INSPIRE identifiers – references to “identifiers, identifiable, identification and other similar concepts” – a quick check through legislation

  1. INSPIRE Directive:

Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE)

Article 3:

‘spatial data set’ means an identifiable collection of spatialdata;

Article 8:

In the case of spatial data sets corresponding to one or more of the themes listed in Annex I or II, the implementing rules for interoperability of spatial data sets and services should address a common framework for the unique identification of spatial objects, to which identifiers under national systems can be mapped in order to ensure interoperability between them.

Article 18:

Member States shall ensure that appropriate structures andmechanisms for coordinating the contributions from several parties regarding the identification of relevant data sets, user needs, the provision of information on existing practices and the provision of feedback on the implementation of this Directive.

  1. INSPIRE Metadata Regulation:

INSPIRE Metadata Regulation

Corrigendum to INSPIRE Metadata Regulation

  • Metadata purpose: identification of the information resource for which metadata is created, identification of its geographic location and temporal reference, identifying the organisation responsible for the creation and maintenance of the metadata
  • namespace’ means a collection of names, identified by a uniform resource identifier (URI) reference, which are used in extensible markup language (XML) documents as element names and attribute names,
  • Unique resource identifier
  • Coupled resource: If the resource is a spatial data service, this metadata element identifies, where relevant, the target spatial data set(s) of the service through their unique resource identifiers (URI).
  • a numerical identifier in value domains.
  1. INSPIRE Implementing Rules on interoperability of spatial data sets and services:

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services(includes amendment related to the enumerations and code lists: COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 102/2011 of 4 February 2011 amending Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services)

COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1253/2013 of 21 October 2013 amending Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1312/2014 of 10 December 2014 amending Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data services(interoperability of spatial data services: Implementing Rules for invocable spatial data services)

  • In order to ensure interoperability and harmonisation across spatial data themes, the Member States should meet requirements for common data types, the identification of spatial objects, …
  • ‘external object identifier’ means a unique object identifier which is published by the responsible body, which may be used by external applications to reference the spatial object,
  • ‘identifier’ means a linguistically independent sequence of characters capable of uniquely and permanently identifying that with which it is associated, in accordance with EN ISO 19135,
  • ‘register’ means a set of files containing identifiers assigned to items with descriptions of the associated items, in accordance with EN ISO 19135,
  • Identifier Management:
  • The data type Identifier defined in Section 2.1 of Annex I shall be used as a type for the external object identifier of a spatial object.
  • The external object identifier for the unique identification of spatial objects shall not be changed during the life-cycle of a spatial object.
  • Life-cycle of Spatial Objects:
  • The namespace and localId attributes of the external object identifier shall remain the same for different versions of a spatial object.
  • Portrayal:
  • for each layer at least a default portrayal style, with as a minimum an associated title and a unique identifier.
  • Identifier (Identifier):
  • External unique object identifier published by the responsible body, which may be used by external applications to reference the spatial object.
  • Attributes of the data type Identifier:
  • localId: A local identifier, assigned by the data provider. The local identifier is unique within the namespace, that is no other spatial object carries the same unique identifier.
  • Namespace: Namespace uniquely identifying the data source of the spatial object.
  • versionId: The identifier of the particular version of the spatial object, with a maximum length of 25 characters. If the specification of a spatial object type with an external object identifier includes life-cycle information, the version identifier is used to distinguish between the different versions of a spatial object. Within the set of all versions of a spatial object, the version identifier is unique.
  • Coordinate Reference System Identifiers
  • inspireId: External object identifier of the spatial object (type: Identifier). Note: Attribute name inspireID is used in the INSPIRE Protected sites!
  • Several INSPIRE themes (data models) include specific thematic attributes which are defined by different names and types
  • Thematic Identifier (ThematicIdentifier): Thematic identifier to uniquely identify the spatial object.
  • Attributes of the data type ThematicIdentifier:
  • Identifier: Unique identifier used to identify the spatial object within the specified identification scheme (type: CharacterString).
  • identifierScheme: Identifier defining the scheme used to assign the identifier (type: CharacterString).
  1. INSPIRE Implementing Rules on network services:

Commission Regulation (EC) No 976/2009 of 19 October 2009 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the Network Services(discovery services, view services)

Commission Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 976/2009 as regards download services and transformation service

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1311/2014 of 10 December 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 976/2009 as regards the definition of an INSPIRE metadata element

  • DISCOVERY SERVICES:
  • Search criteria: The following INSPIRE metadata elements or set of elements shall be also available as search criteria: Unique Resource Identifier, …
  • VIEW services:
  • Layers Metadata parameters:
  • The metadata elements listed in Table 3 shall be provided for each layer, including: Unique Resource Identifier - The Unique Resource Identifier of the resource used to create the layer
  • The layer specific parameters listed in Table 4 shall be provided for each layer.

-Styles: List of the rendering styles available for the layer. A style shall be composed of a title and a unique identifier

-Legend URL: Location of the legend for each style, language and dimension pairs

  • DOWNLOAD services:
  • Spatial Data Set Identifier parameter: The Spatial Data Set Identifier parameter shall contain the Unique Resource Identifier of the Spatial Data Set.
  • Search Criteria for the Get Spatial Object Operation:
  • Unique Resource Identifier of Spatial Data Set,
  • all relevant key attributes and the relationship between Spatial Objects as set out in Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010; in particular the Unique Identifier of Spatial Object and the temporal dimension characteristics, including the date of update, …