MarBlog

As the deadlines for the first batches of INSPIRE Annex I metadata is approaching in December,  people are waking up to the work ahead. The UK Location Programme has been working hard at developing solutions, and preparing information for anyone needing to meet the INSPIRE directive in making spatial data available and accessible.

The latest culmination was a Data Providers workshop, where a set of presentations laid out what will be expected in terms of delivering data, and what tools are going to be made available to help thise work. The presentations are now online, and I’d recommend anyone finding themselves having to publish spatial data under INSPIRE to have a look at these – they are a great introduction to the broad concepts, while there is also a good amount of detail for the more technically minded – helping to make decisions on the use of these tools or other services.

The EU INSPIRE Directive places very significant amounts of work on public authorities to make their spatial data available and harmonised. The steps to achieving INSPIRE compliance and making data available for re-use can seem like a long and ardeous task (and likely will be in many cases) – especially if you start out by reading the documentation hosted on the INSPIRE website. It’s not that the documentation is bad – it is very exhaustive, and perhaps a little too exhaustive for people who are just beginning to dip their toe and find out what needs to be done.

Enter the UK Location Programme’s new “Getting Started” page with a series of short guides that gives an overview of what is required on the data manager level to publish location information. Obviously these guides are styled directly to publishing directly to the UK Location programme and the data.gov.uk portal – but even if you are from another country or a devolved administration – these guides provide some useful information about what needs to be done.

Currently there are four guides published, with another six planned or in production, and if you are feeling a little set back by the magnitude of INSPIRE – this is a good place to start.

European Commission Report on Legal Aspects of Marine Environmental Data.

Framework Service Contract No. FISH/2006/09 – LOT2

Perhaps a little outdated, being from October 2008, considering the implementation of INSPIRE, but so far i’m finding it a useful and extensive resource.

Update: The INSPIRE legislation itself is reasonably well covered within the report, and has a lot of relevant information. HOwever, the national implementation plans are typically only surfacing now, so is not considered.