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EuroGeographics pledges support for UN-GGIM focus on authoritative geospatial data

EuroGeographics has welcomed the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management's (UN-GGIM) intention to focus on issues concerning authority, custodianship and legal issues for data for the public good.

The Association, which represents Europe’s National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authorities, has pledged to support the UN-GGIM Working Group on Legal and Policy Frameworks in its aim to better understand the definition and importance of authoritative data. It is also offering access to its extensive network to help gather examples of best practice and to facilitate information sharing.

Mick Cory, Secretary General and Executive Director, EuroGeographics says: “The critical importance of trusted geospatial information to support decision-making at all levels and many areas of national and international concern is demonstrated by the current Covid-19 pandemic. However, there remains insufficient awareness of the importance of good quality data to addressing global challenges and addressing national and global economic and social goals.”

“A clear policy for geospatial information management, backed up by a robust legislative framework with appropriate resource, are significant enablers to effective and efficient geospatial information management, as envisaged as part of the Inetgrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF). We warmly welcome, and stand ready to assist the Working Group in this work which will help the implementation of the IGIF and is a significant contribution to the global geospatial community.”

EuroGeographics is an observer on the Working Group, which was formally renamed at the tenth session of UN-GGIM and is now known as the Working Group on Policy and Legal Frameworks for Geospatial Information Management to align with IGIF Strategic Pathway 2 – Policy and Legal.

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 members from 46 countries, covering the whole of geographical Europe.

Online directory points way to national map, land registration & cadastral data from official sources

National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities (NMCAs) have launched an online directory to help users find official geospatial, land registration and cadastral information and maps from Europe.

Available via the website of EuroGeographics, the not-for-profit membership association for European NMCAs, users select their country of interest via the online map, and then click on a quick link to the national cadastre portal or geoportal.

Mick Cory, Secretary General and Executive Director, EuroGeographics says: “Our members’ data is important because it supports a range of legal, fiscal, security and other public administrative purposes, and provides reliable, consistent context and clarity to information about people and places. This takes users beyond the national map to a rich information resource used by governments, public authorities and citizens for important decisions and official purposes.”

“By providing links to the data available, our membership map is a simple way to signpost users to national maps, cadastral and land registration information across geographical Europe. It is just one of the ways we are facilitating access to our members’ data, services and expertise.”

Further information about each authority, including the latest case studies, can be found by clicking on the member name. The case studies are taken from EuroGeographics annual reviews and demonstrate the value and breadth of NMCA activities. Topics include open data, digital transformation, quality, interoperability and national spatial data infrastructures.

Please visit https://eurogeographics.org/our-members/ for more information.

EuroGeographics highlights role of high value, authoritative, geospatial information in European Strategy for Data

High value, authoritative, geospatial data from official national sources has a significant role to play in the European Strategy for Data.

EuroGeographics, the not-for-profit membership association for Europe’s National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities, has highlighted that such data is ubiquitous across all the dataspaces and one of the the basic building blocks for digital transformation.

Mick Cory, Secretary General and Executive Director, EuroGeographics said: “The value of data lies in its use and re-use. Making their information available for use and re-use by others is at the core of our members’public task and they are committed to this principle.”

“Geospatial is one of the five High Value Datasets themes expected to be available free of charge in machine-readable format via suitable APIs. With sustainable funding, our members can ensure a continued supply, indeed an increase, in the provision of high value authoritative geospatial data for use and re-use.”

“Their authoritative information can underpin and be used across all the dataspaces set out in the Strategy. For example, public administration relies on trusted authoritative sources to inform policy, transport needs authoritative geospatial datasets for cross-border requirements, and NMCA data forms an important component of the land parcel identification system, which supports the common agricultural policy. Furthermore, Cadastre and land registry data provide a basis for property tax in many countries, helping to combat national and international fraud and tax evasion.”

Mick Cory continues: “Technical and policy duplication hinders progress, is costly and should be avoided. A horizontal, cross-sectorial governance framework for data, regardless of data theme or sector of origin, is therefore an appropriate step forward to the alignment of the different actions.”

“Within EuroGeographics, our way of working is built upon the success of our enduring collaborative effort with our members to avoid gaps, eradicate duplications and contradictions, and avoid missed opportunities. We warmly welcome the important development of this overarching data strategy and we look forward to contributing to its success by using our experience in facilitating cross border data sharing and re-use of geospatial public sector data.”

EuroGeographics full information paper is available here.

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 members from 46 countries, covering the whole of geographical Europe.

Unique collaboration releases updated official boundary and geospatial data for Europe

National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration authorities across Europe have provided official data for the latest seamless administrative boundary and topographic datasets available from their membership association, EuroGeographics.

EuroBoundaryMap (EBM 2020) and EuroRegionalMap (ERM 2020) are created by the not-for-profit organisation using a unique data integration process which harmonises national data to standard specifications.

Angela Baker, Programme Manager, EuroGeographics says: “Our production system is a particularly important example of international collaboration in the geospatial area. By working together to deliver pan-European data, our members are demonstrating not only what can be achieved through Europe-wide cooperation but also the benefits that result for the wider public good.”

EBM 2020 enables the exact matching of administrative areas in 55 European countries and territories using geospatial data from 39 EuroGeographics members. Available at 1:100 000 scale, 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.

Angela Baker adds: “EBM 2020 enables users to geo-reference statistical data. The Statistical Atlas published by the European statistical agency, Eurostat is a good example of how it can be used to link different datasets about people and places to visualise complex information. EBM 2020 also allows users to search the dataset using multilingual geographical names with information from our Regional Gazetteer.”

Working with Germany’s Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG), which manages the production of both datasets, EuroGeographics has also updated the settlements, boundary and hydrography themes in ERM 2020, its 1:250 000 scale dataset covering 51 European countries and territories.

To improve accuracy and achieve a harmonised full European dataset, national data is validated against specifications using a tool developed by The Netherlands Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency. ERM 2020 focuses on edge-matching watercourse features along borders. The advantage for the end user is that the feature is linked across boundaries, so the physical feature is not stopped by a non-physical border.

As well as ERM 2020 and EBM 2020, EuroGeographics offers pan-European open data, EuroGlobalMap, which is supported by the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN France), a digital elevation model and a Regional Gazetteer managed by BKG.

https://eurogeographics.org/maps-for-europe/

New report identifies key components of authoritative geospatial data

Authoritative geospatial data is one of the basic building blocks for digital transformation and can be defined by seven characteristics that foster its trust across borders and between users, says a new report.

Researchers and practitioners in national mapping, cadastres and land registries (NMCAs) asked EuroGeographics, EuroSDR and KU Leuven what they believe makes their geospatial data authoritative. By identifying common characteristics, the aim was to gain a better and more comprehensive understanding of the definition, nature, governance and future of authoritative data and the links to spatial data quality in Europe. The research found that agreed rules of creation and use, a legal aspect, accountability, quality management, certification, traceability, and maintenance, were all recurring themes.

Report co-author Mick Cory, Secretary General and Executive Director of EuroGeographics which represents European NMCAs said: “Our members are recognised as the official sources of national geospatial information and whilst their data is routinely described as authoritative, it was not fully clear how the term is applied and interpreted across Europe.”

"Official, authoritative data is important because it supports a range of legal, fiscal, security and other public administrative purposes. For example, cadastral authorities and land registries fulfil an essential role providing official, detailed, secure and reliable information on property rights and registration.”

“In many countries, the process is enshrined in law with a public body given authority for the cadastral task. This makes the data authoritative according to our research which defines it as: Data that is provided by a public body (or authority) which has an official mandate to provide it, that is based on a set of criteria to ensure known quality, and that is required to be used and reused by the public sector and society as a whole.”

Mr Cory continued: “The importance of authoritative data has long been recognised at a national level and is increasingly recognised internationally, in particular in addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Other sources can supplement, but not replace, official data of known quality and reliability.”

Co-author, Joep Crompvoets, KU Leuven and Secretary General of EuroSDR, which is the European Spatial Data Research network linking NMCAs with Research Institutes and Universities in Europe, added: “NMCAs told us that they valued being able to label their information as authoritative, not only because users give it greater credit but also because it helps secure government investment to ensure it is updated, supported and used by public services. They also underlined that there is a need for organisations within the public sector to take up a central role in the governance of authoritative data.”

“Our results demonstrate that there is a need for a systematic and harmonised approach towards authoritative data and that more effort should be put in making it available and recognisable by other public organisations as well as private actors.”

The full report is available here.

EuroSDR is a not-for-profit organisation linking National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies with Research Institutes and Universities in Europe for the purpose of applied research in spatial data provision, management and delivery.
Find out more about EuroSDR.

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.”