INSPIREdirektiiviä

The INSPIRE Directive, officially Directive 2007/2/EC, is a European Union legal act that aims to create a European Union spatial data infrastructure (SDI). This infrastructure will enable the sharing of environmental spatial information and, more generally, spatial information in support of Community policies. The directive entered into force in May 2007 and its full implementation is phased over many years, with key deadlines for different aspects.

The core idea behind INSPIRE is to make the environmental spatial data held by public authorities across the EU more accessible and usable. This is achieved by requiring Member States to identify and document their spatial data sets and to make them available through network services. INSPIRE is designed to facilitate the creation of new applications and services based on this harmonized data, which can then be used for a wide range of purposes, including environmental monitoring, impact assessment, land-use planning, and emergency response.

To achieve this, INSPIRE lays down general rules and measures for the establishment of a Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Community. It specifies common implementing rules for the content and structure of spatial data sets and for the network services to be provided. The directive defines a set of common themes for spatial data, such as addresses, transport networks, administrative boundaries, and geological data, and requires that data within these themes be made available in a harmonized format. Public access to this data is a key principle, though exceptions can apply for security or privacy reasons.