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INSPIRE helps to standardize national infrastructures within the EU through a number of EU regulations that describe the various components of a geodata infrastructure. These EU regulations are called implementing rules.
What do the regulations mean?
The rules shall ensure that the spatial data infrastructure is compatible and usable both nationally and transboundary at European level. The implementing rules are adopted as decisions or regulations by the European Commission, which means that they are directly binding in all Member States.
Take part of the regulations
Review the implementing rules on the European Commission's website (new window).
In support of the implementing rules, there are technical guidelines (new window ) which describes how the implementing rules can be implemented in a good way. In Sweden, we have chosen to follow the technical guidelines.
Metadata
EU Member States shall create metadata for services and spatial data sets within the themes set out in the three annexes to the Directive and keep metadata up to date.
The implementing rules for metadata shall:
- make it easier to find available spatial data and services,
- determine if data and services can be used for a specific purpose,
- provide information on terms of use.
The national metadata profile for geodata is a specification and guidance for uniformly describing data and services. The metadata profile is customized to publish geodata and services in the Geodata portal and meet the requirements of the INSPIRE directive.
The current guidelines for metadata according to INSPIRE are those described in Technical Guidance for the implementation of INSPIRE dataset and service metadata based on ISO / TS 19139: 200 (new window) and are called INSPIRE MD TG v2.0.
Data specifications
A requirement that INSPIRE sets is that data must be transformed, harmonized, so that they can be combined. For this to be possible, INSPIRE defines a mini-set of elements that are mandatory and must therefore be included in the amount of information. This is described in the data specification for the theme. The data specifications (new window) set the requirements for interoperability and harmonization of data sets and services. The data specifications produced within the framework of INSPIRE all follow the same template and have the same section division according to the ISO standard 19131, which is a standard for how a specification for geodata should be structured.
To be able to exchange data on a In a standardized way, in Sweden but also throughout the EU, data specifications are necessary. The data specification specifies:
- the object types and attributes that a certain amount of data should contain and
- how the information should be structured and
- in what format it should be provided.
In order to be able to live up to the requirements in the data specification, the amount of information must therefore have information that can correspond to the relatively few mandatory attributes that exist for the data theme. Find Your Scope (new window) is a tool developed to help determine which attributes are necessary for a data theme.
Network services
EU Member States should create services that make it possible to search, view, download, convert and connect with other services. Implementing rules for network services (new window) states:
- specific requirements for the different service types
- quality requirements - performance, capacity and availability.
Search service makes it possible to search for geodata and information management services with starting point in the content of the corresponding metadata and to display the content of the metadata.
Display service makes it possible to see geodata - navigate and pan, lay different layers of information on each other and separately and to find explanatory information in the metadata.
Download service allows you to download and, if appropriate, directly access copies of spatial data.
Follow-up and reporting
From 2019, INSPIRE will be followed up with automatic methods (new window) with automatic methods. On 15 December each year, the European Commission harvests a result from INSPIRE Geoportal. Member States' reporting is now reported via an online form.
Sweden's report and follow-up for 2020 (new window)
Previous years' reports and follow-ups (new window)
Data and service sharing
In order for geodata and services to be of full benefit to society, they need to be easy to use and easily accessible. Implementing data and service sharing rules (new window) sets out how Member States are to provide geodata and services through harmonized conditions. Metadata must contain the conditions that apply to access and use geodata and services. Geodata and services must be available without delay and no later than 20 days after written request. Organizations that provide fee-based spatial data and services should be able to provide information on how the fees have been calculated.