GENESIS – Generic European Sustainable Information Space for Environment

The Genesis project began in 2008 with the objective of providing those involved in environment management and health services in Europe with an efficient, web-based solution for monitoring air quality, fresh and coastal water quality and their impacts on health.
The advanced, ICT-based solution that will result from this research and development will combine open, collaborative information networks while integrating systems that already exist in Europe. This simple yet innovative objective perfectly aligns with the goals set out in the European Union’s i2010 Lisbon Agenda to drive Europe to become the most dynamic economy in the world. The initiative not only promotes an open and competitive digital economy, but also sets out to improve the quality of life in Europe. Genesis will provide the tools to help achieve this aim. The projects HUMBOLDT and GENESIS collaborate by exchanging knowledge and documents, mainly on topics of data harmonisation and INSPIRE-related topics.

genesis-fp7.eu/index.php/project-overview

GS-Soil - Assessment and Strategic Development of INSPIRE compliant Geodata-Services for European Soil Data

The project GS Soil aims at establishing a European network to improve the access to spatial soil data for public sector bodies, private companies and citizens. The project considers aspects of data organization, data harmonization as well as semantic and technical interoperability in order to produce seamless geospatial information and to improve the data access for a wide community of different user groups. The structural specification for the description and harmonization of spatial soil data within Europe as well as the operation of a corresponding spatial infrastructure are main objectives of GS Soil.
The partners will establish and operate a network of services for spatial datasets and metadata. This network includes distributed services for data transformation, discovery, view and download. The final result of the project will be a central Soil Portal, where European soil data from heterogeneous sources will be bundled. In order to ensure cross-border usability of the portal and related services, aspects of multilingualism and data interpretation will be considered thoroughly. In this respect the harmonization of metadata is also a key topic within the project work.
The project will extensively support the implementation of the INSPIRE requirements on basis of available experience in selected European countries and regions on different organisational levels. Users will be able to discover, view and download soil data across Europe. The results of the project will be:

• A consolidated soil-related theme catalogue and consolidated soil-related theme content-framework standards,
• An INSPIRE compatible metadata profile for spatial soil datasets, dataset series and services,
• Generic application schemes for soil information,
• A web portal (GS Soil Portal) which provides access to all project soil data, including,
  • a view service which provides access to spatial soil data,
  • discovery and view of the INSPIRE conform metadata for the provided soil maps,
  • interoperable spatial soil datasets (for exemplary soil products),
  • case studies on cross-boarder delivery of harmonised soil data access,
  • Best practise guidelines for
    • creating and maintaining metadata for soil database,
    • and for data harmonisation.

Figure: project structure of the GS SOIL - project

The projects HUMBOLDT and GS Soil collaborate by exchanging knowledge, especially on harmonisation and transformation in the context of INSPIRE. Further, certain HUMBOLDT tools for data harmonisation might be reused within GS Soil.

www.gssoil.eu

Plan4all - European Network of Best Practices for Interoperability of Spatial Planning Information

The objective of project Plan4all - European Network of Best Practices for Interoperability of Spatial Planning Information (www.plan4all.eu) is to build network of local, regional and national public bodies, stakeholders, ICT industry, organisations dealing with planning issue and regional development, universities and international organisation to find consensus about harmonisation Spatial Data Infrastructure for spatial planning according INSPIRE directive and also to contribute to standardisation of related data themes from INSPIRE annexes (land cover, land use, natural risk zones etc.). The Plan4all is focused on implementation of INSPIRE directive into spatial planning processes, with focus on built spatial planning data model for selected themes and implemented recommendation of drafting teams for metadata and networking. The project uses experiences from previous projects like Armonia (http://armoniaproject.net/), Humboldt (http://www.esdi-humboldt.eu), eSDInet+ (http://www.esdinetplus.eu/) or EURADIN (http://www.epsiplus.org/reports/euradin), which partners are also presented in team. The team uses also experience of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) members working in the team for definition of technological standards.

Plan4all is focused on the harmonisation metadata, and data of spatial planning and building networking infrastructure for sharing spatial planning data based on the existing best practices in regions and municipalities of the EU, but also on the base of results of current standardisation activities defined by OGC and W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). This will involve description, summarising, optimisation, multilingualism and harmonisation of metadata, data models and networking standards (e.g. building European cluster for SDI in spatial planning under umbrella of ISOCARP /International Society of City and Regional Planners/ and EUROGI /European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information/) of data for spatial planning, based on previously collected and analysed experiences and then seeking to define common procedures and methodologies for spatial data sharing and utilisation cross Europe new spatial planning data standards.

The project Plan4all group is composed of 24 partners from 15 European countries. The University of West Bohemia (Pilsen, Czech Republic) is the leader of the project.

Project Plan4all is continuing to activities of Humboldt Scenario Urban Planning such as spatial data harmonization and combination of different spatial data leading to building spatial planning background data used in designing of spatial plans and area limits and restrictions. Plan4all project plans to use free Humboldt tools regarding to spatial data harmonization. Finally results of Humboldt project (e.g. analyses, users requirements) are also used as backgrounds of introductory phase of Plan4all. Help service - remote sensing (HSRS) together with the University of West Bohemia are doing common dissemination strategy.

www.plan4all.eu

eSDI-Net+ - Network for promotion of cross border dialogue and exchange of best practices on Spatial Data Infrastructures throughout Europe

The objectives of eSDI-NET+ is to target users and bring together key European SDI stakeholders through a Thematic Network- a platform for communication and knowledge exchange at all levels, from local to global.

Through the promotion of high-level decisions and technical discussion, the network will help to raise awareness of the important role SDIs play in the enrichment and reuse of GI. In addition, eSDI-NET+ will tackle the multicultural and multilingual barriers to accessing, exploiting, using and reusing GI. As a result, greater steps will be made towards interoperability through the expression of common standards between national digital collections and services, especially in cross-border contexts.

By defining and identifying examples of best practice, eSDI-NET+ will integrate expert perspectives from across Europe to create synthesised SDI guidelines and standards. Through the network's membership, the gap between local and European levels will be narrowed, helping to support the better use of GI found in pan-European initiatives such as INSPIRE, GMES and GALILEO.

By mobilising such expertise, eSDI-NET+ offers the means to catalyse new initiatives, actions and services, maximising the potential of both GI and the communities it supports.

http://www.esdinetplus.eu

NATURE-SDIplus - Best Practice Network for SDI in Nature Conservation

Natura 2000 and the new EU approach for protected sites management has enforced the link between nature conservation and geo-information. This has generated the need for accessible, interoperable and harmonised datasets, also addressed by the INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC) that pursues an EU Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) to support environmental policies.

The Nature-SDIplus Network started in October 2008. It aims to enable and improve the harmonisation of national datasets on nature conservation, making them accessible and exploitable. Thus, it supports the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive in this field.

The considered data themes are:

• Protected sites (Annex I)
• Biogeographical regions (Annex III)
• Habitats and biotopes (Annex III)
• Species distribution (Annex III)

NATURE-SDIplus analyses the usability and accessibility of data. The results of this analysis are used to develop the NATURE-SDIplus European metadata profile and data model for datasets on nature conservation. The project defines a common multilingual and multicultural approach for a simpler and standardised access to spatial data. A demonstration infrastructure, compliant with the INSPIRE principles and supported by web services, provides the data accessibility through a dedicated geoportal: the main gateway to available datasets and services.

The main outcome of Nature-SDIplus is a long-term sustainable network of stakeholders dealing with geo-information for nature conservation.
The involved stakeholders of NATURE-SDIplus network will consist in particular of data providers, taking advantages by the standardisation and improvement of their data, and data users, together with EU and standardisation bodies.
According to the concept of network development, new members will be at any time invited to participate in NATURE-SDIplus Network following a continuous process of recruiting.

Lessons and outcomes from NATURE-SDIplus harmonisation process can contribute to feed the development of the HUMBOLDT Framework together with the collection and the organisation of requirements of Protected Areas application domain developed by HUMBOLDT.

The Training Framework developed within NATURE-SDIplus could be shared with HUMBOLDT.

www.nature-sdi.eu

VESTA-GIS - Vocational Education and Sectoral Training network on GIS & GI Application domains

The VESTA-GIS network is promoted by and is grounded on an existing network, the GISIG Association, constituted in 1992 as sectoral UETP (University-Enterprise Training Partnership) in the GIS technologies within the former European COMETT Programme. In the following years, the Association has promoted several initiatives in line with its original mandate of innovation and technology transfer in the field of Geographical Information.

Through exploiting the potential of a well established network VESTA-GIS realises an evolution of such network and in an innovative way proposes itself to cope with the new challenges and with the today competence needs in the European arena of geo-information.

The added value of the new network compared to former activities is the establishment of a comprehensive framework intended to act as a "clearing house" among offer and demand of training in Geo-Information that is able to address efficiently a series of opportunities for training courses/modules and mobility at a European level, including as well a path for accreditation of the acquired competence.

The project is centred on the following main components:

• The VESTA-GIS Training Framework, intended as the working tool to support GIS training and transfer of knowledge within the network and towards the external audience of GI and User Communities.
• The VESTA-GIS Mobility Framework, intended as tool to promote people mobility within the Network.

The Training Framework developed within VESTA-GIS could be shared with HUMBOLDT. In particular, the training courses developed in HUMBOLDT can be included into the VESTA-GIS Course Catalogue. Joint HUMBLODT / VESTA-GIS training workshops are organised.

Moreover, synergies between the HUMBOLDT Scenarios "Protected Areas" and "Transboundary Catchments" and the respective VESTA-GIS streams "Natural Environment Protection" and "Water Management" are used.

www.vesta-gis.eu

BOSS4GMES (Building Operational Sustainable Services)

The BOSS4GMES project aims to provide the technical, financial and contractual foundations which will enable the transition of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) from a concept to an effective, operational programme, and, in doing so, to link GMES with key political decision makers, a broader sphere of users and the wider public.

www.boss4gmes.eu

CASCADOSS

The goal of this project is to encourage geospatial end-users, especially those users related to the use of GMES services, in using “Open Source” Software (OSS) by setting up a Trans-national cascade training programme on OSS with an emphasis on environmental applications. Open source GIS&RS software can play a key role in making a truly European Spatial Data Infrastructure. CASCADOSS aims at building up a critical mass of users within the GMES society, which could support each other in finding open source solutions for environmental related problems.

In a first phase, an extensive study was conducted on issues related to Open Source GIS & Remote Sensing technology. In a second phase, CASCADOSS organised a one-day international symposium (June 16, 2008), combined with a 3-day information workshop (June 17 - 19, 2008) in Warsaw, bringing together professional developers and (potential) customers of Open Source technology. The workshop participants received an overview of the best Open Source GIS & Remote Sensing Software projects, the best Open Source GIS&RS-based environmental applications and an explanation on Open Source licensing issues.

The cascade training programme is currently in the third phase, in which the consortium participants will transfer the acquired knowledge to local people by organizing national or regional information workshops in their own country. The target audience are people related to the use of GMES services, with low (or high) level of expertise in GIS and/or programming, such as public administrators, scientists, students (= low end geospatial user). The course will offer the trainees a detailed overview of the best Open Source GIS & Remote Sensing Software projects, the best Open Source-based environmental applications and an explanation on Open Source licensing issues. As such, the project aims at stimulating GMES end users to incorporate Open Source GIS&RS technology into their working methods and decision-making processes.

www.cascadoss.eu