INSPIRING Tips and Tricks

María Cabello1, Isabel Goñi1, Andrés Valentín2

1TRACASA, SPAIN
1TRACASA, SPAIN
2Government of Navarre, SPAIN

INTRODUCTION

The participation of the region of Navarra in the development of INSPIRE began almost a decade ago, when the decision about the creation of the Navarre SDI (IDENA) was made in 2004 and the launching of the IDENA portal was done in 2005.

Our experience highlights among other aspects the importance of participating in INSPIRE implementation from European to National and regional level, that allows us to easily understand the concepts guiding to the implementation of INSPIRE themes.

However, this is not the usual way how different organizations are facing INSPIRE and the implementation of data and services. The idea is to bring together the implementation inside the organization and its difficulties considering the existing gap among the theoretical approach of INSPIRE and the organization in public Administrations and responsible of the real implementation.

This paper intends to present our experience to help other organizations for better addressing the challenges facing INSPIRE Directive.

DIFFERENT VISIONS

INSPIRE can be interpreted under two different perspectives: the technology to be applied and the organization that is required.

  • Technological vision

It’s derived from INSPIRE data and services specifications. It involves high difficulty understanding and requires knowledge about the state of the art and specific understanding of specialized vocabulary.

It’s theoretical but far from reality in order to be applied in an easy way. It’s intended to be applied for promoting data sharing but its starting point is in the limit of applicable beyond the theoreticalscope of technology (e.g. Use coverages when nobody knows about how to use and interpret).

  • Organizational Vision

INSPIRE is involving a set of specialists for the different themes; the areas of specialization in which they were working until now were well defined and did not require technological profile inside the organizations. This aspect means that those specialists have now great difficulty to understand the requirements contained in the specification documents.

Additionally, it must be also considered the inherent complexity of organizational characteristics and policies that are different in each Member State.

From the explanations above it is clear the need and the importance of figures and mechanisms bridging both different visions.

REQUIREMENTS FOR IMPLEMENTING INSPIRE

We should take into consideration the different level requirements from Europe, Member States and Organizations in charge of implementing INSPIRE.

  • From the perspective of INSPIRE:

It must be assumed that the implementation does not end with the creation of the specifications but requires a following work of guidance and support in order to facilitate a proper understanding of the specifications. It is absolutely needed:

  • To continue creating examples and use cases for each topic
  • To lead the use of forums to encourage participation and sharing experiences among organizations
  • From the Member States:

They should assume the organization of thematic clusters at National level to ensure proper data harmonization, always taking into account the experiences of other European projects and MS.

  • From the thematic Responsible of Public Administrations:

It is crucial they understand the need to provide their technical team with training and technological tools required to better understand and implement the specifications in a global, collaborative both at National and European levels, supporting to put all the stakeholders together and avoiding possible misinterpretation of the DS.

BEST PRACTICE: Navarra

  • Organizational level

Theorganizational model provided by SITNA is very effective because information flows and developments are shared and reused, being each player responsible of their data. The system makes available all information to society in general through the IDENA catalogue and services, accessible via the SITNA Geoportal[1]. In some ways, we could consider this model as a specific, small scale, solution for solving many of the problems raised by INSPIRE implementation.

  • INSPIRE level:

Navarre has been involved in the deployment of INSPIRE as SDIC, answering the call of JRC to the advanced regions in the development of INSPIRE and participating in two TWG (Soil and Land Use), testing specifications of several themes (addresses, protected places, soil and land cover and use), which has been decisive for a right and better understanding of the specifications.

Especially important has been the participation of Navarre (Government and Tracasa) in different European projects related to INSPIRE: GRISI, Cross SIS, EURADIN, NatureSDI plus, Plan4all,HLanData, Briseide and smeSpire. The last one, smeSpire is currently running in the sense of evaluating and reinforcing the participation of SMEs in the development and implementation of INSPIRE Directive. It is important because it try to fill the gaps in training and networking that enterprises could have for benefiting from INSPIRE, enhancing as well their capacity building and offering new opportunities to SMEs.

It has been also a key aspect the participation and active presence in all forums Inspire, for been aware about the roadmap and what is expected from the Member States.

  • Other activity carried out has been the creation of working groups for each theme coordinated with national clusters.
  • Organization of different training sessions for responsible of the different themes in Navarre explaining about INSPIRE and guiding them in the understanding of data specifications.
  • Dissemination of INSPIRE at the policy maker level, explaining the Directive and why is important for the policies at regional level.

All this activities show the result to set up initiatives in the organizations for reinforcing the importance of INSPIRE implementation

SUMMARY

The purpose of this paper is to state the different visions of INSPIRE and enumerate the real needs of the different stakeholders, providing the experience of Navarre, as a good practice that could be serve other regions for implementing INSPIRE.

Our experience highlights among other aspects the importance of participating in INSPIRE implementation from European to National and regional level, but also, and above all, the need to set up initiatives in the organizations for reinforcing the importance of implementation in order to be assumed by the entire administration and particularly for those who have responsibility for the management of information in any of the themes of INSPIRE and Spanish transposition regulation (LISIGE) Annexes.

Key Words: INSPIRE, LISIGE, IDENA, SITNA, Navarra, European Projects, Good Practice, Capacity Building, Training.

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