In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has a complex political system (10 cantons and 79 municipalities), the collection and use of spatial data is a demanding job. A demanding job ...because the responsibilities of institutions are not clear-cut, and thus leads to duplication of data and user confusion regarding the accuracy of the data it uses. Progress, in terms of improving the situation, could be achieved by using the rules of the INSPIRE Directive. However, the INSPIRE directive is not binding for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In practice, however, went into the creation of prerequisites for the implementation of Spatial data infrastructures of the Federation of BiH (IPPFBIH) (Regulation on the establishment and implementation of IPPFBIH Council IPPFBIH, Strategy IPPFBIH). The strategy describes the way towards the establishment and implementation of IPPFBIH. One of the first projects to be done is the establishment of the Register of Entities and the Register of spatial data resources. This article talks about how they were formed registries in Croatia, and the Register of users and producers of spatial data in the Federation. Their establishment and comparison, did require a lot of time and effort.
According to the Annual Fire Report 2013 (European Commission-Joint Research Centre, 2014), there have been 873 forest fires in Europe, in 2013, for a total of 340559 ha of territory. A comparison of ...this data to that of the previous years, highlights that, when the intended goal is that of preserving the environment and saving human lives, the importance of the correct management of forest fires can not be underestimated. In the past years, the European Union has invested in the development of the INSPIRE Directive (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) to support environmental policies. Furthermore, the EU is currently working on developing "ad hoc" infrastructures for the safe management of forests and fires. The AF3 EU project (Advanced Forest Fire Fighting), financed by the FP7, addresses the issue of developing innovative tools to handle all stages of forest fires. The project develops a single control center for the coordination of monitoring, manoeuvring, and post-fire operations. The SDI platform (Spatial Data Infrastructure) represents another component which was designed in the context of this project. It is based on a GIS (Geographic Information System) which is able to efficiently integrate multi-modal data. Following an analysis of the state of the art of information systems for forest fire-fighting, and in light of the end-user requirements analyzed within the AF3 project, we propose a geo-topographic database based on the INSPIRE Directive and developed on opensource platforms, which provides interoperability of the data and allows forecasting and monitoring of high-risk areas, decision making, damage estimation, and post-fire management.
The paper aims to present a concise overview of the current status of the national spatial data infrastructures (SDI) of the European Union (EU) member states combined with specific peculiarities for ...Bulgaria. Some major challenges within the progress of the EU SDIs establishing, which is regulated by the European Directive INSPIRE (Infrastructure for spatial information in Europe) toward establishment of a SDI for environmental policies and activities, are marked out. Available comparative analyses of the main indicators for metadata, data-sets, and data services provided by EU member states are briefly discussed as a special attention is given to the Bulgarian progress. Recent achievements on accelerating the process of implementing the recommendations of the INSPIRE Directive in Bulgaria are outlined.
The temporal dimension is an inherent component of geology. In this regard, traditional geological maps can represent a few geological events, yet they hardly account for the entire complex rock ...history whether sedimentary, crystalline or volcanic. Here, using the RGF research program (French Geological Reference platform) we propose a new methodology based on digital technology and the French historical collection of 1:50000-scale geological maps. This innovative approach consists of describing, organizing, and hierarchizing a series of geological events within a reference framework and linking it to GIS map geometries (polygons, faults, points). In this way, the complete history of geological features can be compiled and stored in digital maps, combining distinct geological events and properties. For a single event, all associated transformations can be represented on maps, facilitating the production of real "palaeo-geological" maps that consider not only traditional sedimentary environments but also possible synchronous weathering, metamorphism, and volcanism. We discuss here an example of French orogenic history. The approach demonstrated here on geological maps can be used with other geological data media (boreholes, seismic reflection profiles, etc.) and thus facilitate a 3D-to-4D scale, with a significant ability to address not only academic community needs, but also themes or issues related to applications required by politics, civil engineering, and society itself, to confront challenges such as natural and anthropic risk reduction and subsurface uses.
The observation that spatial and environmental data relating to specific locations or geographic areas in the European Union (EU) have been difficult to find online is undisputed. Whether the EU ...INSPIRE Directive of 2007 which establishes an infrastructure to enable the sharing of spatial data and services to support European and national environmental policies will achieve its objectives is a topic of debate. The INSPIRE Directive was conceived and implemented to address identifiable challenges relating to environmental policies and data. Before the complete implementation of the Directive, it may be necessary to reflect on what progress have been achieved at a legal and policy level. The central argument of this paper is that legal and policy issues may have hindered the rapid and smooth implementation of the Directive. The implementation of the legal framework of the Directive provides salutary lessons. Evaluation reports from the European Commission and the four case studies demonstrably paint an encouraging future. The conclusion is that INSPIRE should foster good governance, use and sharing of environmental data and information for the common good of all Europeans.
Buildings have become a key source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to the consumption of primary energy, especially when used to achieve thermal comfort conditions. In addition, buildings play ...a key role for adapting societies to climate change by achieving more energy efficiency. Therefore, buildings have become a key sector to tackle climate change at the local level. However, public decision-makers do not have tools with enough spatial resolution to prioritise and focus the available resources and efforts in an efficient manner. The objective of the research is to develop an innovative methodology based on a geographic information system (GIS) for mapping primary energy consumption and GHG emissions in buildings in cities according to energy efficiency certificates. The developed methodology has been tested in a representative medium-sized city in Spain, obtaining an accurate analysis that shows 32,000 t of CO2 emissions due to primary energy consumption of 140 GWh in residential buildings with high spatial resolution at single building level. The obtained results demonstrate that the majority of residential buildings have low levels of energy efficiency and emit an average of 45 kg CO2/m2. Compared to the national average in Spain, this obtained value is on the average, while it is slightly better at the regional level. Furthermore, the results obtained demonstrate that the developed methodology is able to directly identify city districts with highest potential for improving energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions. Additionally, a data model adapted to the INSPIRE regulation has been developed in order to ensure interoperability and European-wide application. All these results have allowed the local authorities to better define local strategies towards a low-carbon economy and energy transition. In conclusion, public decision-makers will be supported with an innovative and user-friendly GIS-based methodology to better define local strategies towards a low-carbon economy and energy transition in a more efficient and transparent way based on metrics of high spatial resolution and accuracy.
The Authors present the results of the multicriterial evaluation in 14 official map services of Capital City of Warsaw. The evaluation has been conducted in 2018 on two levels: in relation to all ...websites jointly (score according to one criterion) and individual mapping services (evaluation according to three criteria). The obtained results have been compared to previous analyzes of geoportals at various levels, including regional and state-owned. The Warsaw map service falls in a satisfactory manner, achieving a comparable or slightly higher rating than those previously analyzed by other authors.
The assessment and mitigation of landslide risk affecting hillslopes in highly urbanized and infrastructured environments are often problematic due to the inadequacy of the traditional approach based ...on landslide inventories and the absence of a shared language between the different scientific-technical operators (geologists, engineers, architects, environmentalists, economists, jurists) and recurrent understanding problems with policymakers, stakeholders, and property owners. Therefore, innovative technologies and working procedures are required to address these problems. In this context, the European INSPIRE Directive and the Italian national Catalog of Territorial Data with the related Geo-Topographic DB provide positive responses in terms of data standardization and transdisciplinary interoperability. On the other hand, the application of the object-oriented geomorphological mapping of landslides and, even more, the recently proposed Landslide Object-Oriented Model (LOOM) make it possible to develop a more thorough approach to assess the spatial and temporal relationships between landslides and affected slopes. Following the above perspective, the InterUniversity Research Center for Prevision and Prevention of Great Risks (C.U.G.RI.) produced the LOOM-based “eventory” of landslides over a sector of the Tyrrhenian coastal belt, northwest of Salerno city, in the framework of a multi-disciplinary investigation project launched by the Campania Regional Administration to assess the landslide risk. The quantitative assessment of the geomorphological expert-judgment procedures has been carried out exploiting morphometric indexes: the Topographic Position Index (TPI) for automatic slope features recognition, and the Slope-Area plots for surficial process domains. Furthermore, the application of the INSPIRE, and related Italian National Geo-Topographic DB standards allowed transdisciplinary interaction between scientists, technicians, and managers. Such proposal can support the risk management procedure, adding in the Value Judgement and Risk Tolerance Criteria simplicity and effective interoperability in trans-disciplinary frameworks.
To boost energy efficiency in the building sector at urban and district scales, the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) for data collection and energy spatial analysis is relevant. As ...highlighted in many studies on this topic reported in literature, the correlation among available databases is complex due to the different levels of information. As the first part of a wide research aimed at estimating the energy demand of urban buildings, we present in this article a focus on the details of the GIS-based procedure developed to assess the main energy-related features of existing building stocks. The procedure is based on the elaboration of data from the Italian Topographic Databases, under provision at the national level according to the INSPIRE European Directive and the national General Census of Population and Houses. It enables one to calculate and map the urban built volume characterized by mostly diffuse use categories in an urban context (residential and offices), to which different equipment and building usage patterns can be associated, and by construction periods, featuring different technological solutions. The method has been applied to the city of Milan (Italy). An insight into the outcomes from the overall method of the wider research is also reported.
Dokonaliśmy wielu zmian w prawnych regulacjach dotyczących geodezji w trakcie implementacji Dyrektywy INSPIRE w Polsce (m.in. struktury baz danych). Bardzo duże zmiany objęły mapę zasadniczą i ...procedury jej tworzenia i uaktualniania.
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