the policy and provide political leadership and vision to guide implementation of the
action plan. “The High Level Working Party will also provide the focal point for
promoting a sense of unity across disciplines and national borders.”
The Commission’s role would be to provide the European dimension to
actions at national level, acting as a catalyst, to coordinate Member States’ policies,
always building on existing national information holdings and structures. No new
European organisational structures nor any form of central GI data storage is proposed.
Collection and storage of GI, creating and disseminating GI metadata, remain national
tasks. The Commission will attempt coordination in regard to global geographic
information policy and projects, such as those proposed via the G7 and discussions
already initiated at global level for the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure. (Chenez
1996)
Where does this leave the marine and coastal zone research and applications
development community in regard to GI/GIS and marine/CZM data? The short
answer is without any specific focal point at political level, where the major decisions
will be made regarding “infrastructure”. The Commission’s Communication, in its
current form, focuses very heavily on “information market” issues, which is not
surprising considering that it comes from the Directorate (DG XIII/E) which is
responsible for this aspect of the Information Industry. Research, education, training
and related issues are not in the remit of DG XIII/E and, although mentioned in the
Communication, do not receive the degree of attention deserved for so important a
document. The marine/CZM research community should be making itself aware of the
content of the Communication and expressing their concerns in the strongest manner
possible to their national associations, relevant national Ministries, to EUROGI - the
European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information and perhaps to
GISDATA, the Geographic Information Systems Data Integration and Data Base
Design initiative within the European Science Foundation Scientific Programme.
Both EUROGI and GISDATA have recently taken their concerns to the
European Parliament to try to ensure that the needs of the whole European GI
community are considered when the Commission Communication reaches Parliament
in October 1997. EUROGI is also playing a leading role in the global GSDI
discussions, the next high level meeting of which will be held in North Carolina, USA,
in September 1997. As regards the needs of the research community, as the GISDATA
initiative comes to a close this year, a new association is being formed, as described in
the next section of the chapter. Members of the European-wide marine and coastal
zone research community are strongly urged to consider the benefits of joining such an
association, which could act in future as their spokesman to the EU Institutions for
concerns in their special field(s) of endeavour.
GISDATA and AGILE
The GISDATA programme has operated a series of specialist meetings, focusing on
pre-selected problems in the social sciences, from the viewpoint of use of GI/GIS to
address a wide range of social issues. Environmental issues were included in those
55
Coastal/Marine GI/GIS - A Pan-European Perspective
action plan. “The High Level Working Party will also provide the focal point for
promoting a sense of unity across disciplines and national borders.”
The Commission’s role would be to provide the European dimension to
actions at national level, acting as a catalyst, to coordinate Member States’ policies,
always building on existing national information holdings and structures. No new
European organisational structures nor any form of central GI data storage is proposed.
Collection and storage of GI, creating and disseminating GI metadata, remain national
tasks. The Commission will attempt coordination in regard to global geographic
information policy and projects, such as those proposed via the G7 and discussions
already initiated at global level for the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure. (Chenez
1996)
Where does this leave the marine and coastal zone research and applications
development community in regard to GI/GIS and marine/CZM data? The short
answer is without any specific focal point at political level, where the major decisions
will be made regarding “infrastructure”. The Commission’s Communication, in its
current form, focuses very heavily on “information market” issues, which is not
surprising considering that it comes from the Directorate (DG XIII/E) which is
responsible for this aspect of the Information Industry. Research, education, training
and related issues are not in the remit of DG XIII/E and, although mentioned in the
Communication, do not receive the degree of attention deserved for so important a
document. The marine/CZM research community should be making itself aware of the
content of the Communication and expressing their concerns in the strongest manner
possible to their national associations, relevant national Ministries, to EUROGI - the
European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information and perhaps to
GISDATA, the Geographic Information Systems Data Integration and Data Base
Design initiative within the European Science Foundation Scientific Programme.
Both EUROGI and GISDATA have recently taken their concerns to the
European Parliament to try to ensure that the needs of the whole European GI
community are considered when the Commission Communication reaches Parliament
in October 1997. EUROGI is also playing a leading role in the global GSDI
discussions, the next high level meeting of which will be held in North Carolina, USA,
in September 1997. As regards the needs of the research community, as the GISDATA
initiative comes to a close this year, a new association is being formed, as described in
the next section of the chapter. Members of the European-wide marine and coastal
zone research community are strongly urged to consider the benefits of joining such an
association, which could act in future as their spokesman to the EU Institutions for
concerns in their special field(s) of endeavour.
GISDATA and AGILE
The GISDATA programme has operated a series of specialist meetings, focusing on
pre-selected problems in the social sciences, from the viewpoint of use of GI/GIS to
address a wide range of social issues. Environmental issues were included in those
55
Coastal/Marine GI/GIS - A Pan-European Perspective