Kommunale Geodaten/en

Municipal spatial data within the Saarland spatial data infrastructure (GDI-SL)

Most decisions taken by local governments have a geographic spatial context. The special status of municipal spatial data and services within a modern, computerised administration was underlined by the German District Authority Association in a 2009 paper entitled ‘Using spatial data usefully’. The corresponding data is available in many formats, although most is still analogue and often held in data silos within local administrations. The data needs to be linked together in a way that allows mapping and attribute information to generate additional benefits for citizens, businesses and the administrations themselves (Proceedings of the German District Authority Association (2009), Vol. 81). The internet offers an infrastructure that can be used to provide immediate access to information at any time of the day. Another – and also external – motivational factor here is the INSPIRE Directive, which promotes the construction and expansion of EU-wide spatial data infrastructures. More recent publications, such as the concluding report ‘Deployment of spatial data in local government’, published by the Local Government Coordination Committee at GDI-DE in 2013, underline the necessity for stronger integration of spatial data and services into general e-government strategies, as well as their networking with general e-government projects (PDF file download, in German).

Involved administrations and municipal cooperation

The obligations resulting from the transposition of the INSPIRE Directive and Saarland’s subsequent Spatial Data Infrastructure Act (SGDIG) in relation to the establishment of a spatial data infrastructure in Saarland (GDI-SL) involve not only state-level authorities but also local governments who manage datasets within the state. To avoid duplication of work, and to limit the effort and expenditure involved in rollout and operations for the necessary infrastructural subsystems, local governments in Saarland became involved at an early stage, with this project being completed in late 2009. The INSPIRE timetable is determined by the date of entry into force of the INSPIRE Directive itself (15 May 2007) as well as the effective dates of individual implementing rules (Commission decisions and regulations).

A cooperative effort between local Saarland governments, represented by the eGo-Saar administrative association, the competent State Office for Surveying, Geoinformation and Land Development (LVGL) and the Institute for Software Systems at Trier University of Applied Sciences, resulted in the setup of a meta-information system for the INSPIRE-compliant definition of spatial data/services, for use by any public administration. The central access node and basic GDI-SL components are provided by Geoportal Saarland, in which many local government datasets (zoning plans, strategic noise pollution mapping, standard land values, redevelopment areas, etc.) have since been integrated into the Saarland spatial data infrastructure in a INSPIRE-compliant manner. In December 2013, the implementing rules regulation on the interoperability of spatial datasets/services was extended to include data models for the themes in annexes II and III of the INSPIRE Directive. The implementing rules on the interoperability of spatial datasets/services define the data models for the 34 INSPIRE spatial data themes. The accompanying Technical Guidance documents are especially relevant for the specific technical realisation of the implementing rules: these documents indicate how the implementing rules can best be implemented. Further information is provided on the GDI-DE website at https://www.gdi-de.org/INSPIRE/technical implemantation/interoperability

Since a uniform approach to the involvement of local authorities is not possible at federal level, due to differences in legislation between individual German states, a research project was commissioned from the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld at Trier UAS. The final report can be accessed from our Downloads section.

Independently of the legislation passed by the individual states, the main point of focus for local government work according to the INSPIRE Directive involves themes from annex III, especially on the topics of soil use (urban/land development planning), health and safety, and waste management and municipal services.

GeoMIS Saarland - Saarland spatial metadata information system

MetaVer has been deployed to set up the INSPIRE-compliant meta-information system. This enables metadata to be entered and also updated online in a decentralised manner by the respective knowledge worker in an administration. Entering metadata requires a MetaVer account, which also needs the relevant functionality to be activated for this account. If you require access, please contact the GDI-SL Coordination Unit at the LVGL and ask to speak to Dr. Barth.

Link to MetaVer

Provisioning of municipal planning/articles as part of GDI-SL

To integrate local governments, the State Office for Surveying, Geoinformation and Land Development (LVGL) offers services for the digitalisation of plans held by these authorities, and specifically for the scanning of analogue-format plans, for the georeferencing and image processing of digital plans, and for the digitalisation of borders for scopes. The LVGL has also set up and now maintains a central technical platform that all local authorities can use to publish plans and articles with spatial relevance in a standardised format within GeoPortal Saarland.

Whether work is carried out by the authorities themselves or contracted out to external service providers, the necessary steps are listed in the ‘Guideline to provisioning municipal planning/articles within GDI-SL’.

Alongside zoning plans, land development planning has also been identified as a spatial data theme that should be provisioned digitally as part of federal-level e-government development. The ‘Guideline to provisioning municipal planning/articles within GDI-SL’ has been amended as a result. As part of a pilot project, the district of Marpingen is the first local authority in Saarland to upload its land development plans to the GeoPortal alongside its zoning plans.

Link to the ‘Zoning plans’ technical application

Event series ‘Spatial data roundtables’

Organised together with the eGo-Saar association, the ‘Spatial data roundtables’ event series has now being hosted in five separate districts (Neunkirchen, Saarbrücken Regional Association, St Wendel, Saar-Pfalz District and Saarlouis). These events introduce local authorities to the following:

• Significance of INSPIRE for local government in Saarland
• Presentation of GeoPortal Saarland
• Best-practice examples of spatial data usage by local authorities in Saarland.

The event series aims to inform local authorities, and especially the spatial data users in their planning and environmental departments, about the current status and features of the Saarland spatial data infrastructure. Opportunities for collaboration and use of synergies between administrations are also discussed, and requirements profiles for further development are worked on.

Downloads

For further information about the project as well as guidance on the provisioning of municipal planning as part of GDI-SL, please see the following downloads:

• R&D project:Cross-administrative collection of spatial metadata in Saarland – final report (PDF)
• Metadata guideline for local government (final) (PDFF)
• GDI-SL metadata collection training materials (PDF)
• Leitfaden zur Bereitstellung kommunaler Pläne und Satzungen im Rahmen der GDI-SL (PDF)
• Guideline to provisioning municipal planning/articles within GDI-SL (PDF)