INSPIRE
Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe
Summary Report 1st MIG subgroup 2016.5 meeting
Title / Summary Report 1st MIG subgroup 2016.5 meetingCreator / EEA/DG ENV
Date created / 18-09-2017
Subject / Summary Report 1st MIG subgroup 2016.5 meeting
Publisher / EC and EEA INSPIRE Team
Type / Text
Description / Summary, conclusions and actions of the 1st MIG subgroup 2016.5 (Priority list of datasets for e-Reporting) meeting (04.09.2017, Kehl, Germany)
Contributor / DG ENV
Format / MS Word (doc)
Identifier / Summary Report 1st MIG subgroup 2016.5 meeting
Language / En
Status / Draft
1. Welcome by EEA and COM, setting the scene, round table
The meeting was a closed meeting and was attended by nominated experts of EU Member States (MS) and Norway, the Commission Services (DG ENV and JRC) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). From the nominated EU Member States, only Malta and UK were absent. Observers were present from Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia and Poland. Consultants to EEA and DG ENV from BE and NL were also observing. Details are provided in the list of participants.
The scope of the meeting was provided in the kick-off document which, together with other reference documents, have been made available on the WIKI of the Collaboration platform of the INSPIRE Maintenance and Implementation Expert Group (MIG)[1].
The meeting was opened and co-chaired by Stefan Jensen (EEA) and Joeri Robbrecht (DG ENV).
After the welcome there was as short roundtable to introduce participants.
2. Background
DG ENV provided an overview on the Fitness Check on Environmental Monitoring and Reporting[2] and the Action Plan[3], released last June, as an outcome of the Fitness Check evaluation and explained its relation to INSPIRE and this particular action 2016.5. EEA summarised briefly the main elements of the concept paper on “The future of e-Reporting and the link to INSPIRE”, which was presented in more length in an e-Reporting workshop in the morning which most participants attended.
DG ENV then explained the mandate of the group including the foreseen activities and expected outcomes[4].
A short discussion provided largely clarifications. The need was raised to make the minutes of the meeting available to all countries in both networks – Eionet and INSPIRE MIG.
3. Work programme 2017-2018
3.a. Manage and update the priority list of eReporting datasets
The first EEA presentation[5] went through the Priority datasets list and raised the need to more clearly identify the concrete datasets which are to be provided by the MS. The presentation also included an analysis of the availability of MS data (INSPIRE metadata and services for data “as-is” – i.e. without applying the INSPIRE Data and Services Interoperability regulations) in the area of nature and biodiversity through the EU Geoportal. This analysis was based on a thematic filtering – a function newly provided by the JRC currently under development. Additionally, figures were provided on the current availability of spatial data in Reportnet, EEA’s environmental reporting platform. This was aimed at supporting the selection of future priorities based on mature practises in providing spatial data within environmental reporting data flows by MS (not necessarily INSPIRE compliant).
A second EEA presentation[6] gave an overview of the preliminary results of an Eionet survey launched late June, to which more than 2/3 of the targeted European countries responded. The survey looked into the current availability in national portals and platforms and its INSPIRE compliance, of metadata, data and services for the priority datasets of Eionet Core Data Flows.
The analysis presented in the two interventions complemented each other and provided some preliminary guidance on how to address the priority datasets list in a stepwise manner. The results confirmed the difficulties in finding metadata for services in the EU geoportal – one reason being that MS do not systematically create metadata for them. It also became clear that MS use different approaches when linking metadata and related datasets, as well as when creating dataset series and defining the granularity (detailed-ness) of their services.
The discussion reflected the need to acknowledge the MS diversity in approaches but also to “clean-up” references and increase the number of download services available at national level.
3.b. Make data available as is: identify datasets, document metadata, make metadata and data available on the EU geoportal by providing network services
Three Member States presented their experiences and views on status and task. They are all dedicated to support the task at hand but identified different actions. Italy is providing linkages to the eReporting datasets into their national catalogue including a unique identifier. The Netherlands described the many coordination steps they have introduced to bring together GEONOVUM, in charge of INSPIRE coordination, and environmental data providers – e.g. using workshops and open source tools. The Slovak republic has identified datasets to be published as-is and documented by INSPIRE metadata, but struggles to communicate what is mandatory to domain experts.
It was considered worthwhile to look into the different methodologies used in Member States to identify INSPIRE datasets that map to the reporting datasets and spatial objects listed in the priority list. It was suggested to document good practices for reuse by other Member States.
3.c. Common and interoperable European data models per reporting obligation/data flow that are fit for purpose for the envisaged use case.
The agenda item was skipped in favour of discussing actions related to 3a and 3b. It is recognised that the task is very important but we can return to this at a later stage. The information items related to this topic were informed in the eReporting and INSPIRE seminar, held in the morning.
3.d. Monitoring the availability of pan-European datasets
The JRC showed the thematic viewer of the entries in EU geoportal, still under development. This viewer has been developed in order to accommodate user specific questions by predefined, intelligent and text-based filtering approaches (on environmental themes or INSPIRE data specifications), rather than offering the entire content to be explored using many different search criteria. The application, which has been first tested in the field of Nature and Biodiversity but can be extended to any other thematic area, was very well received by the participants.
4. Conclusions
After an intense discussion, the group agreed on the following actions:
Short term tasks (coordinator and the timing are provided in brackets):
On the list as-such including completing the analysis:
· Flag issues countries have with the current version of the “priority dataset list 1.2” within the group or towards DG ENV and EEA. (MS by late October 2017).
· Identify and add information (columns) from the MS EXCEL master file to the next version (1.3) of the list (DG ENV, EEA - by next MIG-T in late October 2017).
· Complete work document (EXCEL) with Eionet survey findings (EEA – by next MIG-T in late October 2017).
· Document good practice methodologies used by the Member States to identify reporting datasets and spatial objects listed in the priority list (MS by late October 2017).
Related to priorities within the list:
· Nature and biodiversity as priority area (DG ENV, EEA – in 2017 and 2018) to first make available “as-is” (2017) and agree on how data specifications should be implemented (2018 and beyond).
· Identify more in detail the nature and biodiversity datasets to be made available in the EU geoportal and to provide guidelines to address implementation bottlenecks (EEA, DG ENV - by next MIG-T in late October 2017 – guidance beyond that date as needed).
· For all MS to make available INSPIRE metadata and services for all nature and biodiversity related datasets (MS by MIG-P in December 2017).
· Develop above steps for water and noise eReporting geospatial datasets as future candidates to be addressed next (DG ENV, EEA – beyond 2017/2018).
Related to the EU geoportal:
· For voluntary countries to analyse in more detail what we can find with metadata now in the EU geoportal (JRC with MS – by next MIG-T in late October 2017).
· Development of a roadmap to make available all datasets of the priority datasets list “as-is” in the EU geoportal (EEA/DG ENV with MS – by 2020).
Related to Reportnet:
· Identify and include relevant eReporting elements reusing INSPIRE into Reportnet 3.0 (EEA – from first half of 2018 (concept and design) through 2020 (implementation).
Above Mid-term tasks (joint tasks - leads to be identified later where needed):
Related to common data models:
· Prepare common and interoperable European data models per reporting obligation/data flow that are fit for purpose for the envisaged use case (DG ENV, EEA to prepare for discussion in 2016.5).
· The subgroup will monitor and document the progress towards common European reporting data models in the different domains and promote their development and use
· Upon request of thematic communities, the subgroup will be represented in technical domain workgroups on eReporting.
· Furthermore, once common reporting models have been developed by their thematic community, the subgroup will provide INSPIRE implementation support to the thematic communities for their implementation.
Related to pan-European products:
· The subgroup will monitor and document the progress on the availability of pan-European datasets, identify gaps (missing datasets) and opportunities (e.g. Copernicus, CORDA) and assess MS readiness for publication of pan-European datasets for a specific thematic area.
· The provision of services publishing pan-European datasets based on network services provided by Member States at EU level will be planned with the support of the subgroup.
General:
The subgroup will recommend and partially develop and maintain technical solutions that publish the progress on action 2016.5 concerning (to be documented by COM/EEA, validation & discussion in 2016.5 SG):
• the maturity of the thematic domains (e.g. which domains have already developed common interoperable reporting/data models?)
• the readiness of MS to publish the requested datasets as-is (Is metadata available? - Can you find the metadata? Is the data accessible through network services?)
• the availability of pan-European datasets (When a common interoperable reporting/data model is available for the domain, is the data published accordingly? Is it possible to aggregate MS services into a pan-European dataset?)
List of participants
Surname / Name / CountryBoersma / Wideke / The Netherlands
Buffet / Dominique / Belgium
Bulens / Jan-Dirk / The Netherlands (observer)
Christensen / Lars / Norway
Cipolloni / Carlo / Italy
De Angelis / Hernán / Sweden
Faugnerova / Jitka / Czech Republic
Finnbogadóttir / Eydís Líndal / Iceland (observer)
Hinterlang / Dirk / Germany
Hohmann / Marco / Germany
Jarvenpaa / Elise / Finland
Kissiyar / Ouns / Belgium
Kochert / Thomas / France
Lopez / Emilio / Spain
Otsing / Mari-Liis / Estonia (observer)
Ozols / Arvids / Latvia
Rejentova / Lenka / Czech Republic
Rydén / Anders / Sweden
Sild / Age / Estonia (observer)
Simeone / Maria Gabriella / Italy
Surma / Ewa / Poland (observer)
Teiniranta / Riitta / Finland
Tuchyna / Martin / Slovakia
Vandenbroucke / Danny / Belgium (observer)
Vincze / Gabriele / Austria
Voet / Jan / Belgium
Surname / Name / Commission and EU services
Ansorge / Christian / EEA
Epure / Emanuela / DG JRC
Jensen / Stefan / EEA
Lutz / Michael / DG JRC
Nunes de Lima / Vanda / DG JRC
Robbrecht / Joeri / DG ENV
Rubio Iglesias / José Miguel / EEA
Tomas / Robert / DG JRC
Annex1 Meeting agenda
Draft Agenda –v2
Non-public kick-off meeting of the
MIG-sub-group on MIWP action 2016.5 "Priority list of eReporting datasets"
4/9/2017, starting at 14:00h, expected end time 17:30h
Facilitators: Stefan Jensen EEA, Joeri Robbrecht ENV
University of Applied Sciences, Kehl, Germany, Room G
1 / Welcome by COM & EEA, setting the scene, round table (10')2 / Background (50’ incl. discussion)
a. Monitoring & Reporting Fitness Check – status and next steps (COM)
b. eReporting concept paper – main items and clarifications (EEA)
c. Mandate of subgroup - context, scope, tasks, expectation (COM)
3 / Work programme 2017-2018
a. Manage and update the priority list of eReporting datasets (30’ incl. discussion)
· Show the list, explain how to identify specific datasets based on reporting obligation (EEA)
· Presentation and lessons learnt from Eionet survey (EEA)
· How to extend the list as an instrument for monitoring (ALL)
b. Make data available as-is: identify datasets, document metadata, make metadata and data available on the EU geoportal by providing network services (30' incl. discussions)
· Member State best practise presentation (IT, NL)
· Discuss the task for the subgroup to further develop the information in this list (ALL)
c. Common and interoperable European data models per reporting obligation/data flow that are fit for purpose for the envisaged use case. (20' incl. discussions)
· Providing blueprints based on CDDA, IED, IAS reporting (ENV, EEA)
· Discussion on the approach and lessons learnt (ALL)
d. Monitoring the availability of pan-European datasets (20' incl. discussions)
· Show the thematic viewer based on the INSPIRE geoportal (JRC)
· Tagging metadata / identifying volunteers (ALL)
4 / Conclusions (incl. agreed planning & actions for further work programme – 20’) (EEA, ENV)
Page | 1
[1] https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/projects/2016-5/wiki/
[2] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/reporting/fc_overview_en.htm
[3] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/reporting/pdf/action_plan_env_issues.pdf
[4] https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/attachments/download/2164/kickoff%202016_5%20subgroup_v10.pdf
[5] https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/attachments/download/2169/EEA-2016-5-PDF-list.pdf
[6] https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/attachments/download/2170/NRC%20EIS%20Consultation_v1.2.pdf