INSPIRE is "an EU initiative to establish an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe that will help to make spatial or geographical information more accessible and interoperable for a wide range of purposes supporting sustainable development".[1]
The INSPIRE directive[2] lays down a general framework for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the purposes of European Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment. The INSPIRE Directive entered into force on May 15, 2007.
INSPIRE is based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the 27 Member States of the European Union.[3] The Directive addresses 34 spatial data themes[4] needed for environmental applications.
To ensure that the spatial data infrastructures of the Member States are compatible and usable in a Community and transboundary context, the INSPIRE Directive requires that additional legislation or common Implementing Rules (IR) are adopted for a number of specific areas (Metadata, Interoperability of spatial data sets and services, Network Services, Data and Service Sharing and Monitoring and Reporting). These are published either as Commission Regulations[5] or as Decisions.[6]
The Commission is assisted in the process of adopting such rules by a regulatory committee, INSPIRE Committee, composed of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission (this is known as the Comitology procedure).[7]
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The INSPIRE Directive also envisages the creation of an INSPIRE Geoportal. A prototype INSPIRE Geoportal[8] is being developed at the Joint Research Centre, which allows for discovery and viewing of spatial data sets and services. Its aim is to identify issues related to its implementation and accessing distributed INSPIRE services, to help towards the development of the operational geoportal.
The INSPIRE conference 2011[9] took place from 27 June to 1 July 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
INSPIRE Forum:[10] A Web 2.0 site for the exchange of information on INSPIRE and related initiatives.