The Geoportal of Wallonia : come in and discover geographic data of Wallonia

Vincent Bombaerts – Public Service of Wallonia

Open Belgium 2015 Conference - 23d of February 2015 - Palais des Congrès, Namur

Imagine…

Imagine… a spatial data infrastructure

SDI

Spatial data

Metadata

Web services

Agreements on data sharing

Coordination

This is reality !

• in Europe : INSPIRE – Directive 2007/2/EC establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community - http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/

• in Wallonia - InfraSIG - 2010/12/22 Decree on Walloon infrastructure for spatial information

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http://geoportail.wallonie.be

The geoportal of Wallonia

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http://geoportail.wallonie.be

The Geoportal of Wallonia : come in and discover geographic data

• Introduction

• Enhance geographic data discoverability through a standardised metadata catalogue

• Focus on the main options for accessing geographic data through the Geoportal of Wallonia

• Conclusion

Metadata = data about the data

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Geographic metadata standards

• As soon as you want to exchange information, there is a need to agree

– on a common understanding of the meaning of the information (the semantics) ISO 19115-1 (ISO

19115)

– on a common way to encode this information ISO

19115-3 (ISO 19139)

– on a common communication language to exchange this information with others via a webservice OGC

Catalog Service for the Web

• Define a profile for specific purpose

– INSPIRE Profile of ISO 19115

– INSPIRE Profile of CSW

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ISO 19115 – Geographic information metadata

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Metawal : Catalog for geospatial information in Wallonia

• The official metadata catalog and one of the basic component of InfraSIG , the Walloon SDI

– Whoever wants to enter InfraSIG as a producer must document its data in Metawal

• Based on GeoNetwork Opensource

http://geonetwork-opensource.org/

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http://metawal.wallonie.be

Metawal : Catalog for geospatial information in Wallonia

CSW

Metawal : Catalog for geospatial information in Wallonia

CSW

http://metawal.wallonie.be/geonetwork/srv/fre/csw

Create once, reuse many times

CSW

Metawal

The Geoportal of Wallonia : come in and discover geographic data

• Introduction

• Enhance geographic data discoverability through a standardised metadata catalogue

• Focus on the main options for accessing geographic data through the Geoportal of Wallonia

• Conclusion

The geoportal of Wallonia : a quick overview

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http://geoportail.wallonie.be

Find the data

View the data

Staticinformation

Dynamicinformation

Find metadata on the Geoportal of Wallonia

1. Open the Geocatalogue

Find metadata on the Geoportal of Wallonia

1. Open the Geocatalogue

2. Enter a keyword

Your search

The Results

Find metadata on the Geoportal of Wallonia

1. Open the Geocatalogue

2. Enter a keyword

3. Open the description sheet

Find access metadata

1. Open the Geocatalogue

2. Enter a keyword

3. Open the description sheet

4. “Access” tab gives information on– Viewing application that show the data

– Web services serving the data

– How to obtain a copy of the data

– Conditions for accessing and using the data

– How to contact the distributor

What are the main distribution options ?

1. Use the dedicated viewer/application

• Made by people having a deep knowledge of the data

– Presents data that are made to be used together

– Prevents misuse of the data by zoom limitation, warnings and other mechanisms

– Always up-to-date

• Unless secured freely available for everybody

• Accessible under the terms of a licence -http://geoportail.wallonie.be/files/LicApplicationsSPW.pdf

– No overuse is permitted

– Screenshot permitted with mention

– Non-liability principle

– No guarantee on the service provided

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2. Use a web service

• Dynamic access to the data

– Always up-to-date

– Zoom limitations may exist to prevent misinterpretation

• Various protocols : REST Geoservices, WM(T)S, KML

• Unless secured freely available for everybody

• Accessible under the terms of a licence -http://geoportail.wallonie.be/files/LicServicesSPW.pdf

– No overuse is permitted

– Non-liability principle

– No guarantee on the service provided

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3. Ask for a copy of the data

• Asynchronous access to the data

– Use with care, read the metadata, and update your copy !

• Only available for

– public services and their contractors, education and research

– a specific purpose (no other use permitted)

– a limited time

• Accessible under the terms of a licence -http://geoportail.wallonie.be/files/LicData.pdf

– Non-liability principle

– No guarantee on the service provided

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4. Freely download and use the data ?

• Try the keyword “open data” in the catalogue...

• More and more producer are willing to open up their data, but we lack a clear framework to do it.

• Strategic plan for geomatics in Wallonia (PSGW) -http://geoportail.wallonie.be/files/docs/PlanStrategiqueGeomatique/PSGW_approuve.pdf

– Adopted by the government on May 8th 2014

– Towards open data for geographic data in Wallonia

• 2014-2019 Policy Statement (DPR)

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The Geoportal of Wallonia : come in and discover geographic data

• Introduction

• Enhance geographic data discoverability through a standardised metadata catalogue

• Focus on the main options for accessing geographic data through the Geoportal of Wallonia

• Conclusion

Conclusion

• Geoportal of Wallonia: a big step forward towards discoverability and reuse of geospatial data through the use of standards

– Offer visibility and accurate information about the data

– Offer standardised access to the data

Reduce duplication of existing or similar data

Stimulate reuse of data

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Conclusion

• Challenges

– Open data

– Cross-domain exchange

– Data and metadata acculturation

• Opportunities

– Strategic plan (PSGW) and 2014-2019 Policy Statement (DPR)

– INSPIRE

– Open data pioneers

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Now... Come in and discover geographic data of Wallonia... and contribute

Vincent Bombaerts – Public Service of Wallonia

vincent.bombaerts@spw.wallonie.be - @vbombaerts

http://geoportail.wallonie.be