Colin Bray re-elected President of EuroGeographics

Colin Bray, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Survey Officer, Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) has been re-elected President of EuroGeographics.

Mr Bray was re-elected by the Heads of Europe’s National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities at their membership association’s 2019 General Assembly.

Members also voted Sanja Zekušić from the State Geodetic Administration, Croatia and re-elected Amalia Velasco Martín-Varés, Spanish Directorate General for Cadastre to EuroGeographics Management Board. As a result it now comprises:

• President Colin Bray, Ordnance Survey Ireland
• Vice President Kristian Møller, Danish Agency for Data Supply and Efficiency
• Treasurer David Henderson, Ordnance Survey, Great Britain
• Andreas Hadjiraftis, Department of Lands and Surveys of Cyprus
• Sylvain Latarget, National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information, France
• Martin Lenk, Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy, Germany
• Martin Salzmann, The Netherlands’ Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency
• Amalia Velasco Martín-Varés, Spanish Directorate General for Cadastre
• Sanja Zekušić, State Geodetic Administration, Croatia

Mr Bray said his focus would continue to be working with the Management Board, members and head office to ensure EuroGeographics can meet the challenges of  a rapidly changing operating environment, thereby achieving its vision of a society empowered by the use of geospatial information from official national sources.

He added: “EuroGeographics and its members have a crucial role in ensuring that Europe has access to authoritative, standards based, intelligence–rich, sustainable pan-European geospatial reference data.”

“As members of EuroGeographics, our strength lies in the ability to cooperate and to share our data, our experience and our knowledge for the wider public good. Collectively we are able to influence more widely, achieve greater visibility and develop more opportunities than we could as individual organisations. Working together we are stronger and achieve more than working apart.”

Leaders and senior representatives from 48 member organisations from 39 countries attended the annual General Assembly hosted by Ordnance Survey Great Britain with support from HM Land Registry and Registers of Scotland.

Delegates were welcomed to Manchester by Steve Blair, Chief Executive Officer, Ordnance Survey and David Henderson, Managing Director of OSGB. The agenda included speakers from DG Connect, European Space Agency, United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management initiative (UN-GGIM), the UK’s Geospatial Commission, Manchester City Council, European Environment Agency, Hexagon Geosystems, Google and the International Cartographic Society.

EuroGeographics announces expanded coverage of pan-European topographic mapping

Data from Ukraine is the latest addition to pan-European multi-themed topographic mapping created using harmonised geospatial information from official sources.

As a result, EuroRegionalMap (ERM 2019), produced by EuroGeographics, the membership association for European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities, now covers 51 European countries and territories (according to ISO country code). The 1:250 000 scale dataset enables cross-border mapping and analysis and detailed pan-European cartographic visualisation.

Angela Baker, Sales, Marketing and Channel Manager, EuroGeographicscommented: “Our unique production process facilitates access to harmonised geospatial data from official national sources, reflecting EuroGeographics’ position as a collaborative network of members in a unique Association. We believe in a society empowered by the use of thistrusted information and,by working together to deliver pan-European data, members aredemonstrating not only what can be achieved through Europe-wide cooperation but also the benefits for the wider public good.”

“Thirty-six members across Europe have worked together to deliver ERM 2019 which includes updated information for boundaries, transport, population and vegetation, and new data from French overseas territories. In addition, the new release contains calculated INSPIRE-ID for countries with no ID and a number of quality improvements.”

“As part of our annual data update, we havealso harmonised and consolidated metadata and lineage information for both ERM 2019 and our official boundary data, EuroBoundaryMap (EBM 2019).”

EBM 2019 is available at 1:100 000 scale and covers 55 European countries and territories (according to ISO country code and Kosovo). It contains geometry, names and codes of administrative and statistical units, and links to the updated statistical LAU- and NUTS-codes for all local administrative units of the EU Member States.

As well as ERM 2019 and EBM 2019, EuroGeographics offers pan-European open data and a digital elevation model. All data is harmonised to standard specificationsso users can be confident that the information provided is consistent, comparable and easily shared.

Germany’s Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) manages production of EuroBoundaryMap and EuroRegionalMap whilst the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN France) supports the production of EuroGlobalMap (EGM 2019) open data.

Secure, reliable information from official national sources essential to modern state

Trusted authoritative sources of spatial information are fundamental requirements of a modern state, says EuroGeographics, the membership Association for European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities (NMCAs).

The Ninth Session of the United Nations global geospatial information management (UN-GGIM) committee of experts held in New York recently heard how official data from its members underpins secure and reliable land registration, as well as quicker, more effective responses to emergencies.

Mick Cory, Secretary General and Executive Director of the international not-for-profit organisation, welcomed the Framework for Effective Land Administration and in particular its alignment with the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework.

He commented: “According to a recent UN report, around 70 per cent of the global population do not enjoy secure land and property rights. Urgent action is therefore needed to document, record and recognise people’s many different relationships to land and help create a more equitable world.

“More than half of our members focus on property rights and registration. By responding to the changing needs of society with relevant, timely and trusted data, they are making a key contribution to the public good. Indeed, many also work internationally using their expertise to help establish more certain and precise land registration across the world.”

“We support the proposal for global consultation to enable constructive responses to be prepared from all interested stakeholders, including EuroGeographics’ members through our Cadastre and Land Registry Knowledge Exchange Network, avaluable forum for sharing best practice.”

Mr Cory also highlighted the important role of authoritative data sources in planning, responding to and recovering from disasters during discussions on theUN-GGIM Strategic Framework on Geospatial Information and Services for Disasters Assessment Survey. 

He said: “This role needs to be clearly stated, recognised and funded by national governments as part of national implementation plans. Such authoritative data should be supplemented where necessary from other sources, but authoritative, core reference geospatial data sets are a fundamental requirement for risk reduction and management in cases of disaster, and should be a core public task for national mapping bodies.”

“Geospatial information providers should engage with the disaster risk reduction and management community, so that baseline datasets are accessible, usable and interoperable.”

EuroGeographics also reconfirmed its active support for the integrated global geospatial information framework and stressed the importance of developing a common approach to country level action plans to avoid duplication of effort.

Mr Cory encouraged further engagement and collaboration, not only between the key international partners, but other international and national aid agencies active in the geospatial domain and offered to further facilitate access to EuroGeographics members through its extensive programme of activities for sharing expertise and knowledge.

He also noted the potential for using the framework and implementation guide as a means of benchmarking and strengthening more mature national and regional geospatial arrangements, not just for low-middle income and developing states, and encouraged Member States to volunteer to do this to validate such potential.

EuroGeographics and its members look forward to responding to the global consultation on theintegrated global geospatial information framework.

3rd International Workshop on Spatial Data Quality call for papers

Malta is hosting an International workshop on spatial data quality which will see producers, users, academia and software suppliers gather in Valletta on 28 and 29 January 2020.

Abstracts and papers are now invited for the two-day event organised by EuroGeographics and EuroSDR in conjunction with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 211 Geographic Information (ISO TC211), and the International Cartographic Association (ICA).

“Technology is driving the geospatial information industry forward at an ever-growing rate with increasing recognition that quality is of paramount importance,” says Chair of EuroGeographics Quality Knowledge Exchange Network, Jonathan Holmes.

“As well as embracing new capture and quality assurance methods, we must also meet user expectations that data will be readily available, accurate, trustworthy and free. This presents new challenges for National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities who are the official sources of authoritative geospatial information.”

“Traditional methods of checking quality are now regarded as too expensive and the focus has shifted onto ways of ensuring that quality assurance is built into a method or process from the very beginning. In addition, many users know little about how the data is produced so we must find ways to communicate the trust, quality, provenance, and relevance of our content to all potential users – not just those in the professional community.”

“Previous events held in 2015 and 2017 provided valuable and innovative contributions to the ongoing debate on spatial data quality. We hope the 2020 workshop will prove just as successful and help to provide solutions to these issues.”

Papers are invited on all topics related to spatial data quality, including (but not limited to):

 • Quality evaluation of spatial data

• Quality certification and accreditation of spatial data

• Use of international metadata and quality standards

• Quality issues in spatial data infrastructures (e.g. national, INSPIRE)

• Communication/visualization of spatial data quality

• Spatial data usability/quality from the users perspective

• Impact of data quality on decision making

• Spatial data quality vs scales/resolution

• Applications of spatial data quality

• Quality of geospatial services

• Research trends in spatial data quality

• Practical implementation of spatial data quality assessment

• Quality Standards

• Software for measuring quality

• Quality of 3rd party data, crowdsourced/OSM etc.

• Authoritative data

Content must be submitted via this link by 1 October 2019.

Abstracts should be at least two pages long but no more than 3 to 4 pages whilst complete papers should be around 10 to 12 pages.

 All submissions will be independently reviewed by the programme committee members who will notify authors of their decision by 29 November 2019.

More information is available online here.

Programme Committee:

• Jonathan Holmes (Chair EuroGeographics – Quality KEN)

• Carol Agius (EuroGeographics)

• Tamás Palya (EuroGeographics Quality KEN)

• Karin Mertens (EuroGeographics Quality KEN)

• Antti Jakobsson (Maanmittauslaitos Finland)

• Bart De Lathouwer (OGC)

• Ray Patrucco (OS Great Britain)

• Joep Crompvoets (EuroSDR)

• Agneta Engberg (ISO TC211)

• Serena Coetzee (ICA)

• Franz-Josef Behr (ICA)

Authoritative geospatial information key to helping deliver UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development

Official digital mapping plays an important role in helping to address the key global and regional issues that affect society and the planet, such as poverty, climate change, sustainable development, a digital economy, migration, security and health.

National and international geospatial experts gather during the first week of August at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to discuss how digital geospatial information management can help address these global challenges. 

European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registries will be represented by EuroGeographics, an international not-for-profit association, highlighting the importance of their geospatial information in helping to address these important topics. 

“In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion in location-based services,”says Mick Cory, EuroGeographics Secretary General and Executive Director, who is participating in GGIM9 this week at United Nations Headquarters in New York. 

“Many of us have a digital map in our pockets.  Whether it’s maps, cadastral data or land registration, geospatial information is driving applications to realise social, economic and environmental benefits for us all.”

“In the age of ‘Big Data’ and the ‘Internet of Things’ it is even more important to know which data sources are reliable, accurate, and trust-worthy, particularly for decisions that affect all our lives.” 

Demand for trusted authoritative geospatial information from official national sources will continue into the next decade, with quality, value, reliability and ease of re-use remaining key requirements for users.

Responding to the UN-GGIM consultation on future trends in geospatial information, EuroGeographics also identifies disruptive technologies, funding, and historical, linked and open data, as important themes for its members, the European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities (NMCAs).

Mr Cory continued: “As the national authorities for official geospatial reference data in Europe, high quality and reliability is the calling card of our members. In an ever-changing world, our members play an important and often critical role in helping to address national issues and challenges.  In New York we will be highlighting how the key global and regional issues do not stop at borders and require collaboration and cooperation to ensure an effective global response.”

“There is no doubt that government, businesses and citizens will continue to need their geospatial information, particularly in monitoring and delivering the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. However, we must do more to promote its value as quality assured data that meets high standards and specifications which ensures users can be confident that they are using the best available for their needs.”

EuroGeographics adds new administrative boundaries to its geospatial open data

EuroGeographics today (8 July 2019) announced the addition of NUTS 3 official boundary information in its European geospatial open data from official national sources.

As well as enabling socio-economic analysis of more than 1,300 administrative regions across Europe, the latest release of 1.1 million EuroGlobalMapopen data (EGM 2019) is also available as both a web feature service and a dataset. French overseas territories have also been added for 2019 and the hydrology, settlement and transport themes have been updated. The boundary data conforms to the agreed standard for administrative boundaries in Europe: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS.

“Previously the NUTS 3 level data was only available in our premium dataset of official administrative and statistical regions, EuroBoundaryMap,” says EuroGeographics Sales, Marketing and Channel Manager, Angela Baker.

“By adding it as a feature class to our open data, which covers 45 countries and territories in Europe, we’re making it available so small-scale data users will be able to experience the benefits of integrating geospatial and statistical information to identify trends and patterns.”

“Three themes within EGM 2019 have been updated and the data has been fully generalised from our more detailed products, 1: 100 000 EuroBoundaryMap and 1: 250 000 EuroRegionalMap. We are also very pleased to offer access to the new EGM 2019 web feature service through https://www.euro-geo-opendata.eu/service/open-euroglobalmap-feature-service which demonstrates how high-value geospatial datasets can be used to support the wider digital economy.”

Since its launch in 2013, more than 7,000 individual users have downloaded EuroGlobalMap. Feedback indicates that they greatly value high quality, reliable data from official national sources and that open data provides a greatfirst step in discovering the wider benefits of pan-European map and land information.

EGM 2019 covers 45 countries and territories, and comprises five themes: Administrative boundaries, names locations, transport networks, settlements and the water network. Itis available free of charge under an open data licence and enables a wide range of applications, including mobile mapping, demographic and socio-economic analysis, hydrology, energy and environment modelling and in education and research. It is also ideal for cartographic visualisation across Europe.

EGM2019 is produced with support from The National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN France). EuroBoundaryMap and EuroRegionalMap are both managed by Germany’s Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) on behalf of EuroGeographics members.

For more information, please visit https://eurogeographics.org/products-and-services/open-data/.

About EuroGeographics

EuroGeographics is an international not-for-profit organisation (AISBL/ IVZW under Belgian Law. BCE registration:  833 607 112) and the membership association for the European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities. It currently brings together 63 members from 46 countries.

Open ELS Project unveils first test services at GWF

Open data services developed using official national sources of geospatial information have been demonstrated for the first time at Geospatial World Forum  (2 April 2019).

Conference delegates received an exclusive preview of the first test services from the Open European Location Services (ELS) Project which is being coordinated by EuroGeographics, the membership association for Europe’s National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities.

The services are being delivered through a customer interface developed by ThinkWhere and include pan-European topographic data (EuroGlobalMap), an Open cadastral Index map of property level information and a regional gazetteer of geographical names. 

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