Experiências de harmonização de dados cartográficos no âmbito da Directiva INSPIRE: O caso da temática hidrografia

This paper presents the approach followed in the GIS4EU project for testing the draft INSPIRE data specifications and presents the results achieved for the theme hydrography. The objective of the project is to provide base cartography datasets in four themes for Europe, ensuring cross-scale, cross-language and cross-border interoperability and accessibility. The themes used in the project are administrative units, hydrography, transportation networks and elevation. The call for participation in the testing phase of the draft data specifications for themes of annex I of the INSPIRE directive admitted two kinds of tests. namely, transformation testing and application testing. In this paper we present the methodology and the results of the transformation from the data models of the datasets available in the project to the INSPIRE data model and more specifically for the theme hydrography but the same approach was used in the project for the themes Administrative Units and Transportation Networks. The core of the testing consisted on the comparison of the data models of the eleven datasets of the project, from nine producers, with the INSPIRE draft data specifications and the corresponding identification of features and attributes in common on the different data models for the theme hydrography. This process was complemented with a critical analysis of the process in order to identify features not present in the INSPIRE data model that the data producers think are needed, the identification of elements in the INSPIRE data model that are not relevant and the identification of the problems found during this process.