Webinar: INSPIRE good practices – Alternative Encodings
This public webinar presented the outcomes of action 2017.2 on Alternative encodings for INSPIRE data, which will be proposed for endorsement by the MIG as an INSPIRE good practice documents.
Specifically, the following documents, and the rationale for proposing them as INSPIRE good practice documents, were presented:
- a general UML-to-JSON encoding rule
- a set of model simplification rules that can be used as part of different encoding rules
- specific simplified GeoJSON encodings for the themes Addresses and Environmental Monitoring Facilities (incl. simple observations)
Presentations
The webinar was attended by 114 participants from more than 20 countries. The webinar recording is available for viewing.
- INSPIRE action 2017.2 on Alternative Encodings
- INSPIRE good practices – GeoJSON Alternative Encodings
Call for feedback
INSPIRE stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the proposed encodings and implementation examples on Github , if possible by 31 May 2019.
The input will be used to improve the specifications and prepare the proposal for endorsement by the MIG of the proposed alternative encodings as INSPIRE good practice documents.
Background
Action 2017.2 aimed at defining alternative encoding rules (mainly for the purpose of viewing/analysis in mainstream GIS systems) for a number of selected application schemas and a template and procedure for proposing and endorsing additional encoding rules in the future.
Proposals for alternative encodings rules were collected through an open call on the MIG collaboration platform and prioritised by Member State representatives in a survey. The results of the survey clearly showed support for GeoJSON as a possible alternative encoding. In addition, also simplified GML, database formats (geopackage, PostGIS, ESRI Geodatabase) and linked data had significant support. Further proposals included also GeoSciML as an alternative encoding for GE and MR.
In the 48th MIG-T meeting, it was agreed to continue the 2017.2 work in a sub-group focussing on the following tasks:
- developing an encoding rule for GeoJSON (as a first example)
- developing generic rules / approaches for simplifying the INSPIRE data models (which will be useful for a number of alternative encodings)
- developing the overall procedure for proposing and endorsing additional encodings
The work of the action encompassed the creation of generic encoding rules for GeoJSON as well as specific encoding rules for the INSPIRE themes Addresses (including GeographicalName properties) and Environmental Monitoring Facilities (including O&M properties). These encoding rules will be maintained as separate INSPIRE Good Practice documents, and in the future additional theme-specific encoding rules may be developed by thematic communities and proposed for endorsement by the MIG following the INSPIRE Good Practice procedure.