Portugal - 2022: Country Fiche

• DGT represents Portugal at IC, MIG and MIG-T since the beginning but since 2018 these representations were enlarged to some other public authorities, namely Portuguese Environmental Agency (APA), in MIG, National Statistics Institute (INE) and Azores Autonomous Region (RAA), in MIG-T.
• During 2020, National Institute for Statistics (INE) was nominated as representative in the Action 2017.4 (validation and conformity testing) and the Hydrographic Institute (IH) was nominated as representative in the Action 2020.1 (INSPIRE Download Services based on the “OGC API – Features” standard).
• CO-SNIG (Conselho de Orientação do SNIG) is responsible for the strategic coordination of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), i.e. Sistema Nacional de Informação Geográfica (SNIG). This committee is chaired by DGT and co-chaired by APA and includes all the entities identified as responsible for the datasets embraced by INSPIRE Directive. 
• Networks: SNIG Network (the SNIG Network covers all public and private entities that produce and provide geographic data sets and services.); INSPIRE Focal Points Network (public authorities producing national data sets and services); INSPIRE Core Focal Points Network (a sub-set of the previous one with the public authorities formally responsible for producing national datasets and services regarding the themes of the three INSPIRE Annexes); Network of Metadata Managers and Network of Spatial Data Services Managers.
• Working Groups (WG): M&R WG, a CO-SNIG sub-group dedicated to support INSPIRE monitoring and reporting, since 2010. GTI-Op, operational group that includes technicians from various entities with extensive experience in technical and thematic matters related to the INSPIRE directive, as well as the coordinator of the M&R WG. 9 Thematic Networks associated with the INSPIRE Themes clusters (the previous 9 GTI-TE).
• GT SNIG-Local, the most recent working group, involving the inter-municipality’s communities (CIM).
• The Portuguese Hydrographic Institute is participating in a national working group lead by DGPM and FCT for a OCDE public consultation study in the value chains in public marine data in Portugal.

Progress

• Annual Action Plans for implementing SNIG 2020 vision – during this year, entities continued to be dedicated to the creation and improvement of their metadata and creation/validation of spatial data services.
• Continue to follow the European events and meetings on SDI and INSPIRE (e.g. MIG and MIG-T meetings as well as in some of the sub-groups), counting with the involvement of some of the INSPIRE Core Focal Points Network entities, that were nominated as representatives. The two MIG surveys “Harmonised and non-harmonised data sets in INSPIRE” and “The future of INSPIRE (revisited): EU common data spaces, high-value data sets, evidence-based policy develop” were analysed and filled.
• DGT and CO-SNIG followed the issues related to the evaluation of INSPIRE Directive, namely the "Targeted consultation as part of the evaluation of Directive 2007/2/EC on infrastructure for spatial information in the European Community (INSPIRE): Survey of the spatial data community".
• The revision of INSPIRE Evaluation-Country Form for Portugal was performed by DGT.
• DGT provided comments on the transposition of the Open Data Directive (Directive 1024/2019) to national legislation, which was published as Lei 68/2021 on August 26.
• DGT presented the High Value Datasets issue in CO-SNIG meetings and established contacts with Agência para a Modernização Administrativa (AMA) to obtain more information on their implementation, namely the EC Implementing Act which ended-up not being published yet.
• GTI-Op meetings did not occur during 2021. Nevertheless, information received by INSPIRE NCP was disseminated to GTI-Op and DGT held throughout 2021 several technical meetings (mostly bilateral) with the various entities that report Spatial Data Services (SDS) to INSPIRE.
• Organization of ENIIG 2021 - Encontro Nacional de Infraestruturas de Informação Geográfica (http://eniig.dgterritorio.pt/), the annual event on SDI, which took place on December, 16, 2021, as a videoconference, addressing the topic “Management and exploitation of geographic information acquired with LiDAR technology”. This edition of ENIIG was based on the presentation of projects related to the management and exploitation of information acquired with LiDAR technology. The event included the participation of 12 invited speakers. Several projects were presented that use LIDAR data evidencing the diversified applications in which this information can be used. This edition of ENiiG presented the LiDAR Survey project that is intended to be carried out in the coming years for mainland Portugal and also the current situation in this field in Spain, with the presentation of the LiDAR project that is being developed in this country during the last few years. The information acquired with LiDAR technology is already widely used in multiple sectors of activity. Considering the versatility of LiDAR data, ENiiG 2021 presented, among others, projects that use this technology for the detection of archaeological sites, urban management, mapping infrastructures, forest management and delimitation of floodable areas. About 350 people attended the event, approximately 300 through the Zoom platform where this conference was held and 50 through DGT's YouTube channel, which broadcasted the event live.
• The assessment of SNIG 2020 vision objectives accomplishment validated in December 2020 at CO-SNIG meeting (R25) was considered within 2021 developed activities. Almost all the objectives of SNIG 2020 were attained. A remaining effort is being devoted to the usability and data content issues including the definition of relevance criteria to be used in the presentation of SNIG catalogue search results. Also the articulation with the open data platform (dados.gov.pt) needs attention as well as the promotion of access to academia spatial data. The articulation of SNIG with the National Strategy for Geographic Information was also identified as one of the objectives requiring developments.
• During 2021 an activity centered in the definition of the SNIG evolution Strategy, after 2020, was started, including an analysis of SNIG catalogue contents focused on the use of data for public policies, aiming to identify relevance criteria. Moreover, a critical assessment and revision of metadata content was performed.
• Capacity building activities provided at the European level were internally followed by PT INPIRE structures members namely: EUROGI: Towards a Sustainable Ecosystem beyond Spatial Data Infrastructures; FIG;  GeoSolutions: From Esri Geodatabase to PostGIS and GeoServer, tips and tricks, Cross-Forest Final event, EuroGeographics workshops related to the production and use of spatial data.
• Cooperation with Spain: the collaboration around the organization of the Iberian SDI event, JIIDE, continued as well as the participation in cross-border projects and initiatives (e.g. Cross-Forest project).
• JIIDE 2021 (https://www.dgterritorio.gov.pt/JIIDE-2021), the XII edition of this event, took place from 15 to 19 November 2021, organized as a videoconference, by CNIG from Spain, this year, with the collaboration of the Portuguese DGT and was focused on the topic "Digital Ecosystems and Interoperability". The event included 12 Sessions, with around 70 presentations, with Portuguese and Spanish speakers, an invited speaker, one round table and four workshops. In each session an average of 300 participants have attended.
• Guaranty the articulation of SNIG with thematic and regional SDIs (e.g. SNIG-SNIAMB, and SNIG-IDEIA, IRIG RAM, SNIT, ICNF and LNEG metadata catalogues harvesting process) proceeded during 2021.
• Promoting the involvement of the Local data producers/Local SDIs in INSPIRE implementation and national SDI development - the Working Group involving the municipality’s communities, GT SNIG-Local, endorsed by CO-SNIG in 2019 and formally constituted, registered 2 meetings in 2021.
• Efforts for the articulation of SNIG with the open data portal, https://dados.gov.pt/pt/ continued. During 2021, DGT interacted with AMA in the context of the open data directive and at CO-SNIG it was decided to contact AMA to discuss the articulation at SNIG level. At the 26th CO-SNIG meeting, the interoperability of the SNIG with the public administration's open data portal, the data.gov portal, was discussed. To establish this procedure and link the SNIG with the data.gov, a commission was proposed, represented by various CO-SNIG entities that will interact with the AMA.
• The collaboration of DGT staff in activities with universities continued, e.g. teaching SDI issues in Master degrees (e.g. Masters on Geospatial Information from University of Lisbon).
• The new technical specifications for the Portuguese reference cartography, approved in 2019, are now being used on a regular basis by private companies.
• In 2021 the two projects approved in 2020 by the SAMA 2020  programme (SAMA: Sistema de apoio à modernização e capacitação da Administração Pública) proceeded: (1) SMOS – Sistema de Monitorização de Ocupação do Solo, a Land Use Land Cover monitoring System based on new digital Space Technologies and Artificial Intelligence aiming to support the integrated management of rural fires; (2) Território Digital – Modernização, Cocriação e Partilha de Informação Geográfica, Cadastral e Territorial, a system that is focused on the modernization, co-creation and sharing of Geographic, Cadastral and Territorial Information. Main developments included implementation and development of the Land Cover Monitoring System and the National Cartography Database. The results of these two projects will have a positive impact in the INSPIRE and SNIG implementation as they will promote the use of more spatial data by all users.