Data Links

The 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) was published in the official Journal on the 25th April 2007. The INSPIRE Directive will enter into force on the 15th May 2007.

Should I get excited by this?

Well others are at least welcoming the progress made, even if some are I think questioning the direction and speed of that progress.

If we look at the INSPIRE website, I do not think we can quibble with the need for harmonisation and data comparability throughout Europe. As the site states,
'The general situation on spatial information in Europe is one of fragmentation of datasets and sources, gaps in availability, lack of harmonisation between datasets at different geographical scales and duplication of information collection. These problems make it difficult to identify, access and use data that is available.'

And if we further look at the ultimate aim, we cannot really quibble with that either -
'The initiative intends to trigger the creation of a European spatial information infrastructure that delivers to the users integrated spatial information services. These services should allow the users to identify and access spatial or geographical information from a wide range of sources, from the local level to the global level, in an inter-operable way for a variety of uses. The target users of INSPIRE include policy-makers, planners and managers at European, national and local level and the citizens and their organisations. Possible services are the visualisation of information layers, overlay of information from different sources, spatial and temporal analysis, etc.'

But as always, the path from A to B is not always straightforward and to get all European countries to enact the legislation and then put in the time and resources required to ensure harmonisation of data will be where the main challenge lies.

In the meantime I shall watch with interest the initial reactions and debates.