INSPIREohjeistus

INSPIREohjeistus, literally “INSPIRE guidelines” in Finnish, refers to the set of national guidance documents that explain how Finland implements the European Union's INSPIRE directive for sharing and interoperating geospatial data. The guidelines are produced by Finnish public bodies responsible for spatial data infrastructure, notably the national authorities such as the National Land Survey of Finland, in collaboration with line ministries and regional authorities. They target public sector bodies, municipalities, and other data producers and users.

The primary aim is to promote interoperability, discoverability, and reusability of spatial data across administrative borders. The guidelines describe required elements such as metadata, data specifications, and service interfaces, and map them to the INSPIRE core themes. They also address data quality, licensing, access rules, and responsibilities for maintaining up-to-date data. The guidance covers technical aspects like encoding and exchange formats (for example ISO 19139 metadata and GML), as well as the use of INSPIRE services for discovery, viewing, downloading, and transforming data.

Content areas include alignment with INSPIRE data themes, national extensions where applicable, and procedures for validating conformity with INSPIRE requirements. The guidelines provide practical instructions for data producers to prepare datasets, metadata records, and service endpoints, and for data users to access and compare datasets across public authorities.

Implementation is ongoing and iterative, with updates reflecting changes in the directive, national policy, and technology. The INSPIREohjeistus is intended to support compliance with EU obligations and to strengthen the openness and interoperability of Finland’s geospatial information landscape.