NE2SI2S: Best Practices for a SEIS

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co-funded by the European Community
eContentplus programme
The GI-INDEED experience the module on GI and
nature conservation Spatial data infrastructures
and protected areas
Emanuele Roccatagliata GISIG
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MAIN OBJECTIVE To set up a training project as a
support to overcome knowledge gaps in the use of
GI to comply with EU environmental Directives, at
different governance levels and with special
reference to the INSPIRE Directive. The project
has been among the first training initiatives, at
the European level, to address the subjects dealt
with in the INSPIRE Directive.
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• MAIN PROJECT AIMS
• To increase the knowledge of the correct ways to
  deal with Geographical Information for
  environment management
• To develop, at the European level, a set of
  learning objects suitable to be used also in a
  local context

• TARGET
• Local Administrations using Geographical
  Information
• Environmental Agencies
• Private enterprises that need environmental
  information as a support to decision making
• Education and training organisations
• Stakeholders and citizens

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The training module USE OF SDI FOR PROTECTED
AREAS is one of the project outputs

• ORGANISATION OF THE TRAINING CONTENTS
• organised and delivered as distance e-learning
  through an Open Source Learning Management System
  (LMS) and e-learning platform by the Dokeos
  Corporation, supplying the following tools
• study groups
• e-mail
• agenda (to set and communicate timetable,
  deadlines, etc.)
• document uploading tool
• different student and teacher interface
• self test creation tool
• learning Paths
• student results reporting

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• THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TRAINING MODULES AND THE
• MODULE 3 USE OF SDI FOR PROTECTED AREAS

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MODULE 3 OBJECTIVES AND WAYS Obiective is to
enable trainees to publish on the web
geographical data related to environmental
protection and make them accessible through a
Geoportal On the one hand this module addresses
the political and management issues of nature
conservation and protected areas, at the European
and National level on the other hand it deals
with the use of GIS within this thematic
sector It concludes with a guided exercise
including analysis of a study area, creation of
a use case and publication of the related
geographical data in a dedicated Geoportal
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MODULE 3 MAIN FEATURES

• Course duration 100 hours
• 4 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation
  System)
• Classroom hours 10
• On-line hours 20
• Self study hours 70 hours
• Language English

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MODULE 3 COMPONENTS AND CONTENTS
Component 2 Protected AreaManagement Procedures
for the elaboration of a Protected Area
management plan, also according with the
provisions of the Habitat Directive
Component 1 Driving Policies Overview of the
political context in the field of
environment, protected areas and sharing of
related information
Component 4 Use Case Development Guided
exercise to characterise a study area by
identifying its main issues and solutions, and
finally to publish the related geographical data
on the web
Component 3 SDI and GIS forProtected
Areas Introduction to the relationships among
nature conservation, INSPIRE and SDIs
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MODULE 3 CURRICULUM
1 Driving Policies International and EU
Policies IUCN Classification of Protected
Areas Natura 2000 Network and related national
contexts Ecological Networks (Appendix)
2 Protected Area Management Protected Areas
Management and Plans The Article 6 of Habitats
Directive
3 SDI for Protected Areas Examples of GIS for
Protected Areas INSPIRE and Nature
Conservation Data Modelling for Protected
Areas Feature List for Protected Areas Web
Publishing and OGC Services
4 Use Case Development Case study
characterization The GI-INDEED Geoportal and its
Metadata Catalog Web Publishing Software
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MODULE E-LEARNING PLATFORM
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AN OUTLINE OF THE DATA THEMES
ADDRESSED BY Nature-SDIplus
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ANNEX I (SPATIAL DATA THEMES REFERRED TO IN
ARTICLES 6(A), 8(1) AND 9(A)) 9. Protected
sites Area designated or managed within a
framework of international, Community and Member
States' legislation to achieve specific
conservation objectives. ANNEX III (SPATIAL DATA
THEMES REFERRED TO IN ARTICLES 6(B) AND 9(B)) 17.
Bio-geographical regions Areas of relatively
homogeneous ecological conditions with common
characteristics. 18. Habitats and
biotopes Geographical areas characterised by
specific ecological conditions, processes,
structure, and (life support) functions that
physically support the organisms that live there.
Includes terrestrial and aquatic areas
distinguished by geographical, abiotic and biotic
features, whether entirely natural or
semi-natural. 19. Species distribution Geographic
al distribution of occurrence of animal and plant
species aggregated by grid, region,
administrative unit or other analytical unit.
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Annex I

• Protected sites
• Description
• They refer mostly to conservation of nature, but
  could also refer to other objectives (fishing,
  forestry, cultural heritage ).
• Nature protection may be linked to certain
  landscapes, habitats or species.
• Protected sites differ from environmental
  classifications of resources and objects as they
  are based on formal, legal or administrative
  agreements/decisions.
• Scope, use examples
• The theme refers sites to policies from Community
  and UN as well as to national ones
• Habitat Directive
• Directive 79/409/EEC (Birds)
• Habitat and Birds sites are mostly managed and
  reported under the Natura 2000 programme
• World Heritage, Ramsar, or Barcelona, or
  Helsinki, or OSPAR Convention, UN Geoparks other
  references for internationally designated sites
• Other designations Biogenetic Reserves and
  European Diploma Biosphere Reserves
• Nationally designated sites the annually updated
  EU inventory of nationally designated areas,
  CDDA, began under CORINE and is now maintained
  for EEA by the ETC on Bio-Diversity
• Protected cultural heritage man-made objects or
  other kinds of cultural heritage sites are not
  excluded, as well as protected geological
  heritage
• Important feature types and attributes
• Protected site, classification system, category,
  Id, name of area/site, description, reference to
  legal foundation, establishment date,
  modification date, target of protection

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Annex III

• Bio-geographical regions
• Description and peculiarity
• The extent of areas with common characteristics,
  usually based on climatic, topographic and
  geobotanical information, and consequently
  relatively homogeneous ecological conditions.
• Included in the theme is vegetation map data,
  mapped either as actual/existing or potential
  vegetation
• The bio-geographical and the potential vegetation
  data are regarded as reference data/maps (but
  mapping of existing local vegetation needs to
  updating.
• Whilst high-level and pan-European data have
  agreed nomenclatures, for local and/regional data
  there is a broad variety
• Span in accuracy bio-geographical regional data
  are usually at small-scale, whilst vegetation is
  more detailed, especially at a local level
• Scope, use examples
• Comparisons and assessments of biodiversity and
  conservation, at the various levels, with
  detailed data used in land management and land
  use planning.
• The European Bio-geographical regions are used
  for Natura 2000 national proposals validation.
• Knowledge about local and regional
  biogeographical regions, e.g. in the form of
  vegetation maps, may be used to identify
  climatic, topographic or geological
  characteristics (e.g. geology is an important
  factor in biodiversity).
• Example data
• Bio-geographical regions Europe is divided into
  eleven broad bio-geographical zones (but the
  bio-geographical regions for the European Seas
  are not finally agreed on)
• Ecological regions the Digital Map of European
  Ecological Regions delineates and rescribes
  relatively homogeneous ecological distinct areas
  in Europe
• Links and overlaps with other themes

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Annex III

• Habitats and biotopes
• Description and notes
• Biological organisms and communities/biodiversity
  (biotopesspatial and biotic environment of a
  biocenosis, habitatsthe spatial environment of
  species).
• It is affected by climatic, geological, chemical
  and biological conditions and also can depend on
  management, e.g. all kinds of cultural
  landscapes.
• Time series in mapping may be used to identify
  changes in biotopes/habitats.
• Habitats and biotopes does only include areas
  represented by natural boundaries, classified
  according to their ecological or physical
  condition
• A selection of habitats has been designated
  according to the Habitats and Birds Directives,
  whilst for the marine environment it has been
  done according to the OSPAR and HELCOM
  conventions.
• Is being documented and used for identifying
  biotic diversity within areas or countries, but
  also for planning and management of biodiversity
  in natural, semi-natural and artificial
  environments.
• Coverage EU Countries and Phare Countries, at
  scales from 1 5000 to 1 1.000.000
• Different documents and communities follow
  different nomenclatures for habitats and
  biotopes. Apart the Directive 92/43/EEC, EUNIS
  has developed an international nomenclature for
  habitats, and even countries or communities
  classification exist.
• Important feature types and attributes (both for
  biotopes and habitat)
• Classification/Nomenclature system, category
  hierarchy level, category name, category code,
  mapping and verification date, species/species
  group to which the habitat refer, site
  description nomenclature should as far as
  possible follow internationally agreements
• Links and overlaps with other themes
• Bio-geographical regions and Species
  distribution, Land cover, Land use, Geology, Soil
  and Mineral Resources.

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Annex III
Species distribution Description
Pan-European, national or local mapping
initiatives, resulting in spatial data for
species in terrestrial and marine environments,
e.g. for birds, insects, mammals, amphibians,
reptiles, fish or vascular plants. The INSPIRE
definition focuses on aggregated versions of data
about geo-distribution of species, where
aggregation can be at any level of resolution, or
also point-based observations and isolines
generation. Only species are in the INSPIRE
definition, but earlier documents mention also
species grouped e.g. families. Scope, use
examples Is needed in Nature 2000 Digital data
sets can be used for conservation and statistical
analysis and in biodiversity assessment is
essential to have information on species
distribution, quantities, development through
time. Needed for planning of protection and
management of biodiversity in natural,
semi-natural and artificial environments with
users as governments environmental organisations,
but also managers of high relevance to
commercial exploitation of natural resources.
Scale from 1 5000 to 1 10.000.000 Example
data Bird species distribution data (440
different breeding birds in Europe, mapped on 50
km grid squares) Plant species distribution
data (information upon the presence of plant
species in grid squares) Amphibian and reptile
species distribution (pan-European dataset,
complete for Western EU, incomplete for Eastern
EU) Fauna Europaea (information upon the
presence of fauna species in EU states,
web-published with mapping capabilities)
Important feature types and attributes
(surveyed in grid form or at a location)
Classification system, family scientific and
vernacular name, species scientific and
vernacular name, verification date of presence in
grid cell or at a location, period present
throughout the year in grid cell, function (e.g.
a site function for a species, (e.g. migratory,
breeding, resting or mating locality)) and
status threatened, extinct, (IUCN-category)
Links and overlaps with other themes
Geographical grid systems, habitats and
Biotopes, biogeographical regions, protected sites
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Thank you
www.gisig.it e.roccatagliata_at_gisig.it