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(Submission #242)
The INSPIRE KEN (Knowledge Exchange Network) of EuroGeographics and the INSPIRE Thematic Cluster on themes Elevation and Ortho-imagery organized in September 2015 a workshop dedicated to the implementation of coverage data and on relevant download services, mainly focused on themes Orthoimagery and Elevation. The proposed presentation aims to expose the main learnings of this workshop and of the subsequent activities that followed the event. On the positive side, Web Coverage Services (WCS) are, at least in theory, powerful tools to deliver and better harmonize the data expected by INSPIRE. The workshop was also an opportunity to exchange experiences about implementation of coverage data and services: whereas NMCAs are beginners, other communities, such as hydrographic or meteorological ones are quite more advanced. On the negative side, there are remaining issues that might prevent data producers to transform quickly their coverage data and that, in opposite, might encourage them to expect clarifications and wait until the 2020 dead-line. The first point is related to the INSPIRE regulation that is not yet complete (Implementing Rule about WCS as a download service is still under preparation) or might evolve in the future (e.g. due to the standard evolution from GMLCOV to CIS v1.1). The second point is related to the state-of-play of technologies: it is unsure that the current WCS servers and client applications are mature and scalable enough to deal with huge volumes of coverage data. A typical issue for data producers is to decide on the approach to provide coverage data of a vast territory in a digestible way for the download services. The third point is related to the INSPIRE data specifications that have brought at conceptual level some extensions to the coverage standards that are supposed to be useful to satisfy relevant use cases, but are ignored by existing WCS implementations; these extensions might bring in practice possible duplicities or even inconsistencies. There are for instance several ways to document coverage metadata or the coverage extent that often bring to confusion among implementers. Summing up, the future publication of the technical guidelines drafted by MIG-T MIWP-7b subgroup on WCS (related to implementation and provision of INSPIRE coverage data using WCS download services) and the imminent adoption of the CIS v1.1 standard by OGC give the floor to updating the related INSPIRE data specifications in the short term.
Topic Area: [2.9] Challenges and approaches to standardization of data and interoperability of systems. Abstract Type: Oral Presentation
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