Availability of Orthoimagery data in the INSPIRE Thematic Viewer
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Dear colleagues,
I would be willing to share with you a humble assessment based on public statistics taken from the INSPIRE Thematic Viewer about the availability of Orthoimagery data harvested for INSPIRE purposes (* see the Note at the bottom of the present post entry).
On 15th April 2020 the INSPIRE Thematic Viewer counts with 1201 metadata records related to Orthoimagery resources (2211 on 20th November 2019; 865 on 22nd June 2018):
- 96 of them being viewable data sets from countries (25 of them having National coverage, belonging to 9 out of 31 countries) - Provided by Belgium (27), Czech Republic (1), Estonia (1), Finland (3), Germany (25), Hungary (7), Italy (5), Liechtenstein (2), Lithuania (1), Luxembourg (10), Malta (1), Portugal (8), Slovakia (1), Slovenia (1) and Spain (2).
- Czech Republic and Slovakia started to provide viewable data sets in the period from 20th November 2019 to 15th April 2020.
- Austria, France and Romania lost their viewable data sets in the period from 20th November 2019 to 15th April 2020. The UK left the European Union.
- 47 of them being downloadable data sets from countries (16 of them having National coverage, belonging to 4 out of 31 countries) - Provided by Belgium (22), Finland (3), Germany (3), Hungary (7), Lithuania (1) and Luxembourg (11).
- No new countries started to provide downloadable data sets in the period from 20th November 2019 to 15th April 2020.
- France and Romania lost their downloadable data sets in the period from 20th November 2019 to 15th April 2020.
Initial conclusions
1. Orthoimagery data sets reported increased in the period from 22nd June 2018 to 15th April 2020 in a 38.8% (from 865 to 1201).
This indicates an evolution of Orthoimagery data sets reported and theoretically accessible.
2. Reporting of Orthoimagery viewable data sets has been importantly reduced, decreasing in a 49.5% from 20th November 2019 to 15th April 2020 (from 190 to 96).
This could be caused by that the situation that reporting of viewable data sets is progressively focusing on INSPIREd Orthoimagery data sets, rather than other Orthoimagery data sets not transformed according the Directive.
3. Reporting of Orthoimagery downloadable data sets has experimented a moderate increase of 14.6% from 22nd June 2018 to 15th April 2020 (from 41 to 47).
This indicates a slight improvement of Orthoimagery data sets ready to be downloaded, but a lot of work is still to be done in order to meet the October 2020 deadline for providing conformant download services. Additionally, the most interesting indicator here would be the conformance of such downloadable data sets according the Directive. Hopefully available in short.
4. Only 9 out of 31 countries seems to have National coverage of downloadable INSPIRE Orthoimagery data sets, which represents a 29.0% of all of them.
5. Only 4 out of 31 countries seems to have National coverage of downloadable INSPIRE Orthoimagery data sets, which represents only a 12.9% of all of them.
6. At the moment, there is no information about the difference in availability of traditional RGB terrestrial orthophotos and multi-band data from satellites or other types of sensors.
Brainstorming
I would be willing to start with you a discussion / brainstorming about the most important factors hindering the interoperability of European Orthoimagery data.
Please, feel free to add your personal views on the state of implementation of INSPIRE Orthoimagery data and report any existing drawbacks to achieve this goal on time, ideally pointing at your own examples and direct experiences in your country.
(*) NOTE: The statistics presented in this discussion thread related to the Orthoimagery theme were gathered from the INSPIRE Thematic Viewer on 15th April 2020, 20th November 2019 and 22nd June 2018. Statistics currently available in this viewer are regularly updated over time.
Dear colleagues,
Continuing with the assessment of availability of Orthoimagery data based on public statistics taken from the INSPIRE Thematic Viewer harvested for INSPIRE purposes (* see the Note at the bottom of the present post entry).
On 28th November 2020 the INSPIRE Thematic Viewer counts with 2247 metadata records related to Orthoimagery resources (1201 on 15th April 2020; 2211 on 20th November 2019; 865 on 22nd June 2018):
Initial conclusions
1. Orthoimagery data sets reported nearly doubled in the period from 15th April 2020 to 28th November 2020, increasing an 87.1% (from 1201 to 2247).
This clearly indicates a sustained improvement of Orthoimagery data sets reported, and theoretically accessible, since mid-2018.
2. Reporting of Orthoimagery viewable data sets has been also improved, increasing in a 108.3% from 15th April 2020 to 28th November 2020 (from 96 to 200).
With this increase, this statistic has returned to levels gained by end of 2019, with a slight improvement.
3. Reporting of Orthoimagery downloadable data sets has experimented a major increase of 53.2% from 15th April 2020 to 28th November 2020 (from 47 to 72).
This indicates a sustained improvement of Orthoimagery data sets ready to be downloaded since mid-2018. However, a lot of work is still to be done in order to reach the INSPIRE obligations regarding conformant download services due to the October 2020. Additionally, the most interesting indicator here would be the conformance of such downloadable data sets according the Directive. Hopefully available in short in the INSPIRE Geoportal.
4. Only 11 out of 31 countries seems to have National coverage of downloadable INSPIRE Orthoimagery data sets, which represents a 35.5% of all of them.
5. Only 4 out of 31 countries seems to have National coverage of downloadable INSPIRE Orthoimagery data sets, which represents only a 12.9% of all of them. This figure remains totally stable since mid-2020.
6. At the moment, there is no information about the difference in availability of traditional RGB terrestrial orthophotos and multi-band data from satellites or other types of sensors, which would be very relevant.
Brainstorming
Please, feel free to add your personal views on the state of implementation of INSPIRE Orthoimagery data and report any existing drawbacks hindering their interoperability, ideally pointing at your own examples and direct experiences in your country.
(*) NOTE: The statistics presented in this analysis, related to the Orthoimagery theme, were gathered from the INSPIRE Thematic Viewer on 28th November 2020, 15th April 2020, 20th November 2019 and 22nd June 2018.
Statistics currently available in this viewer are regularly updated over time.
Dear Jordi,
thank you for your summary. I think low number of downloadable data sets can be because the INSPIRE Geoportal is not able to read WCS services an therefore to create a download links the data sets. I assume it acording to the issue on the Geoportal Helpdesk: https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/issues/3872.
And this issue is also related to the Elevation theme.
Best regards.
Veronika
Hi Veronika,
To my understanding, the issue is a bit deeper, has to do with the Coverage based INSPIRE data models not being suitable for a WCS the way the XSD Schemas are currently being provided. As this is only based on a review of the underlying standards, I'd be interested if you've found a way of providing WCS regardless!
:)
Kathi
Thank you, Veronika and Kathi.
Hope the new "OGC compliant INSPIRE Coverage data and service implementation" Good Practice candidate which is evolving will help in solving these issues.
More information in the page summarisong the 63rd MIG-T Meeting, where this good practice candidate was endorsed as candidate.
A dedicated-webinar will be celebrated at the beggining of 2021 - Date to be announced soon.
All the best,
Jordi