inspire-mif / hvd-inspire

Repository for Action 2.5 of the INSPIRE MIWP on the alignment of High-value datasets and INSPIRE

hvd-inspire

Repository for Action 2.5 of the INSPIRE MIWP on the alignment of High-value datasets and INSPIRE

hvd-inspire's Issues

Which specifications/standards fulfil the requirements of the HVD Regulation for APIs?

In Article 2 (6) of the Regulation 2023/138 “Application programming interface (API)” is defined as “a set of functions, procedures, definitions and protocols for machine-to-machine communication and the seamless exchange of data”. In addition, the Regulation requires in Article 3 (2) and (3) a documentation and publication of the terms of use of the API.

The INSPIRE Directive and the implementing rules regarding network services define operations (comparable with the term “functions” used in the Regulation 2023/138) for downloading spatial data through download services. In the (publicly available) Technical Guidance document regarding download services these operations are specified by “definitions and protocols for machine-to-machine communication”. The terms of use of a download service are described in the service metadata.

Thus, in Germany, we consider that all specifications/standards described in the INSPIRE Technical Guidance and Good Practice documents fulfil the requirements of the HVD Regulation for APIs, including the implementation based on Atom and OpenSearch.

Basically, the underlying OGC/ISO interfaces also fulfil the requirements for APIs:
• WFS (https://www.ogc.org/standard/wfs/)
• OGC API-Features (https://ogcapi.ogc.org/features/)
• WCS (https://www.ogc.org/standard/wcs/)
• Sensor Things API (https://www.ogc.org/standard/sensorthings/)

Regarding the provision of high-value datasets that fall under an INSPIRE theme, the above-mentioned INSPIRE network services are to be used.

Regarding high-value datasets that do not fall under an INSPIRE theme, the requirements of the national SDI needs to be taken into account to achieve interoperability within Germany. The specifications of the German SDI are basically compatible with European and international standards.

Do the other Member States share this view?

How should datasets be denoted as high-value datasets in their metadata?

According to the HVD Regulation, public sector bodies holding high-value datasets listed in the Annex shall ensure that the datasets are denoted as high-value datasets in their metadata description (Art. 3, 5).

In Germany, it has been decided that for all datasets in the national spatial data infrastructure that fall under the HVD Regulation, the category must be indicated in the ISO metadata as a keyword in combination with a source reference. This is to enable the central process of transforming ISO metadata into DCAT-AP metadata (permanent delivery towards the national Open Data Portal) and fulfil the requirements of DCAT-AP-HVD.

There are currently two options to declare the category in the metadata, either in free text (gco:CharacterString) or as a reference (gmx:Anchor). Both options can be processed by the above-mentioned transformation.

Example of category declaration in free text (gco:CharacterString)

<gmd:descriptiveKeywords>
<gmd:MD_Keywords>
<gmd:keyword>
<gco:CharacterString>Georaum</gco:CharacterString>
</gmd:keyword>
...
<gmd:thesaurusName>
<gmd:CI_Citation>
<gmd:title>
<gco:CharacterString>High-value dataset categories</gco:CharacterString>
</gmd:title>
<gmd:date>
<gmd:CI_Date>
<gmd:date>
<gco:Date>2023-09-27</gco:Date>
</gmd:date>
<gmd:dateType>
<gmd:CI_DateTypeCode codeList="https://standards.iso.org/iso/19139/resources/gmxCodelists.xml#CI_DateTypeCode" codeListValue="publication"/>
</gmd:dateType>
</gmd:CI_Date>
</gmd:date>
...
</gmd:CI_Citation>
</gmd:thesaurusName>
</gmd:MD_Keywords>
</gmd:descriptiveKeywords>

Example of the category declaration as a reference (gmx:Anchor)

<gmd:descriptiveKeywords>
<gmd:MD_Keywords>
<gmd:keyword>
<gmx:Anchor xlink:href="http://data.europa.eu/bna/c_ac64a52d">Georaum</gmx:Anchor>
</gmd:keyword>
...
<gmd:thesaurusName>
<gmd:CI_Citation>
<gmd:title>
<gmx:Anchor xlink:href="http://data.europa.eu/bna/asd487ae75">High-value dataset categories</gmx:Anchor>
</gmd:title>
<gmd:date>
<gmd:CI_Date>
<gmd:date>
<gco:Date>2023-09-27</gco:Date>
</gmd:date>
<gmd:dateType>
<gmd:CI_DateTypeCode codeList="https://standards.iso.org/iso/19139/resources/gmxCodelists.xml#CI_DateTypeCode" codeListValue="publication"/>
</gmd:dateType>
</gmd:CI_Date>
</gmd:date>
...
</gmd:CI_Citation>
</gmd:thesaurusName>
</gmd:MD_Keywords>
</gmd:descriptiveKeywords>

How do the other Member States implement the denotation of high-value datasets in the ISO-metadata?

Do we need to provide datasets that are already provided in line with the INSPIRE Directive again through specified interfaces in accordance with the HVD Regulation?

In Germany, we consider that datasets published in line with INSPIRE generally fulfil the requirements of the HVD Regulation as long as they are published under an open licence and are also denoted as high-value datasets in their metadata. For certain datasets in some of the categories (meteorological and mobility), also the stricter requirements for the update frequency must also be taken into account.

Do other MS and the European Commission share this view?