ERFC, Arnaud DELEURMEHungarian CASCADOSS Association, Szeged (Hun), 2nd June 2011

Geographical Information Systems and Spatial Data Infrastructures

in Greece

Plan

1- Brief geography2- Offer in Greece3- Situation of INSPIRE application4- SDI in GreeceConclusionSome opportunities?

1- Geography

● Population/Demography ● Services● Industry● Administrative Units

Cartogramm by D.Pappas, http://www.hellasgi.gr

1.1 Population in Greece

● By the National Greek Statistics Agency (2001), Greece= 10 M. inhabitants.

● Athens=3M. inh. Thessaloniki=700,000 inh., Patra= 200,000

● Unofficially, Athens > 4M., Thessaloniki >1M., Patra=400,000...

Sources: http://geografikadiamerismataelladas.blogspot.com

1.2 Services in Greece

● Concentration in Athens (major place)

● A second place in Thessaloniki (minor place)

● Map of Flight network represents very well the place of Athens

Source: http://www.harrys-greece-travel-guide.com

1.3 Industry in Greece

● Two places in Greece● Dusting industry in all the

Greece.(Volos and Patra)● First and Important place

of Athens

Source: http://mapas.owje.com

1.4 Administrative units

● Before 1st January 2011, 1313 peripheries, 5454 prefectures and 10331033 municipalities and communities.

● After 1st January 2011, Kallikratis Plan, 77 decentralized administrations, 1313 peripheries and 325325 municipalities

Kallikratis Plan 2011Before... Now...

2 – Offer in GIS/geomatics technology

● Softwares● Companies● Data● Freelancers, NGO,

associations, communities● Universities and events

2.1 Offer in softwares

● ESRI© Company takes the first place in the greek GIS market (ArcGIS® software is generally installed in public municipalities).

● Intergraph© solutions, take the Second place of sales● MapInfo© solutions and Manifold● Different GIS solutions but without an important

representative place

2.2 Offer by companies● More Companies in Athens and few companies in

Thessaloniki, majority of sales and projects take place in the urban region of Athens (Attica),

● More 50 companies by personal survey and >60% are in Urban area of Athens

● Marathondata has offices in the 2 cities,● Greek companies represent some international GIS Software

companies : ESRI, Intergraph, Autodesk, MapInfo, Manifold...● Some companies offer customized solutions

2.2 Offer by companies

● Many companies offer customized applications on basis of Licensed GIS software: ESRI is generally used.

● Open Source solutions are not represented significantly in the Greek companies.

2.3 Data

● There is a lack of data, it explains a late in use of public data,

● No mutualization approach for the public data, no license process in order to share the data between different public authorities. There is no NSDI,

● Many versions of the same data, so a high cost,● Private data try to cover the hole of the public data,

2.3 Data

● The public authorities sell the same data many times,● Public data has a restrictive copyright, ● Some data are out-of-date (public national topographic

reference),● Development of private data with a commercial use :

Referential maps for GPS/navigation● Cadastral data is not ready

2.4 Associations,NGO and freelancers

● Freelancers represent a great community of GIS users. They work independently (minor) or by contract in private companies (majority),

● GIS users/specialist in Greece are from multiple domains like: geography, topography, spatial planners, foresters, environmentalists..

● Associations and NGO are few and they are generally based in Athens

2.4 Associations,NGO and freelancers

● Some quite active communities like: Hellas GI, ELLAK, Topographers and Geomatics Students associations.

● They NGO and associations have more a role of information and dissemination.

● They take an important place in seminars/conference organization (HellasGI and ELLAK)

2.4 Associations,NGO and freelancers

● OSGeoOSGeo – Greek Chapter regroup 27 members. No official association. No real organization. Based on volunteers actions (translation, tutorials, seminars and training...).

● Mailing list and Annual report

(2007-2008-2009) but it is calm ...

2.5 Universities and events

● Universities take an important place for the transfer knowledge of GIS and Geo-sciences. It is the principal tool for the education in GIS technology

● Five locations are ''fulled'' concerned by the GIS Education in Greece: Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Serres, Mythilini

● Some Masters in GIS and geomatics technology exist but they are not opened on the Balkans area (in Greek). Concurrence by the Masters in G.Britain and Holland.

2.5 Universities and events

● No strong relation between the laboratories and the companies,

● Geopolitic place of Greece is not exploited for the GIS cross-border education, closed inside its border.

● Few national events take place in Greece, organized by Universities, NGO and associations, some International seminars per year...

3.INSPIRE in Greece

● Law of 20 Sept.2010 about the creation of the NSDI to implement the INSPIRE Directive

● Law for sharing public data for free

● New organization to implement the NSDI

3.1 New organization

● National Framework of E-Government : e-GIF

● Technical framework: National Framework for Interoperability of Geo-Information and Services

● At the Government side: National Committee of Geo-Information

● At the Public Services side: OKXE is the National Referee (National Organism of Cartography and Cadastre). It represent the Greece at the INSPIRE Committee

● KOSE or Focus Points manage the relations with the public services (relations with the geospatial data)

3.2 New dynamic

● Central place of the National Reference (OKXE)

● Represents Greece at INSPIRE committee● Builds, manages, develops the NSDI ● Informs, supports the Focus points● Purposes at the National Committee Geo-Information

● Important place of the Focus Points (KOSE)

● Coordination for creating spatial data catalog in the public authorities● Update the Spatial data/services catalog

NF Geo-Inf.

NFIGS NSDI

INSPIRE Committee

Focus Points

Public administration

Public administrationWorking Thematic Group (WTG)

PRIVATE SECTOR

GOVERNMENT E.U

PUBLIC SECTOR

Nat. Committee of Geo-Inf.

recommends

represents

coordinates/informs

Proposes/AssistsParticipates

Adopts/

decides

designs/develops/manages/supervises

takes place

3.3 New expectations in Greece

● New data uses in Greece from the public data providers to the third part● Data for free if non-commercial use and with licence● Available metadata and webservices for a full knowledge of existing data● New position of Greece with the Greek NSDI in the European NSDI network● New technologies by setting up of the NSDI

4- SDI in Greece

● An old need in 2000 - Nagii or NaGi2: National Geographic Information Infrastructure

● Since 2010, real evolution about the NSDI

● More information with Websites● Portals and Geoportals

http://geodata.gov.gr/ ● Seminars and events about the

future NSDI

4.1 NSDI● Portals and Geoportals (not NSDI)

http://geodata.gov.gr/about greek spatial data. They have no responsability. Available for applications

● Demo Application for the greek users powered by Institute for the Management of Information Systems, Open Government team and ELLAK society.

● Metadata are available since December 2010 in XML, spatial data available in SHP, GML, KML

● → Not yet installed, just a demoI

4.2 Others examples of Greek SDI● No other Greek example of SDI !

● Just one by a Greek partner in EU project:

● IDE-UNIVERS: http://www.ideunivers.eu● Interreg IIIB Project MEDOCC in 6

languages (Greek)● Portal and Geoportal● Greek Partner is Univ.of Aegean

● Open Sources tools

http://geo-ellanikos.aegean.gr/ideunivers/

4.2 Others examples of Greek SDI● Some experiences by EU projects

● Example of the SDI-EDU project (http://sdi-edu.zcu.cz) about the Education Transfer in relation with the INSPIRE Directive knowledge

● Duration of 24 months, 10 partners and organization of Training Workshops in 6 countries

● Knowledge for the Spatial Planners and how to applicate the directive in the spatial planning processes

● Portal and GeoPortal (Viewer Map+GeoCatalog)

4.3 Expectations for SDI in Greece● No experience of SDI in Greece

● INSPIRE Directive is a new topic. Famous since 2010 and not before in Greece

● Few persons know about SDI, INSPIRE, OGC, webservices...harvesting. They are from universities and few companies

● Future for SDI ...if...financed projects from EU.

● No own wished to build (just geoportal.gov.gr) if no funds

● Expectation of development in parallel with the future Greek Cadastre

Conclusion● Monopole of one GIS Software in all the sectors (research,

public, private...)

● Lack of data and a lack of applications in the public services

● A new organization for the NSDI project but not effective yet

● A lack of knowledge about INSPIRE, SDI, OGC and interoperability concept

● No important seminars about Geomatics nor studies about SDI

● Minimum of cross-border research/works

Opportunities● Real needs of knowledge about SDI and Interoperability concepts

(harvesting process, standards...)

● Set up a cross-border SDI for a first example of efficient application (only one real SDI was in EU project...)

● Need of a strong an effective SDI (support team)

● Need to change the behavior with the spatial data uses (License)

● Need of new technologies use : Web-Services, Open Source solutions and projects

● Need to support more Open Source applications (Economic crisis background)

Sources● Poulicos Prastakos,The GIS in the Hellenic area, Problems and

perspectives, 2007 (in Greek)

● Konstantinos Nedas, The application of the INSPIRE Directive in Greece: NSDI 2010-2011 (in Greek)

● Konstantinos Nedas, Introduction to the NSDI, place of the Focus Points, 2010 (in Greek)

Contact

● Arnaud DELEURME, European Regional Framework for Co-operation, Greece

Mail: info@evkartenn.com

WebSites: www.erfc.gr / www.evkartenn.com