Building an INSPIRE compliant spatial data infrastructure supporting River Basin Management Plan and Flood Management Plan

The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and the Flood Directive 2007/60/CE represent the pivotal reference legislation for the Arno River Basin Authority planning activities. In this respect, the Arno River Basin Authority has been entitled, under the transposed national law, to coordinate the activities of the Regions belonging to the Northern Apennines River Basin District and produce the River Basin Management Plan and the Flood Risk Management Plan.
Up and above the ambitious objectives set out in accordance with the two above mentioned Directives, (i.e. good status for all water bodies in the Member States by 2015; flood risk and landslide risk management), the complex administrative framework peculiar to the Italian State did not favour the implementation of the first River Basin Management Plans.
In this context, the Arno River Basin Authority interpreted its coordination role in a comprehensive way, also and above all, as regards to data management activities to support the production of the plans and their maps.
Therefore the Authority has chosen, since the very beginning, to create a spatial data infrastructure for the collection, processing and dissemination of the river basin management plan’s related information.
Data documentation and network services were set up, accordingly, for cooperation purposes, for stakeholder inclusion and for dissemination activities as well.
The enforcement of the principles of the INSPIRE Directive and the adoption of its technical regulations were at the base of the reference work methodology concerning the cooperation between the Arno River Basin Authority and the Regions belonging to the District. On the other hand, this approach highlighted the delays that exist, at national level, as regards to the implementation of the Directive that do not allow to fully seize the opportunities offered by the adoption of its principles.