75th MIG-T meeting 2023-07-07

MIWP Action 1.1.

1.1 Towards a Digital Ecosystem for the Environment and Sustainability 

• The JRC has recently published the ‘Beyond INSPIRE. Perspectives on the legal foundation of the European Green Deal Data Space’ policy brief proposing possible (ex-ante) policy development pathways that are not an official position of the Commission but might be considered in the debate on setting the legal instruments governing the Green Deal Data Space (EGDDS). This work is aimed to inform and contribute to DG ENV decision making in that respect, with a focus on technical and governance aspects, taking into account the new horizontal legislation on digital data sharing, the approaches for shaping EU data spaces (particularly the EGDDS), the experience gathered through the technical coordination and implementation of INSPIRE, as well as emerging technologies and new data sources.
• The JRC has started a new (8 months) study for identifying approaches, challenges, and opportunities for setting the prospective most-targeted interoperability provisions for environmental data sharing and reuse for the EGDDS. The outcomes of this work will be also consider as input for the GreenData4All initiative and presented during the INSPIRE Conference.
• The JRC provided a summary of the ‘European Data Spaces - Scientific Insights into Data Sharing and Utilisation at Scale’ science for policy report recently published, co-created by different European Commission services. This work integrates in a dashboard JRC’s resources on data sharing (technical and science for policy reports, articles, etc.), mapped to the technical and non-technical requirements for setting data spaces as defined in the EU Strategy for Data. The dashboard content is easily browsable. A (live) wiki page is derived from the same knowledge base and will be regularly updated.
• An update on the activities on the validation and documentation of END e-reporting GeoPackage data, lead by EEA, was provided including the approach for generation of GML instances that can be validated through the INSPIRE Reference validator.
• BE mentioned that in this country the need for a mapping between the INSPIRE metadata and DCAT for HVDs profiles is increasingly becoming of interest of the community.

• JRC to promote the possible update the Geo-DCAT INSPIRE Good Practice, including the analysis and draft mapping between the INSPIRE metadata and DCAT for HVDs profiles.
  

MIWP Action 2.3.1 Governance of INSPIRE artefacts (I/D)

• The Consortium dealing with the INSPIRE operational support explained the current activities for the governance of INSPIRE artefacts. Particularly, an update of the work for the conversion of TGs to AsciiDoc format was provided. All TGs planned by June are already available in the 2023.2 branch of the TG helpdesk. Comments and pull requests are welcome until the v.2023.2 release, due on 31 Jul 2023, which will contain the related change proposals endorsed by the MIG by that date. Additionally, open actions on TG change proposals were summarised, requesting additional feedback on issues #72 and #84. A v.2023.2 release of UML schemas will also take place including the endorsed change proposals related to TGs and schema which have an impact on UML.

• MIG-T members to provide feedback specially on issues #72 and #84

• A new proposal for an streamlined release plan for the INSPIRE Registry, based on two yearly releases (January and July), and aligned with the current schedule of INSPIRE artefact releases, was explained and endorsed by the MIG-T. Additionally, the new Re3gistry software promotional video was presented to the INSPIRE community.

• MIG-T members representing MS without INSPIRE Registry Submitting organisations to nominate them in view of promoting active participation in their countries for the INSPIRE Registry governance.
• MIG-T members to spread the word on the promotional video to contribute in building the community around this tool.

MIWP Action 2.4 Central INSPIRE Components

• ETF and INSPIRE Reference Validator
  
  • The latest release of the INSPIRE Reference Validator  (v2023.2) took place on 21 Jun 2023. The main features included were explained to the community.
  • The next release (v2023.3) will take place on 15 Sep 2023, according to the release strategy. This will be the version of the validator to be used in the next Monitoring and Reporting.
  • The rules for using the Validator–API Gateway were reminded.

• Re3gistry software & INSPIRE Registry
  • A new release of the Re3gistry software - version v2.5.0 - was delivered on 30 Jun 2023 and is ready for user testing. It includes new features / enhancements and bug-fixes. A summary of them was provided.
  • According to the release strategy of the Re3gistry software, the next release (version v2.5.1) will take place at the end of September 2023.
  • A new survey on the Re3gistry software is available here. Another survey for the INSPIRE Registry is also ready and will be published soon.

• INSPIRE Geoportal
  • The rollout of the revamped INSPIRE Geoportal based on GeoNetwork is on-going. Cloud servers are being upgraded to GeoNetwork v4.2.5 to benefit from the latest security upgrades. Security assessments are planned to finish by the end of September 2023. The objective is to roll-out the revamped system in time for the Monitoring and Reporting in 2023. In the meantime, the new harvesting console is available for use.
  • The Nordic countries (DK, SE, NO and FI) are willing to collaborate in further stabilizing GeoNetwork v4.2. They are expecting a way forward suggested by GeoCat.
  • A new procurement is being prepared to deliver specific INSPIRE Geoportal improvements and new features, including (i) Improved backend dataset accessibility analysis and the implementation of the OGC API-Features and Data-service Linking Simplification INSPIRE Good Practices, and (ii) missing functionalities from the Classic INSPIRE Geoportal (tools for exploring link-checking results an exporting the data, automated calculation of the M&R indicators in vie of producing a M&R dashboard page).

• MS to consider joining the initiative of the Nordic countries to invest in GeoNetwork v4.2 security.
• JRC to provide support to countries on performing new harvesting tests with the new console (requested by DE and ES).

Topics proposed by MIG-T members

• DK presented the 'Data Ecosystems and SDI - facilitators for data value creation' workshop to be hold on 12 Dec 2023 and 13 Dec 2023 in Copenhagen. This is a joint event co-organised by EuroSDR, KU Leuven, TU Delft, IGN France and DAFAGO (private sector), which be limited to 25 participants.
• The deadline for the call for abstracts is 15 Sep 2023.

The next MIG-T meeting will be organised together with the MIG meeting as a physical event in Brussels immediately after the INSPIRE conference. The tentative date is 30 Nov 2023.