Plan4all newsletter 5

Plan4all NewsletterIssue 5, September 2011

The harmonisation of spatial planning data according to

the INSPIRE Directive based on the existing best practices in EU regions

and municipalities and the results of current research projects

May 2009 - October 2011

co-funded by the Community programme

eContentplus

3 ... PLAN4ALL Final Conference

4... Regional Implementations

5... Pan European Plan4all Platform

7... Metadata Harmonisation

8... Plan4all Data Deployment - Stage 1

11 ... Validation of the Project Solutions

13 ... Project consortium

Each newsletter introduces several partners of the

Plan4all consortium in more detail. This newsletter

introduces ZPR, FTZ, PROVROMA, EUROGI and

LGV HAMBURG

16 ... Upcoming events

Plan4all Final Conference

13 October, Brussels

Register at http://www.plan4all.eu/

2Plan4all Newsletter Issue 3, June 2010

Dear Reader

Welcome to the 5th issue of the Plan4all Newsletter. The Plan4all project is slowly but surely coming to the end. The consortium is finalising the harmonisation of their datasets.

Plan4all is a European project co-funded by the Community programme eContentplus. The main aim of the project is to harmonise spatial planning data and related metadata according to the INSPIRE principles.

The Plan4all project should contribute to the standardisation in the field of spatial data from spatial planning point of view. Its activities and results will become a reference material for INSPIRE initia-tive; especially for data specification. Plan4all is focused on the following 7 spatial data themes as outlined in Annex II and III of the INSPIRE Directive:

Land cover• Land use• Utility and Government services• Production and industrial facilities• Agricultural and aquaculture facilities• Area management/restriction/regulation zones and reporting units• Natural risk zones•

Please visit the Plan4all geoportal and find more information about the implementation of the Plan4all solution in pilot regions.

CordiallyThe Plan4all Teamhttp://www.plan4all.eu

[email protected]

Join us on the INSPIRE Forum:http://inspire-forum.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pg/groups/1892/plan4all/

Linked-In:http://www.linkedin.com/e/-bm0vvw-gdq6g3bo-1p/vgh/3374366/

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Plan4all/144291828941248?ref=search


Join us on the INSPIRE Forum:http://inspire-forum.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pg/groups/1892/plan4all/

Linked-In:http://www.linkedin.com/e/-bm0vvw-gdq6g3bo-1p/vgh/3374366/

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Plan4all/144291828941248?ref=search

Final Conference

Spatial Planning in Europe in terms of INSPIRE

Solutions in the framework

of the Europe 2020 Strategy

A Conference for public and private actors active in the field of spatial planning in Europe

Brussels, 13. October 2011, 14:00 – 17:3 Diamant Congress Centre

Co-funded by the Community Programme Side Event of the Open Days

eContentplus 2011

REGISTER AT http://www.plan4all.eu/


Regional ImplementationsInga Berzina (Zemgale Planning Region), Karel Charvat (Help Service Remote Sensing)

The objective of Task 6.1 Regional implementa-tions was deployment of SDI for Plan4all pilot partners. These pilots’ deployments were base for full Plan4all SDI infrastructure and also were necessary for spatial planning data and metadata harmonisation. The regional deployments were in the first stage focused on metadata and data, as they were. In initial stage metadata, WNS and WFS of original data were deployed. Using dep-loyed platforms and implemented Plan4all tools data and metadata are published in Plan4all and INSPIRE profiles. Deployed regional pilot plat-forms are the part of global Plan4all Networking services. Currently already all partners deployed basic infrastructure. Advantage is, that different technological solutions are used and this guaran-tee interoperability testing. Currently is running implementation of transfor-mation services, which will support transformati-on of data in existing models into data following the designed conceptual models.The objectives of Task were:

Deploying systems for the publishing of Me-• tadata and catalogue services based on CSW 2.0.2; Deploying systems for the publishing of • WMS and WFS; Testing of partners CSW, WMS and WFS • against Plan4all portal.

In order to achieve this task require-ments for the Plan4all Networking architecture and recommendations for Platform implementation (from D 2.2 Analysis of Innovative Challenges and D5.2 networking architecture) and im-plementation of Basic Services were provided.Partners involved in the T6.1. have wor-ked in order to deploy the above men-tioned services and tested them against Plan4all. The steps and technologies used in each Pilot region are described in the Case-studies of Olomouc (Czech Republic), TDF (Latvia); HSRS (Czech Republic); LGV Hamburg (Germany); ZPR (Latvia); GEORAMA (Greece);

NASURSA (Spain); PROVROMA/Hyperborea (Italy); GIJON (Spain); MAC (Ireland); CEIT ALANOVA (Austria); AVINET (Norway); DI-PSU (Italy); EPF (Bulgaria); ADR Nord Vest (Romania); Lazio (Italy); HF (Czech Republic); MEDDTL (France); FTZ (Malta). Map Viewer - http://giz.zpr.gov.lv/mapWFS - http://giz.zpr.gov.lv/glog/Glog/entry.php?class=Mapman.MapmanWfs&VERSI-ON=1.0.0&mapProject=mapproject3&instance=-&SERVICE=WFS&REQUEST=GetCapabili-tiesWMS - http://giz.zpr.gov.lv/glog/Glog/ent-ry.php?class=Mapman.MapmanWms&map-Project=mapproject0&instance=&SERVI-CE=WMS&REQUEST=GetCapabilitiesThe final deliverable D6.1 “Deployment of Plat-forms on Local, Regional and National Levels is available at:ht tp: / /www.plan4all .eu/simplecms/?me-nuID=37&action=article&presenter=ArticleThis document summarises:

Methodology - steps taken to achieve the • goal of the task;Summary - wrap up of all partners activities;• Conclusion, next steps; • Annexes - detailed descriptions of partners‘ • implementations.


Pan European Plan4all PlatformKarel Charvat (Help Service Remote Sensing)

The aim of Pan European Plan4all Platform was to demonstrate the technological feasibility of Plan4all designed models from WP3, WP4 and WP5. Based on the analysis and recommenda-tions, large scale testbeds were realised inside of this task. The standards and models coming from the architecture design are platform neutral, to give content providers a chance to reuse their current technological platform. The large scale testbed required additional investment into tech-nologies covering functionality, which is neces-sary for publishing the data and metadata with respect to spatial planning based on INSPIRE Implementing Rules. The partners, which do not yet have the technology necessary for testing the Plan4all solution were supported by the techno-logical partners. The large scale testbed was fo-cused on building a platform supporting common sharing of content related to spatial planning, including issues such as Digital Right Manage-ment. In establishing such a solution, there are two basic objectives:

To extend or to fully implement platforms on • the premises of every single content provid-ers, which will allow them to publish data and metadata according to the INSPIRE prin-ciples.To implement one central spatial planning •

portal supporting access to spatial planning data of all partners based on Pan European Plan4all Networking services.

Pan European deployment is focused on deploy-ment of central portal with client applications and using network services like discovery and portrayal services, where important role is to play multilingual search for data and common portrayal rules. These are critical services for sharing and understanding spatial planning data across Europe.The Pan European Plan4all Platform was de-signed and implemented on the basis of analysis and architecture design in D5.2. From the archi-tectural point of view, the system must have the following characteristics:

service oriented;• loosely coupled integration;• persistent identifiers;• trusted infrastructures.•

The system is satisfying all the above listed re-quirements called Uniform Resource Manage-ment System (URM). The main objective of URM is easy description, discovery and valida-tion of relevant information sources. The URM opens new possibilities, how to share knowledge and information inside of communities. The cur-rent version of URM is based on Metadata and


catalogue system Micka, there were already tested possibilities with other interoperable plat-forms like Geonetwork. This new method of sharing of knowledge could increase collabo-ration inside of communities and also could be useful tools for training and education. Global SDI building is usually described like pyramid building. Current experiences demonstrate, that for practical usage is more efficient “spider net infrastructure”, where different local or global levels are able directly share data. As examples could be for example mentioned cross border systems, system of different communities across Europe or world, etc. URM Geoportal is the way to shift from the pyramid paradigm, to paradigm of spider net. With our concept URM concept is system of distributed data sources, where every provider could decide about accessibility of his data against concept of cloud computing, where one organisation is managing all information. The principle of URM allows to build “spider-net” infrastructure supporting interconnection of any two portals and effective exchange of infor-mation. Plan4all Geoportal could be divided into four ba-

sic buildings blocks, which are currently imple-mented are:

Metadata management (editing, discovery, • access, harvesting)Data management (upload, download, OGC • service publishing)Data visualization (local data, WMS, WFS, • KML and management of Web Map Con-text)Content management (publishing of context • and connection with social networks)

All this four building blocks are interconnected trough metadata, supporting effective exchange of information.


Metadata Harmonisation

Information contained in the Implementing Rules for INSPIRE metadata seems not suffi-cient enough to describe all spatial data theme specific aspects. Therefore a Plan4all metadata profile with respect to specific aspects of the spatial data theme (i.e. land use) was defined. In Task 3.2 a European spatial planning meta-data profile (Plan4all metadata profile) was de-signed on the analysis of national requirements on spatial planning metadata (Task 3.1) as well as on the experiences of designing conceptual data models for selected INSPIRE themes (Task 4.2). The Plan4all metadata profile extend the INSPIRE metadata requirements. It is compliant to ISO 19115/19119/19139 standards, INSPIRE metadata profile and INSPIRE metadata imple-menting rules.

The Plan4all metadata profile is intended to pro-vide metadata of

spatial plans according to national legislation • (digital or non digital): spatial plan metada-ta,datasets which are part of digital spatial plans: • dataset metadata,spatial services providing access to digital • spatial plans: spatial service metadata

Existing local, regional or national metadata are transformed into the Plan4all metadata profile and provided as CSW services. The CSW serv-ers are cascaded and published using the plat-form from WP6. Besides this alternative it is also possible to collect metadata in Plan4all Metadata Portal.

Kai-Uwe Krause (LGV Hamburg)

„HMDK“metadata catalogue based on the „German Environmental Information Portal (PortalU)” default metadata profile, including INSPIRE metadata profile


Plan4all Data Deployment - Stage 1

The main goal of the Task 7.2 is the spatial planning data deployment in project regions. Existing local, regional or national data has been transformed into data following new common conceptual models using trans-formers implemented in WP6. Data has been published using web map clients and/or OGC web services.

The task of Data Deployment depends on the re-sults of WP3 (connected metadata), WP4 (con-ceptual models), WP5 (Networking Architecture) and WP6 (Large scale testbed). The deployment of data and metadata is running in two stages to guarantee validation of concept and platform.

How to makE SPatIaL PLaNNINg data INtERoPERabLESpatial planning data exist today in European countries in very diverse forms and data structu-res. The project Plan4all was one from European project aimed at interoperability and harmoniza-tion of spatial planning data and metadata while observing basic INSPIRE principles. One from main tasks of the Plan4all project was to achie-ve such a process of data interoperability which would allow utilization of source data from in-dividual countries in the form common to all of them. There were specified three main stages wi-thin Plan4all project (see Figure 2) how to get interoperability for spatial planning data:

Definition of appropriate conceptual models• Process of spatial planning data harmoniza-• tionPublishing of harmonized data•

INSPIRE data specifications and Plan4all con-ceptual models for relevant themes were corner stones of the whole harmonization process. On the basis of these models, a final structure of har-monized data was formed as the first step of the data harmonization process.The next step represents a precise description of source data intended for harmonization. It allows better understanding of data for determination of transformation conditions. This description in-cludes a layout of the data structure, characteri-zation of individual object types and an overview or a list of codes. Sometimes spatial data are not in a GIS structure and must be therefore modified and transformed into an appropriate format.Set up of transformation conditions is a key point of the harmonization process. The conditions are formed by relations between source and target data that should be defined at the objects, fea-tures and attributes levels. For representation of the relations, a transformation table or scheme usually are used.When the transformation conditions have been defined, the final step of the whole harmonizati-on process can be run. The whole transformation can be performed by means of transformation tools or directly with the help of SQL queries.

Petr Horak, Martin Vlk (Help forest s.r.o.)

WP 2State of the art analysis

WP 4Plan4all data

model

WP 3Plan4all

metadata profi les

WP 5Networking architecture

WP 1Project

management and

coordinati on

WP 6Large scale

testbed

WP 7Content deployment

WP 8 Validati on

WP 9Disseminati on

clustering consensus

building and sustainability

planning

Start date: 1st May 2009

End date: 31stOctober 2011

May 2010

May 2011

May 2009

October 2011

Figure 1: Plan4all working schema.

Figure 2: Plan4all interoperability schema.


Harmonized data, which are saved in the target structure, may be published in several ways. In the individual regions included in the Plan4all project, publishing of harmonized spatial plan-ning data were tested through the regions’ web map applications and also by providing data via OGC web services, WMS or WFS. In this phase of the project, harmonized data are presented as map layers in a web client or in the form of web services.The first stage of the Task 7.2 Data Deployment has been focused on regional/local spatial data testing and transformation into Land Use and Land Cover conceptual data models proposed by WP4. The models have been modified on the ba-sis of requirements from project partners. On the basis of these models, the target data structures have been developed and project partners tried to

provide transformation of their own source data into these target structures (Figure 3).RESuLtS oF tHE FIRSt tEStINg StagEThe testing and deployment covered several steps from description of the original (source) data structure, through proposals for a transformation table to target data structures that represent har-monised data. To create these target structures, the conceptual models elaborated in WP4 have been used. 17 project partners attended on the testing of Land use and Land Cover conceptual

Figure 3: Plan4all common harmonisation schema.

schemes and on harmonisation processes for the-se themes. The harmonised data has been publis-hed in web map clients and/or through standardi-sed OGC web services WMS and WFS.The Land Cover data model proposed by WP4 was quite simple and transparent. Thus the har-monisation process was straightforward. The data sources usually had a similar structure, so the harmonisation was provided mainly on enu-meration.The conceptual model for Land Use proposed by WP4 was very complex and in fact covers the whole area of Spatial Planning, not just specifi-cally Land Use. The WP7 team modified the mo-del and agreed a shorter and simpler version of the conceptual model. This simplified structure was more understandable and better for definiti-on of harmonisation relations.The team also defined a key harmonisation at-tribute – GeneralLandUseType. This attribute was the main item for comparison of data from different countries and regions. An enumeration related to this attribute has been modified. In ad-dition, several other attributes and values have been re-defined. On the basis of the knowledge of regional/local data, the project partners individually specified transformation tables and provided data trans-formation into the target (harmonised) structure. The data from the target structure has been pub-lished in web map clients on the partner’s sites or through web services WMS and WFS. The spa-tial reference has been agreed as the projection EPSG:3035.Examples of the harmonised data may be seen at the Figure 4.

PLaN4aLL data HaRmoNISatIoN ExPERIENcE aNd REFLEctIoNThe Plan4all project tried to implement INSPIRE principles in spatial planning practice or, at least, to show a way how to do it. Spatial information services allow users to identify and access spatial or geographical information from a wide range of sources, from the local level to the global le-vel, in an interoperable and interactive way for a variety of uses. Nevertheless a range of such


Figure 4: Source data and harmonized outputs (Olomouc and Sumperk, CZ).

services is still limited and sometimes is totally missing. Improvement of this situation undoub-tedly required better spatial planning system in-teroperability and data harmonization. Present experience with spatial data harmoniza-tion process within Plan4all testing may be sum-marized into several recommendations; some of them may be mentioned:

To better understand source-target relations • a precise definition of the source data should be created and described. There does not exist any fixed standard for planning data in many countries and the definition should help to harmonise different data in the same way.Exact specification of code lists and enume-• rations with explanation of terms is highly-valued. The same values may imply different meaning to people from different countries and consequently harmonised datasets may be technically correct, but are not in reality. This is not problem of the data model, but

a consequence of differences in spatial plan-ning in European countries.Multiplicity of harmonised attributes is a • problem each time. It is better to avoid this situation and to modify appropriately the data sourcesIt is needed to keep models, schemes and • tables as simple as possible.Precise specification of metadata fields and • leaving them out of the data make clear the data structure. Definition of symbols and colours for harmo-• nised data is necessary for right presentation and publishing.

On the basis of experience with data harmonisa-tion going from Plan4all conceptual models, the Plan4all team continues with testing of harmoni-sation steps using INSPIRE technical specificati-on. Practices and outputs will be available on the Plan4all portal.

Sumperk source data Olomouc source data

Sumperk Harmonised Data (GeneralLandUse) Olomouc Harmonised Data (GeneralLandUse)


Validation of the Project Solutions

The goal of Task 8.2 was to validate Plan4all products, which consist of metadata profiles, data models and network services concerning spatial planning data according to the INSPIRE Directive. In order to accomplish this task, a Verification and Validation (V&V) phase was planned, which was customized on the basis of the different nature of each expected product. In particular, as for the verification process, project solutions were checked with respect to relevant INSPIRE documents and users‘ requirements. Both a syntactic and a semantic check were ac-complished whose goal was to determine data model correctness, completeness, readability and minimality, and schema content in terms of state-ments, respectively.A different approach was then followed within the validation process. It involved different Plan4all stakeholders and domain experts, who contribu-ted to determine the efficiency and efficacy of project solutions. In particular, each partner pro-vided V&V Manager with a list of stakeholders and was assigned with two themes to validate ac-cording to their expertise. In order to capture their contribution to the validation process, a validati-on kit was prepared, containing a brief descrip-tion of the Plan4all project, some guidelines for the V&V Liaison Officer, a brief description of Metadata and Annex Themes and Scope, and a questionnaire to be filled by project stakeholders involved in the validation step, where questions about proposed solutions were posed.

RESuLtS FRom tHE VERIFIcatIoN aNd VaLIdatIoN PHaSEGenerally speaking, the proposed metadata pro-file met an agreement among partners and stake-holders. Both questionnaires and evaluations per-formed through the instantiation of case studies highlighted that a core of elements is shared and accepted in terms of name, type, and properties. However, there exist a subset of elements that ap-pear to be critical, due to the strong dependency of spatial planning management on organization / institution in charge of it, whose task also con-sists of bounding the scope and establishing the

appropriate threshold of detail. A solution sug-gested by stakeholders is to allow each country to design their own catalog profiles by extending existing code list elements. This would retain the integration on the European level while allowing sufficient detail on the local. Another current concern refers to metadata availability. The chal-lenge is that existing metadata are generally ra-ther poor because a lot of information is implicit when used in the context of a municipality – but becomes explicit when taken out of this context. This will lead to a significant challenge when creating metadata from local profiles. As for Plan4all themes, the proposal suitably co-vers all elements featuring the spatial planning domain. It also supports INSPIRE requirements and may be a good starting point for evolving national metadata profiles for data within all the-mes. Punctual observations were related to some issues that were faced, along with possible solu-tions that were suggested concerning topological relationships management and UML tools to be adopted to express data constraints and proper-ties. Moreover, many stakeholders shared the opinion that some limitations met during the case study instancing phase are due to the meaning of terms. In fact, they have frequently annotated that sometimes it is difficult to understand what item is under investigation, and information pro-vided by designers does not bridge this gap, due to the lack of a common shared approach. Another issue highlighted by stakeholders re-fers to the overlaps among themes. Partners and stakeholders from different countries pointed out that these overlaps also depend on national re-gulations. Besides INSPIRE indications, which propose high level links for inter-institutional and cross-border purposes, other relationships among themes were identified by domain expert users, which have to be managed in order to obtain an exhaustive representation of real scenarios.

FINaL REmaRkSWhile concluding the Plan4All V&V phase, the INSPIRE team launched testing activities for the refinement of INSPIRE Annex II and III


data specifications, starting in June 2011 and en-ding in October 2011. After this testing phase, the TWGs will deal with the comments recei-ved and elaborate the final versions of the data specifications by April 2012. This will imply a possible improvement of the INSPIRE data spe-cifications, which in turn will affect also Plan4all

D8.2 Assessment of Project Solutions

11

(VLO). Based on subsequent observations, some changes have been applied meant to better distribute work and distinguish the role of each partner. The new structure is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - The Plan4all Validation Management Structure

Provided the roles that the Project Manager and the Plan4All Management Board are in charge of, in the following paragraphs, the responsibilities of each actor of the assessment process are described. Validation Manager (VM): the Plan4all Validation Manager has overall responsibility for

the successful execution and conclusion of Work Package 8 of the project, “Validation”. Within this context the Manager will:

receive written regional analyses and compile a project register of results across the regions;

provide a bimonthly summary report to the Project Manager and recommend corrective action for any identified shortcomings on data/metadata/services/applications at the regional level. The summary report will consist of an analysis of the V&V reports. It will follow the following format:

Start date of WP Planned end date of WP Objective of WP Current status of WP Summary of current status of tasks Progress of WP against Work Plan Expected end of WP

Plan4all Validation Manager

ZPR

V&VLODIPSU

Project Manager

ToMas Mildorf

Project Management Board

Plan4allMetadata Profile

(HSRS)

Plan4allData ModelDefinition

(DIPSU)

Plan4allNetworkingArchitecture

(GIJON)

Plan4all Content Deploymt (HF)

ProjectSolution V&V

Manager

AMFM

Platform V&V Manager

NASURSAStakeholder Validation

Officer

ISOCARP

V&VLO

GIJON

V&VLOMAC

V&VLOTDF

V&VLOHyper

V&VLOAVINET

V&VLOCEIT ALANOVA

V&VLOPROVROMA

V&VLOFTZ

V&VLOLAZIO

V&VLOMEEDAT

V&VLOGEORAMA

V&VLOADR

V&VLOEPF

V&VLONASURSA

V&VLOOLOMUC

V&VLOEUROGI

V&VLOLGV Hamburg

V&VLOZPR

V&VLOAMFM

products. At this stage, a refinement of models may be fruitful, based on a top-down approach to capture general indications, that can be then deepened and integrated according to specific re-quirements.

The Plan4all Validation Management Structure


Zemgale is located in the central part of Latvia, south from Riga, it has long (270 km) borderland with the Republic of Lithuania. Beginning with the Eastern Kurzeme Highland and Southern Kurzeme Lowland in the West to the Augszeme Highland in the East, located along Latvia – Lithuania borderland, but its central part is located on the Zemgale Plain. Region area covers 10,733 km2, which is 16.6% of the total territory of Latvian Republic.

Zemgale region has 22 municipalities, of which two major cities - Jelgava and Jēkabpils, 20 local municipali-ties, Aizkraukle, Skrīveru, Jaunjelgava, Kokneses, oftentimes, Pļaviņu, Bauska, Rundale, Iecavas, Vecumnie-ku, Dobele, Auces, Tērvetes, Jelgava, Ozolnieku, Jēkabpils, Akniste, Krustpils, Salas and Viesite counties.

Zemgale Planning region is under the supervision of LR Environmental Protection and Regional Development Ministry and according to the Re-gional Development Law has a status of derived public person. The Re-gion functions are prescribed in the Regional Development Law, which defines that region within the scope of its competence, provides the plan-ning of region development, coordination, collaboration between local governments and other state administration institutions

The functions of Zemgale Planning region includes:Development planning on regional level, working at regional econo-• mic profiles, elaboration of regional development plans and Spatial development plan;Coordination of regional and national interests at the working groups of national development Plan, Ste-• ering Committees of EU Structural funds and other financing instruments, at the National Development Committee headed by the Prime Minister, at the working groups of different branch sectors at different ministries, including the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry of Welfare responsible for implementa-tion of the Lisbon strategy. Coordination of regional and local interests by preparing conclusion on local development plans and Spa-• tial plans of self-governments to be in accordance to regional and national planning documents, monito-ring and supervision of local planning processes;Organization of public transport in the region, opening and closing new routes, distribution of state fun-• ding among transport providers. Development and implementation of regional scale projects, coordination of public institutions, social • partners to implement the priority actions in accordance to the Regional development plan.Management of EU structural funds information centre for Zemgale region, www.zemgale.esfondi.lv• Represent region and the interests of its 22 local self-governments on national and international level. •

Zemgale Planning region has excellent EU projects and other financial instruments management, and interna-tional cooperation experience with high impact on the regional development. Region ensures innovative and start of art technologies for management of geographic information data in order to promote implementation of INSPIRE directive in Latvia.

Address: Katolu iela 2b, Jelgava, Latvia LV3001Tel.: +371 63027549Email: [email protected]: www.zemgale.lv

Zemgale Planning Region


The Province of Rome extends over an area of 5,352 km² and is the most popu-lated Province in Italy with its 4,053.779 inhabitants (2007). Its territory includes 121 municipalities, among which, the municipality of Rome that counts more than 2,700,000 inhabitants.

The Province of Rome is a second tier lo-cal authority in the Italian decentralized government (NUTS III), it is an interme-diate authority between municipalities and regions legitimated by the Royal De-cree No 5929 dated 15 October 1870. The Province oversees and administers strategic functions in different fields such as protection and enhancement of natural resources (water and energy resources, parks and natural reserves), waste management, control of water discharge, noise and gas emissions, road maintenance and transports, promo-tion of cultural heritage and vocational training courses.

With regards to urban and territorial plan-ning the Province of Rome is responsible for elaborating the General Provincial Territorial Plan that defines strategies and objectives of territorial planning and management by promoting a sustainable, balanced and polycentric development of the provincial territory.

The Department in charge of the policies concerning territorial planning has deve-loped a SDI for managing spatial data, by signing a first agreement with the Land Agency (Territorial Agency Protocol – May 2008), to access data related to municipalities, and a second one with the Ministry of Environment and Protection of Land and Sea (MATTM) giving its adhesion to the initia-tive called „ Cartographic Co-operating System - National Cartographic Portal „, as organization providing its cartographic data and metadata according to the CNIPA directives on Public System of Connectivity and Co-operation. The SDI developed by the Province of Rome provides services such as metadata catalogue search services, mapping, editing as well as download services.

contacts:Palazzo Valentini Headquarters: Via IV Novembre, 119 / a - 00187 RomePublic Relations Office Phone:+39 0667667324-+390667667326 - +390667667564 to +390667667151Fax URP: +390667667328 - E-mail: [email protected] - website:http://www.provincia.roma.it


Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit

The Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit (FTZ) is a Maltese not-for-profit foun-dation located at the University of Malta in Msida. Set up in 2004, it teams up several municipalities and key stakeholders together with the University of Malta to act as a collaborative network for the implemen-tation of local and international projects of benefit to the Maltese com-munity. FTZ is establishing itself as the island’s premier multi-stake-holder partnership for regional development.

FTZ helps to provide the critical mass often required for participation in such projects, through networking, clustering and capacity-building actions. Its collaborative nature facilitates the achievement of the foundation’s broader mission to create greater social cohesion and contribute to the moulding of tomorrow’s knowledge-based society – “an inclusive society without frontiers to knowledge”.

FTZ’s five main thrusts of action build on the experience the foundation has gained so far in the following areas:

ICT-assisted Education• Research and Innovation • Culture and the Arts• Environment• Social and European issues •

The Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit was also mandated to set up national centres/agencies for e-learning, research mobility and energy management.

AKC Avicenna Knowledge Centre • focusing on eLearning is a founding mem-ber of the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC) and the Avicenna Virtual Campus (AVC). RMC The Malta Research Mobility Centre which forms part of the European EURAXESS Services • network, supporting researchers and hosting the national portal for research mobility (www.eracareers.org.mt). MIEMA The Malta Intelligent Energy Management Agency (MIEMA) was established in June 2007. •

Office:Ir-Razzett tal-HursunUniversity of MaltaMsida,MaltaEmail: [email protected]: (+356) 23402189Website: http://temi.ftz.org.mt/


a NEtwoRk oF gI/SdI NEtwoRkS The European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information (EUROGI) was established in 1994 on the basis of a recommendation from the European Commission (EC). It is an independent not-for-profit organisation, which represents the whole Geographic Information (GI) and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) communities, focusing principally on usage issues, and in so doing strongly ar-ticulates a user’s perspective. The membership comprises mainly of National Geographical Informa-tion Associations which themselves have in total about 6000 organisational members across Europe. EUROGI is an inclusive organisation open to participation by all European GI/SDI stakeholders, being built as a network of GI-SDI networks.

VISIoN Geographic Information in all its aspects should become a fully integrated component of the Euro-pean knowledge-based society. mISSIoN In order to ensure good governance, economic and social development, environmental protection and sustainability, and informed public participation, EUROGI’s mission is to maximise the availability and effective use of GI throughout Europe. This will require EUROGI to stimulate, encourage and support the development and effective use of GI and relevant technologies, and to act as the voice for the European GI community.


The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, one of the 16 states of the federation, is the second largest city in Germany with its 1.7 million inhabitants. In this sense, it is a city as well as a state.

The Landesbetrieb Geoinformation und Vermessung (LGV Hamburg) - Agency for Geo-Information and Sur-veying - is responsible for the production and publication of the official maps and for keeping the official land

register in Hamburg.

Spatial data and services are a prerequisite for all cadastre, planning and building purposes. LGV Hamburg, an agency under the supervision of the Ministry of Urban Development and Environment, provides these services. With about four hundred employees working in four divisions (administration, geo information, surveying and geo data services) LGV Ham-burg is responsible for Hamburg’s Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) including INSPIRE and the Metropolitan Region (SDI-MRH), and maintenance of cadastral data. LGV Hamburg is the coordination centre for all these SDI activities like consul-ting, data collection and digitization, operation and mainte-nance of the geoportal.

Hamburg metropolitan region represents the cooperation between 14 local government districts in Schleswig-Holstein

and Lower Saxony and the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. This area covers an area of ca 19000 km² with more than 800 cities, towns or municipalities and is home to 4,3 million inhabitants.

Beneath European (INSPIRE) spatial data infrastructure (SDI) or national German SDI initiatives (SDI-DE) Hamburg works directly on SDI in regional context of Metropolitan Region Hamburg (SDI-MRH). SDI-MRH brings datasets from the three federal states together in one map client. The project mainly focuses on comprehensive regional planning at federal state and county level, urban land-use planning, protected sites, tourism, education and commercial areas related datasets. Datasets from different servers are shown together in one web mapping application.

Plan4all project helps to disseminate the goal of INSPIRE in Metropolitan Region Hamburg (http://english.me-tropolregion.hamburg.de/) and support goals of the „Strategic Action Plan of Hamburg Metropolitan Region“ (period 2011-2013) through providing spatial services supporting the stratetic actions fields:

Sustainable settlement and spatial structures• Sustainable structures for recreation and tourism• Value chains and cooperation of economic key sectors• Vocational education and requirements for skilled labour Science • and technology transferClimate Change and Adjustment Strategies• Hamburg European Green Capital 2011•


Upcoming events

FoSS4g 2011 - oSgeo conference12 - 16 September 2011Denver, USAhttp://2011.foss4g.org

28th urban data management Society27 - 30 September 2011Delft, The Netherlandshttp://www.udms.net

Joint workshop of the PLaN4aLL, bRISEIdE, cENtRaLab, ENVIRogRId and HabItatS projects5 October 2011Castle Kozel, Czech Republichttp://www.plan4all.eu/simplecms/?menuID=29&articleID=98&action=article&presenter=ArticleDetail

open days10 - 13 October 2011Brussels, Belgiumhttp://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/conferences/od2011/index.cfm

Plan4all Final conference13 October 2011Brussels, Belgiumhttp://www.plan4all.eu

REaL coRP conference 14-16 May 2012Schwechat, Austriahttp://www.corp.at/

Plan4all Newsletter, an online newsletter published by the Plan4all project.

© Plan4all (http://www.plan4all.eu)

The Plan4all project received funding from the Community programme eContentplus.

Views expressed in this newsletter are those of the individuals, partners or the consortium and do not represent the opinion of the Community. The Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of information contained herein.

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Plan4all newsletter 5

Technology

fondazzjoni

service remote

large scale

web map clients

ogc web services

spatial data

spatial planning

metropolitan