STANDARDIZATION OF GEOGRAPHIC DATA: THE EUROPEAN INSPIRE DIRECTIVE

Abstract

The global geo-observation systems in the last decades have produced tremendous number of spatially dependant data sets claiming connections to a standardized Spatial Data Infrastructure defined as the technologies, policies, and people necessary to promote sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors, and the academic communities. The legal and technical response of the European Union to this request is the INSPIRE Directive (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community - 2007/2/EC). The Directive ensures the compatibility with adaptation of common Implementing Rules (IR) in specific areas as Metadata, Data Specifications, Network Services, Data and Service Sharing, Monitoring and Reporting. This paper provides an overview of the Directive, IRs and the technical support of their implementation illustrated with some examples. It concludes with some important issues for European geography to consider and address.