The INSPIRE directive aims to create a European Union (EU) spatial data infrastructure which will enable the sharing of environmental spatial information among public sector organisations. INSPIRE aims to better facilitate public access to spatial information across Europe to help reconnect people with their environment.

The Environmental Monitoring Facilities (EF) theme is an essential element of INSPIRE and is potentially one of the most important for the UK, given the costs of deploying and operating scientific infrastructure which provides us with a rich suite of data. Many of the observation networks and facilities that provide EF data underpin policy and decision making in the UK and are therefore critical to avoid infraction.

INSPIRE & UKEOF

The UKEOF Data Advisory Group agreed to coordinate UK implementation of the INSPIRE Annex III Environmental Monitoring Facilities (EF) theme on behalf of the UK Location Programme (UKLP). The EF data specification was finalised in 2013 and public sector organisations had until December 2013 to publish Full Discovery Metadata, View Services and Download Services for new datasets or until 2020 for existing datasets. The Data Advisory Group aimed to communicate knowledge and best practice to the data community during this period and to communicate updates through its membership.

Sharing environmental monitoring data workshop (2013)

In February 2013, UKEOF and UKLP hosted a joint workshop to bring together data providers and users of environmental data to share knowledge and discuss potential barriers and opportunities of implementing the INSPIRE EF theme. Thirty-three people representing 22 organisations from academia, public, private and the third sector attended the workshop in Birmingham where experts in data sharing and interoperability presented a variety of INSPIRE related topics to the audience who are at various stages of implementing the EF theme.

Discussions from the data user and data provider perspective enabled delegates to think about the barriers, benefits and future opportunities to be gained from standardising environmental metadata. Delegates concluded that there are many barriers to address along the way but also many opportunities to be gained from implementing INSPIRE EF. The workshop report is available:

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