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Same, same but different

Lena Hallin-Pihlatie, Riitta Teiniranta, Minna Kallio, Jaakko Suikkanen, Sofia Junttila Astrid Voksø, Bogi Brynjar Bjornsson, Ylva Westman SYKE (FI) – NVE (NO) – IMO (IS) – SMHI (SE)

INSPIRE Conference, Aalborg

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Background

• Nordic cooperation has long traditions in many fields

• The interest in and the use of geospatial data has increased within most domains

• A need for a harmonised and a common data infrastructure have emerged

• The INSPIRE Directive gives this co-operation a common cross-thematic framework

• Examples of Nordic cooperation in the environmental domain

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Challenges in harmonising cross-border geospatial data in the Nordic countries

• Different perceptions of features and class definitions -> what is a lake and what is a river?

• Different data and scales in which we operate -> this causes challenges and brings forward generalisation issues

• Differences in data policy -> data sharing is not always easy

• Differences in projections coordinate systems -> the common European coordinate system (ETRS’89) has solved the main problems during the last couple of years

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Nordic cooperation related to water data

• The Nordic countries share transboundary river basins and have similar water management systems

• The Nordic countries face mutual water challenges of which some need to be solved and adapted in collaboration

• The harmonisation of river basins, catchment areas, rivers and lakes between neighbouring countries is also required by the WFD and by the INSPIRE Directive

River Basin Districts in Norway, Sweden and Finland

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CHIN-GIS Network

• The directors of the hydrological institutes started their co-operation (CHIN-network) in 1990. The CHIN-network has several working groups, one focusing on GIS issues, from 2004 onwards.

• The objectives of the Nordic hydrological GIS co-operation network (CHIN-GIS) are threefold:

• to share knowledge and best practices to improve water related geospatial data management systems,

• to harmonise geospatial water datasets,

• to give a common Nordic view on the implementation of European initiatives, like INSPIRE, WISE and WFD

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Annual CHIN-GIS meeting

Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) and Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (DCE)

21-22 May 2014, Helsinki

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CHIN-GIS achievements

• A common River Basin District dataset has been produced in as a cooperation between SYKE, NVE and SMHI

• The work of harmonisation water datasets (River Network, Lakes, Coastal Waters) in transboundary areas is on-going

• The principles has been agreed upon with the responsible institutes (SYKE, NVE and SMHI)

• The harmonisation include a common code for transboundary spatial objects, common definition principles (lake, river) and agreements on the practical harmonisation work

• Some of this harmonisation is not a possible without partly changing the national coding and classification systems, that is by diminishing differences

• Hydrological coding systems have been used since the 19th century

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An example of the challenges related to harmonisation of hydrographical data on the Finnish-Swedish border

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Harmonisation of the Swedish Water Archive (SVAR)

• Improvements have been made concerning Swedish 1:10 000 data on the Norwegian border

• Data for the catchments that cross the border was “borrowed” from Norway. Shorelines and rivers have also been connected to connection points along the border and rivers divided at border line and connected to connections points if such exist.

• SMHI and the Swedish Land Survey will continue improving the hydrography data in 2014-2017 in a co-project called “Good Hydrography”.

Norway

Sweden

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Harmonising catchment rivers along the borders, for example2 catchments between Norway and Sweden (yellow)

Swedish data in Sweden:• Catchments from Daro utm33

• Rivers from the Swedish SE Network utm33 (1:250.0000)

• Lakes from 1:250.000

Norwegian data in Norway: • Catchments from REGINE utm33

• Rivers from the Norwegian River Network utm33 (1:50.0000)

• Lakes from 1:50.000

4/5 catchments between Norway and Finland (blue)

Finnish data in Finland• Rivers and lakes from the Finnish Ranta10 (-

246 - Pasvik elva)

• Catchments from the Finnish valuma catchment database

Norwegian data in Norway

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Exchange of ideas and applications

• Long tradition of software sharing/cooperation• For example FinGIS in the ’90s (SYKE, SMHI)

• Software development• For example the adaption of the Norwegian ‘Vann-Nett’ web map

application (NVE) to Icelandic conditions ‘Waterbody viewer’ • Adaption of NVE‘s WFD SQL server database• Translated to Icelandic and English• Adapted to Icelandic waterbody typologies• Geodata AS, NVE’s main consultant, hired as contractor• Agreement signed with Norwegian Ministry of Environment on Vann-Nett source

code sharing and co-operation in further development

• Exchange of ideas• For example regarding the ‘Tool for delineation of catchments areas’

-> the same solution in Norway and Finland• Discussions on how to improve the interoperability between

different hydrological coding systems

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INSPIRE issues discussed

• Discussions on and sharing of knowledge related to the possible implementation of the HydroId and the InspireId

• How to be prepared for the HY data model

• It is challenging for data producers to find the time and resources to read through technical specifications, guidance documents etc.

• Access to INSPIRE compliant geodatabase templates for Annex I, II and III would be a resource-effective way in getting started with INSPIRE transformations

• INSPIRE Directive states that the member states are obliged to harmonise data on their borders

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Nordic cooperation related to WFD

• Nordic co-operation to enhance a resource effective implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD)

• Emphasising the importance of knowledge and experience exchange between countries and domain experts

• Discussing issues using a email network

• Organising conferences/workshops Nordic WFD Conference 2014, in Oulu, Finland

- including Scots and Irish

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Nordic cooperation related to WFD

• Harmonised spatial data is one of the key tools for successful water management -> data issues are always on the WFD conference agendas

• The Nordic WFD cooperation build upon the work carried out in the CHIN-GIS network

• Attribute data

• Achievements, for example web map services on the Ecological status of the waters in respective Nordic country

• Common layer symbology agreed• Shared REST/WMS services

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Ecological status in the Finnish web map service: http://paikkatieto.ymparisto.fi/SilverlightViewer/?Viewer=VemuPilotti

Ecological status in the Norwegian web map service: http://vann-nett.no/saksbehandler

Ecological status in the Swedish web map service:http://www.viss.lansstyrelsen.se/MapPage.aspx

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Exchange programme related to water• The FP7 Water-S programme

enable researchers employed by institutes or universities to work in a private company in another country for a period of time, or vice versa

• The Water-S programme covers salary and cost of living expenses

• Water-S enables that results from European research projects can be utilised by costumers in another country

• For example, methods developed at SYKE for WFD coastal water bodies is presently implemented for Sweden at the Brockmanncompany

• Products: summer/spring a chlorophyll time series for coastal water bodies

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Nordic cooperation related to land cover

• The European CORINE Land Cover (CLC) datasets have been produced in the Nordic countries since year 2000

• The institutes responsible for the production have had several meetings during the production phases to discuss issues of relevance

• A common finding is that the CLC nomenclature (classification) is partly unsuitable for the northern landscapes

• Actions have been taken to harmonise the perception and use of the CLC nomenclature

• To some extent the Nordic countries share the same ideas on how to utilise national processes and data in European land monitoring, which has been brought forward in recent years in pan-European projects and networks, such as Harmonised European Land Monitoring (HELM) and EAGLE

• The INSPIRE LC specification allows the use of different nomenclatures -> easy to implement, but does not support harmonisation

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Example of harmonisation needs of CLC in the border zone of Finland, Sweden and Norway

Moors and heathlands (green)

Sparsely vegetated areas (blue)

Norway

FinlandSweden

Both are correct!

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Meeting on land cover classes in Tromsø, autumn 2013

• Short-term goal:• Improve CLC2012 in the

northern parts of SE, FI and NO -> diminish differences in the border areas

• Long-term goals: • common approach for land

cover types in the northern areas (forests and fells)

• Exact thresholds between different land cover categories for CLC

• Need for additional classes to represent Nordic landscape more accurately

• Consideration of CLC , Habitat Directive, INSPIRE, reporting obligations etc.

Representatives from all Nordic

CLC2012 production teams participated

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Funding regimes

• CHIN-GIS from 2004 onwards• One annual 2-day meeting paid by the institutes • Budget-resources used for harmonisation work• Additional working meetings when needed

• Nordic WFD conferences and workshops• Partly financed by thee Nordic Councils of Ministers• In addition budget-resources

• Different exchange and research programmes• FP7 Water-S programme

• CLC cooperation• Budget-resources• CLC project resources

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European regions, where some kind of cross-border cooperation is taking place

Existing regional bodies may fund cross-border regional meetings and workshops…

Source: AEBR http://www.aebr.eu

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Thank you!

www.syke.filena.hallin-pihlatie@environment.fi