Spatial Data Infrastructures in Finland: State of play Spring 2005

Transcription

1 Spatial Data Infrastructures in : State of play Spring 2005 Country report on SDI elaborated in the context of a study commissioned by the EC (EUROSTAT & DGENV) in the framework of the INSPIRE initiative August 2005 SPATIAL APPLICATIONS DIVISION K.U.LEUVEN RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Vital Decosterstraat 102, B-3000 LEUVEN TEL.: FAX: URL:

2 Report meta-information Title Spatial Data Infrastructures in : State of Play Spring 2005 Creator Margaret Hall & Peter Beusen (ICRI) Date Issued Subject INSPIRE State of Play Activities 1,3 & 4 Publisher K.U.Leuven (SADL + ICRI) + Margaret Hall consultant (HALL) Description This report is summarizing the review of SDI in Contributor Margaret Hall (Independent Consultant); Jos Van Orshoven, Catharina Bamps, Danny Vandenbroucke (SADL); Peter Beusen, Katleen Janssen (ICRI); Antti Vertanen, Reino Ruotsalainen, Yrjö Sucksdorff, Riitta Teiniranta (FI) Format MS Word 97/2000 Audience Identifier rcr05fiv92.doc Language EN Coverage Snapshot at Version number Date Modified by Comments Margaret Hall & Peter First version Beusen (ICRI) Margaret Hall Second version based on new template Jos Van Orshoven (SADL) Completion & harmonization with 31 other country reports Margaret Hall Use of improved outline. Integration of completing and correcting remarks from Antti Vertanen (Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry), Reino Ruotsalainen (National Land Survey of ) and Yrjö Sucksdorff and Riitta Teiniranta (Finnish Environment Institute) Jos Van Orshoven (SADL) Harmonisation with 31 other country reports Catharina Bamps (SADL) Integration of information from limited review of web sites General review, correction and update

3 Addition of table pointing to changes with regard to Version Katleen Janssen (ICRI) General review, correction and update of legal framework Jos Van Orshoven Consolidation (SADL) Antti Vertanen Review of the status of Danny Vandenbroucke Review of the 2005 update and consolidation Katleen Janssen (ICRI) General review, correction and update of legal framework Danny Vandenbroucke Final Report based on minor comments from Commission

4 Change matrix 2005 versus 2004 Paragraphs in which information is reported which deviates in a significant way from what was reported in the Spring 2004 version of this country report are listed in the below table. They are indicated in red. Paragraph Executive summary Type of change Reformulated, detail added and updated to reflect state Spring URL updated 1.2 New information added, restructuring the initiatives to reflect importance, GiMoDig project added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added New information added New information added and updated to reflect state Spring Updated to reflect state Spring New information added Updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring New information added and updated to reflect state Spring 2005 K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 1

5 Executive summary The Finnish NSDI is emerging from well developed premises. We can not yet speak about a fully operation al and formal NSDI, but it is clear that important components are in place. Major part of the basic geographic data collection and maintenance in is based on legal roles and tasks of public institutions. The major governmental bodies have practiced active voluntary cooperation and participated jointly in several projects, thereby aiming to avoid overlapping in data collection and at the same ensuring that all necessary themes were covered. The collection of the geographic data has normally been based on common recommendations and guidelines. The building of the Finnish NSDI will be largely been based on this kind of voluntary participation. Fundamental data sets in the present NSDI-like environment (i.e. in the emerging Finnish NSDI) include national official base registers (real estate register, population register, building register), the national GI data sets (e.g. topographic database, land parcel information system), and various local GI data sets. The common identification system of the base register objects (real estates, buildings, peoples) is advanced. The private sector is providing a non-negligible part of the reference and core thematic datasets (e.g. orthophotos, road networks, utilities). Several well functioning and widely used data services are available. A number of organizations are particularly active on the GI-scene and contribute to the emerging NSDI. There is the Finnish Council for GI (FCGI) which since has a mandate to develop vision and strategy, the NLS (National Mapping Agency) which is the de facto leading and executive agency for the NSDI, the ProGIS-stakeholder association, the Finnish Environment Institute and some regional or local and transnational initiatives. FCGI includes all the key central government departments, local government and the private sector. The Finnish Council for Geographic Information was set up 2001 to prepare national GI strategy and to coordinate and follow the NSDI development. The council includes all key central government departments, governmental institutions, local government and the private sector. The council released the first version of the Finnish GI strategy in august 2004 to develop the Finnish NSDI. The Council has actively followed the INSPIRE initiative in the strategy preparation process. In autumn 2004 the GI council started to implement the NSDI strategy according to the agreed development plan and INSPIRE principles. Data policy relies on good access, state and institution copyrights, use licenses and open pricing principles. has a long tradition in promoting the shared use of GI. Data sharing between the public administrations is developing gradually to more open direction. Points where the NSDI situation in admittedly needs further attention include: ensuring the availability of sufficient dedicated resources for the coordination and maintenance of the NSDI; putting in place clear guidelines as to the roles and responsibilities of the players; addressing issues of pricing policies, funding requirements and budget policies; improving the coordinated and adequate use of metadata information to improve data discovery and eventual exploitation. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 2

6 Table of Contents CHANGE MATRIX 2005 VERSUS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...2 TABLE OF CONTENTS...3 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS GENERAL INFORMATION METHOD KEY PLAYERS ON THE NSDI-SCENE DETAILS OF AN EMERGING FINNISH NSDI AS LED BY NLS GENERAL INFORMATION COMPONENT 1: LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND FUNDING COMPONENT 2: REFERENCE DATA AND CORE THEMATIC DATA COMPONENT 3: METADATA FOR REFERENCE DATA AND CORE THEMATIC DATA COMPONENT 4: ACCESS AND OTHER SERVICES FOR REFERENCE DATA, CORE THEMATIC DATA AND THEIR METADATA COMPONENT 5: STANDARDS COMPONENT 6: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL DATA USE AND EFFICIENCY OF SDI ANNEXES LIST OF SDI ADDRESSES / CONTACTS FOR FINLAND LIST OF REFERENCES FOR FINLAND K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 3

7 Abbreviations and acronyms BDBP CT EDSO EULIS FCGI FEI FGI GDB GI GII GiMoDig GINIE GIS GIT GPS GSF INSPIRE JUHTA Kkj LIS MADAME MAF ME MGI NIA NLS NMA NONDB NSDI PPP PSI REF SDI SFS SYKE WMS Baltic Drainage Basin Project Core Thematic Data European Datum coordinate system European Land Information Service Finnish Council for Geographic Information Finnish Environment Institute Finnish Geodetic Institute Geographical Data Base Geographical Information Geographical Information Infrastructure Geospatial info-mobility service by real-time data-integration and generalisation Geographic Information Network in Europe Geographical Information System Geographic Information Technology Global Positioning System Geological Survey of (GTK in Finnish) INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe Consultative Committee for Data Administration in Public Administration National Grid coordinate system Land Information System Methods to Access Data and Metadata in Europe Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Ministry of Environment Municipal Geographical Infrastructure No Information Available National Land Survey National Mapping Agency Nordic Place Names Database National Spatial Data Infrastructures Public-Private Partnerships Policy and legislation on access to public sector information Reference data Spatial Data Infrastructures Finnish standards association Finnish Environment Institute WebMapServer K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 4

8 1 GENERAL INFORMATION 1.1 Method This report is summarizing the review of SDI in, and reflects the degree to which the SDI situation is similar to the ideas set out in the INSPIRE position papers 1 and the more recent INSPIRE scoping documents. The report is based mainly on the analysis of documents and many web sites readily accessible 2, the most important of which are: The report has further been completed by the integration and consolidation of comments received from representatives of the NSDI initiatives and organisations. Those comments were provided either in written form or through interviews organized in May 2003 in the framework of Activity 2 of the State-of-Play project. Comments were received in 2004 on the State of Play report but nor integrated anymore in the version of The update of 2005 was based on input from the Finnish experts and integrated in the last version of the report. For the 2005 update, following additional sources of information were used: Finnish Council for Geographic Information: (in Finnish) National Mapping Agency: Environmental Administration: Geodetic Institute: Map viewing service: Metadata service: new internet address coming 2004/5 Turku University: (in Finnish) 1 INSPIRE position papers, final versions: RDM, ETC, DPLI, ASF, IST, IAS (latest version). 2 Including the analysis of various documents, project references and web sites readily accessible. Most resources were gathered from the Internet. Throughout the report a distinction is made between actual SDI initiatives and GI and GIS based projects. Key elements that should be in place for an SDI to exist are: Status - strategy (or mandate) for SDI to be developed and not a one-off effort; Coordination - who will administer and organise the SDI; Scope - broad based interest and stakeholder involvement; Promoting - awareness, documentation, access; Funding - dedicated resources, a clear plan to pay for it; Partnerships - getting players on-board. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 5

9 1.2 Key players on the NSDI-scene It is interesting to look back at the conclusions from the MADAME project (Methods to access data and metadata in Europe, Comparative evaluation of national data infrastructures Deliverable D1, June 1999). In this report was described as having a well developed policy framework for data access and dissemination, a mature information market, and a well developed spatial data infrastructure in respect to both the data available and the facility to find it (metadata). This report seems to have been referring more to the potential for the Finnish NSDI rather than an existing NSDI. On the other hand, the document points to a number of issues needing attention, which seem still to remain valid: The absence of dedicated resources for the coordination and maintenance of the SDI which leaves it vulnerable to the internal changes of participating organizations; The lack of clear guidelines on how to implement the data policy framework, thus leaving room to different interpretations and practices, including pricing policy; The limited culture of information maintenance and exploitation, even in what is otherwise an extremely developed context. [MAF] The promotion of the shared use of GI between different stakeholders has been active in since 1980 s. There has been several initiatives (e.g. LIS-project 1985) where the different elements (co-ordination bodies, metadata catalog, data exchange formats, core data sets, standards etc.) of an SDI has been discussed and developed, however these initiatives were not named as SDI but development of shared use of GI. As a result, the positional interoperability of the basic registers in (person register, real estate register, building register and enterprise register) is generally high as the registers are well managed and linked with unique official identifiers. Since 1980 s the GI technology and applications have spread to nearly all fields of business and both government and the organizations have faced the actual challenges of the interoperability. At the beginning the problems were linked primarily to the technology but lately the problems have been linked more to the administrative and data policy issues. For the past few years (since 2000) the standard of the Finnish spatial data service improved but there is still lot of work to do to create a solid Finnish NSDI. In there is not yet a complete operational NSDI, but NSDI 3 has been prepared and promoted by numerous multi-interest GIS projects and other related activities. Some organizations undertake SDI-related initiatives and to the extent possible or useful, these organizations are referred to as possible building blocks for an NSDI. In 2001 Ministry of Agriculture published public mapping strategy: Maps and Geographic Information - essential elements in a well-functioning society. 3 The NSDI is in fact in the planning stage and in May/June 2004 the draft strategy document had just been prepared by the FGIC and the MAF. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 6

10 Since August 2004, there exists a strategy for further developing the emerging NSDI called the Finnish GI Strategy. It has been prepared by the Finnish Council for Geographic Information. The following table presents a non-exhaustive list of key-players for the emerging NSDI. The discussion that follows looks at some of these in greater detail. Table: Country-wide overview of SDI. Key players NUTS region name(s) National level NUTS codes FCGI F I NLS F I ProGIS F I FEI (SYKE) F I FGI F I Geological Survey Road Administration Maritime Administration Statistics Population Register Centre Local (SDI concept) MGI Municipal Geographic Infrastructure Various pilot municipalities in F I F I F I F I F I Status Spatial coverage: National Operational 100% - Operational 100% 100% Spatial coverage: Region Operational *1 100% 100% Operational *1 100% 100% Operational 100 % 100% Operational 100 % 100 % Operational 100 % 100 % (land) Operational 100 % - (marine) Operational 100 % - Operational 100 % - - Semioperational *3 Unknown Unknown Transnational Barents GIT Northern Artic - Operational *2 Unknown 100% Baltic Sea Maps Baltic Region - Operational *2 Unknown 100% *1 Organisations that are part of the NSDI (NLS) *2 Projects funded or supported by the NLS and that are examples of large scale GIS projects *3 Waiting for further funding/grants. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 7

11 1.2.1 Council for Geographic Information In 2001, the multi-agency Finnish Council for Geographic Information (FCGI) was established to move forward NSDI issues. It is currently coordinating the NSDI development. The FCGI is a high-level permanent co-operation between ministry departments, national institutions and private companies and acts presently as the central part of the Finnish SDI institutional framework. It was instituted at the end of July 2001 and its 17 members are all key stakeholders in the GI world (state departments, governmental organisations, local administration, industry and GI data services companies). The FCGI has a number of tasks: To act as official advisory board in GI related affairs; To evaluate the status of the Finnish SDI; To promote wider use of GI and identify unnecessary overlapping activities; To foster economic efficiency in data collection and data services; To specify any general research needs in the GI sector and To prepare the national GI strategy. The FCGI has a mandate to give recommendations and elaborate strategies concerning the implementation of the SDI, but not to make decisions that directly bind single stakeholders. The proposal for the creation of the FCGI (with its role and tasks) was submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (which has a mandate to submit proposals in GIS related issues in ) and the appointment decision was made by the Finnish Council of State. The role and tasks of FCGI were defined in the decision document. Educational aspects regarding GI (and we can assume SDI) are felt to be important as a part of the Finnish SDI development. Awareness-raising is clearly recognized as a priority under responsibility of the FCGI. Additionally, Finnish universities are very active in GI research and education and several national seminars are organised in GI technology and applications every year by scientific associations, ProGIS (see section 1.2.3) and various other institutions National Land Survey Since the 1980s the NLS (national mapping agency) is the de facto leading and executive agency for SDI-developments at the national level. With the advent of the FCGI, this role is not expected to change. The NLS is described in this report as the main body for the emerging NSDI and is described in Chapter 2. An example of the presence of NLS on the NSDI-scene is MapSite, a web service offering an access point to certain spatial data produced by the NLS 4 and to the spatial data directory which offers information from national level organizations and regional and local level associations. There are however many other players and services in the SDI field, which are not covered by the NLS pages. At the moment in there is no common SDI portal for all SDI stakeholders. 4 The NLS is the National Mapping Agency (NMA) for. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 8

12 1.2.3 ProGIS The private sector participates at the national level as members in ProGIS, a Finnish association for geographic information, which aims to promote, stimulate and support the development and use of geographic information in the Finnish society. ProGIS is an open forum for users and data producers, system and service providers regarding various national and international GI topics and SDI. Membership includes about 40 organizations, including NLS, and 140 private persons. ProGIS is the Finnish member of Eurogi. In practice, the forum is more focused on GI related seminars and other member activities than national GI policy making. and Finnish Geodetic Institute Finnish Geodetic Institute deals with the basic geodetic measurements for and establishes and maintains the national geodetic reference systems for. In this work FGI maintains the Finnish permanent GPS network and carries out the precise levelling for the national height system. Finnish Geodetic Institute is also a governmental research institute for mapping sciences serving research community and academia, public administration and private industry by carrying out high quality research and work for developing methods and instruments in geodesy, geoinformatics, remote sensing and navigation ( Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) Additional SDI-related sites covering are provided by the Finnish Environmental Institute (SYKE) SYKE is a research and development centre, performing and organizing R&D type work. It is also active in developing GIS applications for use within the organization. In fact SYKE has its own environmental SDI but it is called an environmental GIS. The environmental GIS was built to serve the whole environmental administration in the country. SYKE is functioning under the Ministry of Environment (ME) and to a lesser degree (indirectly) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). SYKE was established in 1995 and has some 600+ employees which are situated in the main office in Helsinki. The Environmental Administration consists of the ME, SYKE and 13 regional environment centers. The evolution of GIS use within SYKE has moved from creating a database to doing more and more analysis work. For example there is the expected mega work to implement the new water framework directive (refer to discussion on watersheds database). Now already and Sweden are having informal discussions about the next steps for the watersheds databases. The hope is that the INSPIRE proposal for a Directive will have a little more definition than the Watershed Framework legislation regarding the needed databases. It is SYKE that prepares and maintains tools for the standardization of environmental data in, and follows those set out in the publication Nordic Concept for K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 9

13 Environmental Data which was prepared by the Nordic Working Group on Environmental Monitoring and Data. No access to the environmental data system was located via the Internet, and neither the full description of the special standards as mentioned. The availability of LUMONET the Finnish Clearing-House Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity is worth to be mentioned Local and regional initiatives SDI activities specific to the local and regional levels are limited and no operational examples were identified. It should be mentioned that, as with Sweden, the role of the cadastre appears to play an important role with respect to SDI. In a number of the municipalities are key players in developing the national cadastral data and are planning data services. And in general the municipalities have a central role in developing many operational services. All provinces and numerous municipalities and cities have a presence on the Internet but they are not present in a SDI framework. Nevertheless, a number of GI or GIS projects that demonstrate a number of SDI characteristics are mentioned in this report. One example was found of a project that may lead to a local level SDI. The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities in cooperation with a number of stakeholders in mid-2002 put forward an idea to create a Municipal Geographical Infrastructure (MGI) that will be based on Municipal registers and databases. The aim is to improve the availability of up-to-date municipal geographic data in public administration and private organizations. This project, if realized, satisfies many aspects of SDI. Information can be found on The stated MGI objectives are: To improve data resources and capabilities to establish regional cooperation between municipalities in the field of infrastructure planning, building and use; To improve municipalities capabilities to create added value to digital data markets; To improve the workability of digital data markets; To certify unified basic geographical data classification and conceptual model of municipal infrastructure; To establish unified municipal geographical infrastructure data exchange interface and process. The expected MGI results include: data classification and conceptual model, data exchange interface, implemented and coordinated data exchange services. Register-based and address-based data is a fundamental part of Finnish GI and likewise this will be an important aspect of an eventual NSDI. The data for the registers are mainly generated by local administrations, but the registers are often managed by regional or national officials. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 10

14 1.2.6 Transnational initiatives In addition to the noted key players on the (N)SDI scene there are a number of interesting inter-regional, international GI based projects that can serve as examples of the traditions of cooperation and joint use of data in : The Nordic Forum for Geo-statistics The Nordic Forum for Geo-statistics conducts a project that includes data harmonization of Nordic data sets, mapping with grids, delimitation, dissemination, etc. The project would address issues such as: understanding customer needs, partnership agreements, project development over the web, codes and geo-coding, Nordic statistical databases, a system of maps, dissemination products. An operational website was however not located The EULIS-project As part of the econtent Programme of the European Union, national land registries with computerized systems have started a co-operation in a project called European Land Information Service (EULIS). The European housing and real estate credit markets are still almost totally national. A broader competition in this area could give the public benefits in the form of lower housing costs. This reduction in cost could be realized on account of increased competition between international lenders. Though all participants (including the NLS of ) have computerized national land information registers in operation, there are still certain barriers that have to be overcome. At present there are for example no common principles for collecting and storing information, no common legal and regulatory framework and no common principles for access to information. The participating agencies have agreed to work together to overcome these difficulties. An important part of such a development is the creation of international access to land and property registers. The EULIS project will create a demonstrator that will provide improved access to information on-line from eight national land registries. The extent to which the EULIS project would provide a SDI-like environment remains to be evaluated: The GISEDI-project The GISEDI Europe Project (a multi-national project including ) which was completed in January 2001, set up a market place for geographical information. The Finnish database contained information from the Uusimaa region published by different data producers. During the autumn 2000 the GISEDI on-line prototype was tested in four different European countries:, Greece, Portugal and Spain. With the GISEDI Online web browser it was possible to search and order geographical information. In order to make the search process easier the system contained GISEDI metadata i.e. description of each dataset. GISEDI Europe project aimed to "develop a European commercial and technical network infrastructure which will both facilitate and accelerate the exchange and trading of geographic information at the local, regional, national and international level": and K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 11

15 The GiMoDig-project The Geospatial info-mobility service by real-time data-integration and generalisation, GiMoDig -project is a multi-national three-year project funded by the European Commission for the period The objective of the GiMoDig -project is to develop and test methods for delivering geospatial data to a mobile user by means of real-time data-integration and generalisation. The project aims at the creation of a seamless data service providing access, through a common interface, to the primary topographic geo-databases maintained by the National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) in various countries. A special emphasis will be put on providing appropriately generalised map data to the user depending on a mobile terminal with limited display capabilities. Finnish Geodetic Institute coordinates the project, the other partners being the University of Hanover, Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (Germany), National Survey and Cadastre Denmark, National Land Survey of Sweden and National Land Survey of. Regarding Spatial Data Infrastructures, a prototype service has been developed in the GiMoDig -project, demonstrating the integration of different databases in webenvironment by means of schema translations. More information available at Examples of other SDI related international projects Baltic Sea Region GIS, Maps and Statistical Database are results of the Baltic Drainage Basin Project (BDBP), a multi-disciplinary research project under the EU Environment Research Programme, developed as a joint effort between the Beijer Institute, Stockholm, Department of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University and UNEP/GRID-Arendal. Although new GI technologies and applications are developing rapidly, future growth of regional co-operation in the Barents Region will be hampered in the current situation by major differences in the way GI is collected, stored and distributed in the different countries and in different sectors of government and commerce. Different groups have already begun to capture data to satisfy their own requirements. This is going on without co-ordination and without taking into consideration the needs of other users. There may be short term reasons for preserving radically different systems, but in long term, standardization and ease of exchange will bring lasting benefits. All this together means that without establishment and development of joint structures and common base data, there will be no common policy on GI, nor will there be operational standards for data definition and exchange, and nor readily available base data set supporting technology and knowledge infrastructure. The overall objective of the BarentsGIT project was to produce homogeneous geographic information that can be used for all kind of planning and decision-making; communications, infrastructure, control of the environment, nuclear power supervision, cultural co-operation, technical, industrial and economic co-operation, tourism and even security interests. It will also be an important information source for educational institutions at all levels and for all who require a complete and comprehensive picture of and data about the Barents Region. A further objective for the project was to facilitate the rapid build-up of a regional infrastructure for the production, revision, dissemination and exchange of geographic K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 12

16 information. By addressing the problems of trans-national areas and multinational projects on a common basis, it will be easier to foster the idea of the development of critical trans-national area like the Barents Region as a whole. Results are to be used by public sector authorities and private sector bodies. Expected results from the project include many aspects of SDI: 1. produce and keep up-to-date maps and geographic databases covering the whole region that have a homogeneous and reliable content, 2. create possibilities to spatially link basic thematic and statistical information; 3. produce an atlas for the Barents Region, in both a printed and digital format, containing a variety of themes; 4. satisfy other needs of geographic data, which can arise within the region; 5. contribute to the spread of technology and competence in the region; 6. develop a system for the common use and distribution of data to users; 7. initiate the development of a general and efficient infrastructure for data communication within the Barents Region. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 13

17 2 Details of an emerging Finnish NSDI as led by NLS 2.1 General Information The National Land Survey is playing an important if not leading role in the emerging NSDI. In, national surveying and mapping is guided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), but the Finnish Geodetic Institute as the mapping research institute and the National Land Survey of are responsible for the actual public land survey duties. The NLS has a role to promote shared use of GI in. Although nowadays the NSDI is a broader issue than the promotion of shared use, the NLS clearly remains one of the key players for SDI. The NLS is a decentralized government agency, but the role of the NLS as the public sector body responsible for Finnish NSDI is handled centrally (Onsrud). The NLS produces and provides information on and services in real estate, topography and the environment for the needs of citizens, other customers and the community at large. It is also responsible for s cadastral system and general mapping assignments. It also promotes the shared use of geographic information. The NLS seeks to promote the shared use of GI on natural resources, the relief, land use and ownership, traffic, municipal infrastructure networks, state of the environment. The NLS maintains the National Geographic data description directory as a part of the task of promotion of geographic information and products. The NLS consists of 13 District Survey Offices, five national operational units and the small central administration. The NLS has staff of 1.800, of who over 80 % are employed in the District Survey Offices. The NLS is a governmental agency subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. District Survey Offices provide expert assistance in matters pertaining to land, real estate and maps. They carry out land surveys and help to prepare deeds of sale, and provide assistance in applications for registration of title to property. They also supply cadastral information such as extracts from the cadastral register. The Offices gather and update data on the maps covering their areas for the topographic database, and this is used for producing printed topographic maps on scales 1:20,000 and 1:50,000, for example. The Offices also supply up-to-date printouts of the topographic database and produce maps to customers' orders. Standard maps are on sale at all District Survey Offices. The NLS national operational units are responsible for development and research in their own areas, coordination of activities and nationwide services. The NLS central administration is responsible for managing and developing the land survey administration and for NLS operations and unity. Overall development of cadastral and mapping activities, financial planning, result management, general administration, personnel and labour market policy, strategic data management planning, and data security also fall within the purview of the central administration. It is also responsible for internal auditing, legal services and communications. There are also a number of strategic development projects under the Director General. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 14

18 The NLS functions actively on international forums in co-operation with other European National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) in both mapping and real estate activities. The NLS participates in the international work in mapping through EuroGeographics. The NLS is also a member of the Working Party on Land Administration dealing with real estate systems which functions under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. The Land Information System (LIS) managed by the National Land Survey (NLS) integrates both rural and urban cadastral information systems to provide a common service for the whole country. Updates in the structure of the system and the services it provides are foreseen based on the new legislation planned for 2003 (GINIE). In 1995 a vision paper was written for the National Geographic Information Infrastructure of, there was no further action taken after this document. And it is only relatively recently that concrete steps to discuss and define the NSDI have been realized. The MAF is in the process to create a plan for the Core of Geographic Information and this work is nowadays included in the development of the national GI strategy, done under the federal council for GI. 2.2 Component 1: Legal framework and funding Legal and organisational framework In the past, data collection was never formally coordinated between the public authorities. Instead of formal coordination, the major governmental bodies have since 1980 s practiced voluntary cooperation, and participated in several projects, thereby aiming to avoid overlapping data collection and at the same ensuring that all necessary themes were covered. The current building of a Finnish NSDI is largely based on this kind of voluntary participation. Despite a voluntary basis, overall coordination for GI has nevertheless been quite good in. There is no legislation formally establishing the equivalent of a national centre for GI. However the NLS has a legal responsibility to promote the shared use and interoperability of GI in. This was in turn backed up by a number of voluntary agreements and initiatives. The lack of an explicit legal basis with funding allocated thereto was and is considered a problem. This problem may be solved in relation to the implementation of the proposed INSPIRE proposal for a Directive. Recent steps have been taken to improve the situation. In 2001, the multi-agency Finnish Council for Geographic Information (FCGI) was established to move forward NSDI issues and is currently coordinating the NSDI development. The mandate of the FCGI is to give recommendations and make strategies concerning the implementation of the SDI, but not to make decisions that directly bind single stakeholders Public-private partnerships (PPP s) The interaction between public sector data providers and private sector service developers functions pretty well in. The public sector is mainly responsible for data collection while the private sector takes care of value added products and information K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 15

19 services. The national mapping agencies have been cutting down on their value added production over the last decade. It is possible for public bodies to enter the markets with their products and services, but in many cases it is not profitable, because the costs and expenditure of the production are often much higher than in the private sector. For this reason the NLS, for example, is not producing road maps even if it would be technically quite easy. Instead, it has chosen the strategy of co-operation with the private sector. The biggest map publishing house in (AffectoGenimap, uses the NLS s data in their road maps. Also, the maintenance and updating of real estate information service including the maintenance of basic register data systems and databases are supported via the private sector, although all the data of the system is collected by the public sector. Another form of co-operation between the public and private sectors are joint ventures. The NLS established from its Satellite Image Centre with a big Finnish software and hardware company (Novo Group) a joint company, which distributed satellite images and provided services in the field of satellite image processing. At the moment, after a business reorganisation, the satellite image services are offered by a totally privately owned company Soil and Water Ltd Policy and legislation on access to and re-use of public sector information (PSI) The availability and access of public sector information has traditionally been good in. The right of access to PSI was implemented by the Publicity of Official Documents Act of 1951 (83/51), but this has been replaced by the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (Publicity Act). It entered into force on 1 December The 1999 Publicity Act provides for a general right of access to legally defined administrative documents created, sent, or received by a government agency on the condition that the document is in the public domain. There also exist several laws specifically concerning one or more datasets, e.g. the Real Estate Register Act (392/85) and the Real Estate Market Price Register Act (552/801). New legislation concerning the real estate data service entered into force in The National Metadata Service for Geographic Information is part of the public domain but for discovery purposes. It is freely available to all users and data producers through the Internet. The major private companies involved in data collection in have described their datasets in this National Metadata Service for Geographical Information (descriptions are available in Finnish). However, there are no public domain datasets available. It is also possible to access topographic maps for viewing (in MapSite), but these are expressly limited to personal use. Directive 2003/4 on access to environmental information and Directive 2003/98 on the re-use of PSI have been fully transposed into national law Legal protection of GI by intellectual property rights The Finnish Copyright Act of 1961 (law no. 404 of 8 July 1961) has been amended several times throughout the years. For example, law no. 250/1998 implemented the EC K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 16

20 database directive 96/9/EC into Finnish legislation. The 2001 directive on copyright in the information society has not been transposed into national law yet. According to article 9 of the Copyright Act, copyright does not subsist in laws and decrees, or in decrees and declarations of public authorities and other public organizations. Collections of data are protected under article 49. These collections might be catalogues, programs, tables or similar products that contain a large amount of items of information. The protection lasts for fifteen years after completion. Non-original photographs are protected by section 49a of the copyright act, which provides for an exclusive right of the photographer to reproduce and distribute photographs taken. The term of protection is fifty years after the photograph was made. The free browse-able maps offered by the MapSite can be printed for personal use only as defined by Copyright law. Any other kind of use is subject to charges (Onsrud) Restricted access to GI further to the legal protection of privacy The Personal Data Act (523/1999) of 22 April which entered into force on 1 June brought the Finnish national legislation in line with the EC Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. This Act restates many of the principles in the previous Data Protection Act of is fully compliant with Directive 2002/58 on privacy and electronic communications. Unregulated use of the basic registers may violate the right of privacy of an individual. Data protection is addressed in the legislation concerning the basic registers. Data sets can be delivered only for authorized use Licensing framework There is no general or common licensing framework for GI in. However he Finnish GI markets are quite limited and the licensing principles are pretty similar in different organisations. The license fee is normally dependent on data usage and use period. Spatial data of the NLS are inter alia available through MapSite ( a service provided by the NLS. This site provides access to brows-able topographic maps at various scales from all over. Two versions exist. On the "Citizen's MapSite" brows-able topographic maps are accessible to all users free of charge. Nevertheless these free brows-able maps are copyright protected. Thus, a user may print only one copy for personal use as defined by the copyright law (see above). Other kinds of use are chargeable. The "Professional's MapSite" offers a more varied range of maps and additional on-line ordering services which are subject to charges Funding model and pricing policy Funding K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 17

21 Funding of the national basic registries is mainly provided by the government. However the funding of the maintenance of the national topographic database and cadastral system is based on partial cost recovery. For example, the costs of the general mapping performed by the NLS is partly (20-30%) covered by income from the market. The funding of the maintenance of the national topographic database and cadastral system is also based on partial cost recovery. Most of the activities of the Finnish Geodetic Institute - which is a national mapping research institute - are funded through the national budget. Regarding funding of specific NSDI activities, the national budget refers to the responsibility of the NLS to promote the shared use of GI, but it does not specify the details of how the NLS budget should be apportioned. The NLS own budget sets aside for the task of promoting5 GI approximately EURO (Onsrud). At the moment the FCGI receives limited funding from the Finnish government to cover meeting and secretary expenses. All real development measures must be funded through the acting organizations through their normal funding mechanisms which are often state grants. Of course the FCGI may promote projects, which may apply for funding from research funds or technical development funds. The Finnish National Fund for Research and Development funded a project on Finnish information society, which identified originally seven spearhead projects for the future development of the Finnish information society. One of these is the Personal Navigation (NAVI) programme, which lasted for three years ( ). The target level for the overall budget is EUR million, half of which would be financed by the public sector. New programme for GI and remote sensing is planned Pricing The pricing of digital datasets is a continuous topic of discussion within the GI community in. The general conditions and the level of pricing for the provision of geographic services in are not yet fully established. The definition of proper prices for datasets produced by the public administration are in most cases derived according to the market situation. There is thus a great variety in the pricing policies applied even between different departments. The prices for many of the registers are set according to the amount of data purchased, per views of the data, on annual fees or are charged according to units of time. For vector datasets the most common methods used for pricing are according to map sheets, area covered, or by the number of entities purchased. For raster datasets the area covered or a standardised map sheet are used as criteria. Many times prices are set according to the number of users that are allowed to use the data. Also the use of the data and the rights the customer gets affects the price. The State Cost Assessment Act (150/92) establishes the basic rules for pricing for the provision of datasets owned by governmental bodies. It distinguishes datasets governed by public law from products subject to market conditions. Generally cost recovery is expected for services that are not related to law-based demand. The cost recovery policy 5 It remains difficult for the MAF and NLS to give any figures, because it is not so easy to say, what the promoting contains. The promoting is shared in many different operations. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 18

22 of the data production depends on the funding structures of the responsible organization. For example, the cost recovery of the national mapping tasks is agreed annually between the NLS and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The charging principles are public information. Another law, which might have certain implications, is the Publicity Act of Any charges for access to PSI are defined by this Act, which permits charging for some forms of access, while others are free of charge. This Act was in fact linked to the EU Information Society project in order to make the possibility of commercial exploitation clear and to encourage uniform practice by the authorities. As a result, there is also a great variety of pricing policies applied between different government departments, and it is not possible to compare value for money that a customer gets from these different data sets. 2.3 Component 2: Reference data and core thematic data Scale and resolution: European, National, Regional, Local, Other Much of the basic GI available in and covering all or most all of the country is held by the public sector, particularly by the NLS. In a number of cases there are interesting spatial datasets created and owned by actors in the private sector and covering, or are planned to cover, the whole of the country 6. The NLS offers much of its digital data products at medium scale: 1: to 1: and also at the following smaller scales: 1: , 1: , 1: , 1:1 million, 1:2 million, 1:4,5 million. The Topographic Database and Digital Cadastre includes a general reference data for several thematic GIS realisations, such as Digital Road Database (Digiroad, Road Administration) and Water GIS (SYKE). Basic registers are the national information systems that identify the basic units of society (basic units of society: i.e. natural persons, corporations, buildings including dwellings, real estate units). The basic registers are: the person register, real estate register, building register and enterprise register (the registers are also referred to in the literature as Information Systems). The use of registers and addresses (co-ordinate locations) supports detailed mapping at large scales and also at small scales. Thus much of the basic data derived from registers will fit in the INSPIRE scale / resolutions. Data collection by the NLS is underway for the geographic scales 1:10 000/ The whole country will be covered with new data in In some mainly urban areas digital orthophoto maps are produced at scale 1: Some of the municipalities are managing the urban data sets (large scales of 1:500 1:2.000) locally. 6 e.g. FM-Kartta Oy which aims to cover 100% of Finnish territory with digital orthophoto data; ffectogenimap Oy which has elaborated a roads data set for all of, and other base data; Soil and Water which is part of Jaakko Pöyry Group and has also considerable work in GI consulting. These are detailed in the Dedicated Country Report of. K.U.Leuven (SADL-ICRI) + Hall 19