OGC. As a result, WCS implementations - being based on the OGC definitions - often ignore the extra information defined by INSPIRE. In the workshop, there was no time to discuss and exam -ine case by case the need for each INSPIRE extension item.

However, there was agreement to remove these extensions from the raster INSPIRE data models and make specific proposals to provide this information – if really needed – using some other procedure.

The most appropriate way would be to include the information as metadata, to be linked to the coverage by means of the metadata hook. This is compliant with the OGC coverage definition and with WCS, since WCS by definition of the standard must deliver the metadata compartment of a coverage.

Action

Discuss about the removal of the INSPIRE extensions to standard coverages from the ras-ter INSPIRE data models shall take place. Concretely, specific proposals shall be made to provide this information using other procedures, examining case by case each extension, when each information item proves to be really necessary.




Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

The discussion will take place in the INSPIRE Thematic Cluster #3 platform, complemented by specific virtual meetings, which are expected to be organized and scheduled in 2017.

Purpose of the metadata hook

Summary

The final purpose of the coverage metadata hook is to provide any extra information about the coverage that might be useful for the user. It allows transporting any kind of user-defined information. In that sense, it is the correct item to deliver additional inform-ation which is not included within the standard implementation of coverage properties.

Several examples of possible applications of this element have already been mentioned for the previous issues enumerated above.

The INSPIRE Technical Guidelines should provide guidelines and rules on the specific con-tent and type of information to be delivered for INSPIRE coverages within their metadata hook.

Conclusions

The coverage metadata hook may take a role in removing the INSPIRE extensions to OGC standard coverages, in the case of delivering data sets using WCS.

4.4. Upcoming and planned support activities

Section 5.2 enumerates a number of future support activities to be planned and scheduled in the short-term in the scope of Thematic Cluster #3. They should be scheduled during the next stages of Phase 3.


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

5. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

This section presents general conclusions and recommendations to tune up and refine the activity of the Thematic Clusters initiative during the rest of Phase 3.

Such recommendations aims at empowering engagement of relevant actors to increase the membership of the cluster and the activity registered through the platform.

5.1. Empowering engagement and activity

The facilitation work during the executed phases of the cluster has strongly promoted the engagement of data producers, implementers and users of Elevation and Orthoimagery data, as well as software vendors:

In Phase 1 the thematic cluster activities were aligned with the EuroGeographics IN-SPIRE-KEN programme – i.e. NMCAs, as mentioned in sections 2.5.1 and 4.1.1. This effort is still ongoing.

In Phase 2 the previous activities allowed to reach other communities of implementers in the scope, e.g. bathymetry data producers represented by EMODnet. Additionally, net-working allowed reaching several data experts from the national hydrographic offices, river basin district offices and inland navigation experts. These participated in the data transformations workshops.

In the first stage of Phase 3 an effort has been done to organize face-to-face cluster activ-ities. The effort will continue for the rest of the phase scheduling online webinars devoted to specific discussions, those which are now more prepared and mature due to the work-shops organized till nowadays.

Despite all these effort, the activity in the platform is clearly improvable. This report provides a list of recommendations to cope with this situation. Some of them were already proposed in previous reports, but they are readapted and included again in this document for reconsidering and implementing them in the future orientation of the Thematic Clusters activity.

Recommendations

The following actions are proposed in order to achieve this goal:

Increase as possible the face-to-face or online activities organized by the clusters – Such kind of activities may be sometimes much more productive to arrive to a common agree-ments, especially in cases where the terminology or the technical complexity of the as-pects being discussed are high. Discussion in the platform may sometimes be not enough.

Use MIG-T as a mechanism to feed the Thematic Clusters with relevant information:

- Request the Member States representatives to present in a regular, periodic basis an overview of the INSPIRE implementation in their countries. For example, explain the list of problems and outcomes identified by their national working groups and imple-menters (questions, issues, blocking factors, aspects preventing successful interoper-ability, etc.).

- Alternatively, invite the Member States’ INSPIRE National Contact Points for each cluster, which were nominated at the beginning of Phase 2, to do the same task.

Organize a big event where the Member States could describe in detail their implemen-tation approaches, indentifying their strengths (best practices and solutions - to be shared with other countries) and weaknesses (implementation issues and gaps – to be dealt with the help from other countries).


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

This event would be extremely helpful to make the status of INSPIRE implementation in each Member State much more visible. It will also help to populate the Thematic Clusters collaboration platform with useful information.

Organize a webinar for suggesting European Commission Agencies and Organizations to nominate representatives for joining and actively participating in the platform.

Contact specific software vendors to invite them join and participate in the platform, ex-plaining them the benefits of doing so. The Thematic Clusters platform is the perfect place for such companies to show and document the capabilities of their tools to implementers - Projects like ARE3NA or FOSS4G may be a cradle of software vendors to be contacted and attracted to the platform.

5.2. Actions and Proposals for future activities

This section enumerates specific activities to be scheduled in the future in the scope of Thematic Cluster #3:

Workshop “A Common Geographical Grid System for INSPIRE & Copernicus”.

During the Workshop "Implementation and potential of INSPIRE coverage data and WCS", the presentation "Challenges of INSPIRE & Copernicus" (Presentation / Video), gave by Peter Strobl (Joint Research Centre), reminded again one of the pending and most important challenges that both initiatives are facing nowadays: the crucial need for setting up a Common Geographical Grid System to be used as a geo-referencing framework for sharing and using INSPIRE raster data in an harmonized way.

The challenge was already identified in the topic "Usability of the 'Zoned Geographic Grid' (Grid_ETRS89-GRS80)". From this discussion we are in a position to state that:

1) Its clear that the proposal of the INSPIRE common "Zoned Geographical Grid" has not been implemented by the Member States, despite being a valuable attempt to deal with the mentioned challenge.

2) Three alternative candidate proposals have been identified:

- Nested Grid based on WMTS: OGC standard adapted on Web-Mercator based tiling (similar to Google Maps, Microsoft Live Map).

- EQUI7: TU Vienna’s multiple projection package based on continental plates (optimized for Sentinel 1 processing).

- DGGS: Discrete Global Grid Systems: a new generic OGC standard for global hierarchical tessellations.

The workshop would be focused on discussing the benefits and drawbacks of each of these proposals, with the idea of selecting the best option for establishing the Common Geographical Grid System for sharing INSPIRE & Copernicus raster data.

The possibility to organize this workshop was already identified during the 29th Meeting of the INSPIRE MIG-T in Ispra (19-20 April 2016).

On-line Webinar to discuss the topic “How to implement the concept of coverage aggre-gation” – See section 4.3.

The webinar is planned to be scheduled in early 2017.

On-line Webinar to discuss the topic “How to implement the concept of mosaicking” – See section 4.3.

The webinar is planned to be scheduled in early 2017.






http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2016/pdfs/2016_workshops/INSP16-WS328_COP&INSP_PS.pdf


Report (phases 1 & 2 & 3) 2016-12-19

On-line Webinars (as much as needed) to discuss the topic “INSPIRE coverage extensions vs. OGC standard coverages” – See section 4.3.

Before scheduling the activity, a list of the extensions identified has to be drafted. This is planned for the beginning of 2017.

Promote the organization of training sessions on coverage data and WCS in each Member State, in native language – as possible, in coordination of the INSPIRE National Contact Point. Each event would include a hands-on session on these topics.

Publish these events as news in the INSPIRE Thematic Cluster #3 platform.

Analyze the data and services related to the Thematic Cluster that are available in the IN-SPIRE Geoportal.

The analysis of the INSPIRE Geoportal is pending for the rest of Phase 3. At the moment, the cluster has focused the efforts in promoting the publication of relevant examples in the platform – See section 4.1.3.

On-line Webinar to present the Thematic Cluster #3 proposals for changing the Technical Guidelines.

This event would be dedicated to explain in detail the proposals which were forwarded and has been endorsement by the MIG MIWP-14 subgroup.

It could be done once the list of corrigendum items is published in the INSPIRE website, as it is expected.

Participate in an upcoming EMODnet and/or Copernicus event to promote Thematic Clus-ter #3 within their respective communities, in order to increase the membership.

5.3. Final conclusions

As described in section 4.2 and 4.3, Thematic Cluster #3 is delivering results and inputs for the Maintenance and Implementation Framework (MIF). This demonstrates that the Thematic Clusters initiative is helpful to implementers.

The number of members and the activity registered during the two initial phases of operation of the Thematic Clusters platform was quite promising, but new efforts shall be done to increase the activity and the participation in the platform.

Section 5.1 includes a number of recommended actions with this purpose, focusing the effort in involving MIG-T members and representatives in the platform.

Alternatively, the proposals for organizing new face-to-face and online events stated in section 5.2 will drive the activity of Thematic Cluster #3 during the rest of Phase 3. They are expected to flourish the presence of the different communities in the platform and their participation.

These actions will improve for sure the cooperation and the results obtained through the platform.

inspire thematic cluster #3 - phases 1 & 2 - final … · web view3.3.1. analyse problems in...

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