This document discusses spatial data infrastructure (SDI) interoperability in Greece and Europe. It provides an overview of the SDI situation in Greece, including a lack of a coordinated national SDI and issues with data duplication and gaps between public bodies. It also describes the INSPIRE Directive and Plan4All initiative, which aim to improve SDI harmonization and interoperability across Europe. Key challenges for Greece include harmonizing data components and standards to align with INSPIRE specifications.

1. This work was supported by “Plan4All - European Network of Best
Practices for Interoperability of Spatial Planning Information”,
which is co-funded by the Community programme eContentplus.
Interoperability and Design Issues of Spatial Data and
Geographic Information Systems in Greece
UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS
COMPUTER ENGINEERING & INFORMATICS DEPARTMENT
E v a n g e l o s S a k k o p o u l o s P h D
Authors
Mersini Paschou, MSc
Evangelos Sakkopoulos, PhD
Efrosini Sourla, MSc
Athanasios Tsakalidis, Prof
Giannis Tzimas, PhD
GEORAMA

2. PCI 2010: Sakkopoulos Evangelos 16/11/2010
Contents
Situation in Europe
The SDI situation in Greece
The INSPIRE Initiative
The Plan4all Approach
Requirements for SDI Interoperability
Interoperability for design and development of web GIS
systems

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Introduction
European Cities face major challenges concerning urban
land use
There are differences in legislations concerning SDI in
Europe (even within one country)
The lack of interoperability specifications in European
SDIs causes:
Fragmentation problems
Gaps in availability
Lack of harmonization between datasets
Loss of time and resources
Solution:
INSPIRE Directive (framework for spatial information)
WebGIS systems
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SDI Situation in Greece (1/2)
National Level
No wide scale, digital SDI, only partial data (maps
before 1983)
National Cadastre (ongoing project by HEMCO)
Regional/Prefecture Level
Most Greek Prefectures don’t have their own digital
SDI
Local Level
Some municipalities have recently acquired WebGIS
services (Patras WebGIS)
Maps for urban planning, land use, distribution networks
Thematic maps
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SDI Situation in Greece (2/2)
Currently, municipalities are the most
important level, until the National Cadastre
is completed.
Where online information is available, it is
only possible to download the pdf or raster
files of the municipal land use plans.
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Analyzing the Greek SDI
Conclusions:
Large number of duplicate recordings of same or similar
data
Information gaps among public bodies, regarding scale
and geographical coverage.
Much data for which there exists no information or the
existing information is limited.
The data stored aren’t updated.
No public body to maintain information at different.
Medley of standards and procedures regarding the
technical requirements (even between different data sets
of the same body).
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The INSPIRE Directive
Establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European
Community
The SDI is defined as the "...metadata, spatial data sets, spatial data
services; network services and technologies; agreements on
sharing, access and use; coordination and monitoring mechanisms,
process and procedures, established, operated or made available in
accordance with this Directive".
The Directive does not require collection of new spatial data and
does not establish new infrastructures.
Interoperability in INSPIRE Directive
Combination of spatial datasets
Interaction of services
without manual intervention
Coherent results
Enhanced added value
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PLAN4ALL
Focused on the harmonization of SDIs based on:
existing best practices in EU regions and municipalities
results of current research projects.
implementing the INSPIRE Directive into spatial planning processes
Aims at:
networking standards of spatial planning data, based on previously
collected and analysed experiences
defining common procedures and methodologies for spatial data
sharing
utilisation of new pan-European standards for spatial planning data
within the EU.
Expected results:
European forums for SDI
a common accessible database
analysis in terms of organisation, sharing, and harmonisation
SDI recommendations for spatial data.
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Compare GIS Systems
Type
Discovery Services =
Catalogue
View and downloading services = WMS &
WFS
Open Source Geonetwork
UMN Mapserver, GeoServer,
GeoHosting (extension of Mapserver),
deegree
Commercial solution
Micka, terracataloge,
Geoportal Extension (ESRI)
ArcSDE, ArcGIS Server / ArcIMS,
GeoMediaWebMap
http://www.osgeo.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_geographic_information_sy
stems_software

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GIS System
GeoServer – http://georama.org.gr/geoserver/
GeoNetwork – http://georama.org.gr/geonetwork/
we are currently publishing sample data
View and downloading services = WMS, WFS
Discovery services = compliant with the OGC
specifications for querying and retrieving information from
Web catalogues (CSW).

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Technological Architecture
Users
ArcGis SHP
Users Metadata
XML
Internet
Firewall
GeoServer &
GeoNetwork
Portal
Plan4all
Web Server
WMS
WFS
CSW
WCS
Internal DMZ Services
External
WMS

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GeoServer WMS Preview

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ArcGIS Explorer using WMS

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Δημόζια, Ανοικηά Δεδομένα geodata.gov.gr
Δλληνική Σηαηιζηική Αρτή (17/- )
Κοινωνία ηης Πληροθορίας Α.Δ. (2/- )
Οργανιζμός Κηημαηολογίοσ και Χαρηογραθήζεων Δλλάδας (6/- )
Υποσργείο Δζωηερικών, Αποκένηρωζης & Ηλεκηρονικής Γιακσβέρνηζης
(2/- )
Υποσργείο Παιδείας, Για Βίοσ Μάθηζης και Θρηζκεσμάηων (1/- )
Υποσργείο Περιβάλλονηος, Δνέργειας και Κλιμαηικής Αλλαγής (9/- )
Υποσργείο Προζηαζίας ηοσ Πολίηη (7/- )
Αναπηύτθηκε απο ηο ΙΠΣΥΠ/ΔΚ "Αθηνά" ζε ζσνεργαζία με ηον ΟΚΧΔ και ηην Ομάδα
Ηλεκηρονικής Γιακσβέρνηζης ηοσ Γραθείοσ ηοσ Πρωθσποσργού

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Plan4all geoportal
The Plan4all geoportal:
provides the means to search for spatial data sets and
spatial data services with regard to spatial planning.
allows the user to view and download spatial data sets
(subject to access restrictions) and related metadata.
This version is a prototype Plan4all geoportal and allows
discovery and viewing of spatial data sets and services.
The prototype Plan4all geoportal currently accesses a
limited number of discovery and view services.
The Plan4all geoportal is accessible at:
http://portal.plan4all.eu/

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http://portal.plan4all.eu/catalogue/

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Harmonization of Greece with the Specifications of INSPIRE
Components adopted by INSPIRE:
Rules of Conceptual Schemas and Entity Catalogues
Spatial and Time characteristics
Multiple Language Support and Interculturalism
The Geodetic Reference System and Measurement Units
Catalogues and Registries
Data Updates, Data Quality, Data Transfer, Ways of data collection
In Greece…
Public bodies have incomplete or non-existent data for most of the
above components.
Some work has been done regarding Geodetic Reference System and
Measurement Units.
Cadastre S.A. has almost completed Data Transfer and so has done
HMGS regarding Rules of Conceptual Schemas and Entity Catalogues.
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Conclusion
The situation in Greece as far as digitized spatial planning is
concerned is in its early stages.
The complexity and diversity of spatial planning stems from the fact
that the input used comes from many various sources.
The current situation involves different authorities, responsible for
part of the topics which are relevant to spatial planning.
As a result, processes related to data in the particular domain are
characterized by great diversity.
In order to perform an analysis which will give usable results, the
available sources need to be combined.
Big Challenge in spatial data infrastructure: take into account all the
available inputs and thus ensure effectiveness and harmonization.
Interoperability has to be ensured
high quality results
will allow input to be processed automatically
users will be able to search, view and retrieve data or relevant available
services

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Future steps
Development of the technical components of the INSPIRE Geo-portal at
European Union level.
The geo-portal shall provide the means to search for spatial data sets and
spatial data services, and subject to access restrictions, view and download
spatial data sets from the EU Member States.
1. Design and implement a Web-based geo-portal that:
provides a specific entry point to and offering client access
functionality to Inspire network services from the EU Member States
with a focus on discovery and view services,
goes beyond the traditional SDI (spatial data infrastructure) portal concept
(as e.g. implemented in the current geo-portal prototype) and provides
users with a user-friendly interface for an enhanced experience allowing
them to easily find and access spatial data and services,
2. The implementation of GEneral Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus and
INSPIRE registries. Examples of these services are registries (e.g. code list
registries, coordinate reference system registries), thesauri (GEMET),
gazetteers.