Design of location-enabled e-government services

This document provides guidance on the design of location enabled e-Government services. It is part of the European Union Location Framework (EULF) toolkit that helps Member States to improve the use of location information in the context of e-Government. The document explains what location enabled e-Government services are, and how they can support the many G2G, G2B and G2C process interactions. Examples are given for the different types of e-Government services: information, contact, transaction, participation and data transfer services (Bekkers, 2007a). The document also provides an approach to describe and document e-Government business processes as a starting point for identifying where location enabled e-Government services could add value to the process by using process modelling techniques and standards. Finally, the document explains in detail the organisational and technological aspects related to the design, implementation and evaluation of location enabled e-Government services. A series of recommendations are provided in the form of ‘to-do’s’ and ‘not-to-do’s’. Examples are given throughout the text to illustrate best practices. This document should be read in conjunction with the companion guidance document “EULF Improving the use of location information in e-government processes: methodology and use case”, which provides a methodology and worked example of improving an existing process.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Assessment of the integration of geographic information in e-government policy in Europe

Ponencias, comunicaciones y pósters presentados en el 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "Connecting a Digital Europe through Location and Place", celebrado en la Universitat Jaume I del 3 al 6 de junio de 2014.The integration of geographic information and services in a broader e-government context can be considered as a necessary condition for realising the full potential of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). In recent years, many European countries have started taking actions and initiatives to integrate geographic information in e-government policy. This paper provides an analysis of these actions and initiatives, focusing on the non-technological aspects, such as the development of strategies, the establishment of coordination structures and the implementation of data policies. The analysis shows that several European countries are aware of the need to integrate geographic information in e-government and are taking different types of actions towards a coordinated and integrated ‘information’ policy. However, in none of the European countries that were examined is geographic information fully integrated in e-government policy, and in some countries the integration of location information in e-government is even not considered as a priority

European Union Location Framework - Guidelines for public procurement of geospatial technologies

These guidelines focus on the procurement of location information products and services, such as the acquisition of new location data to support applications, the acquisition of solutions for using location data and services in e Government processes and products and/or services for making data interoperable and/or accessible. The procurement can take place as part of the development of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), the implementation of the INSPIRE regulation, or any other Directive in which such information and services are important, or within the context of regular activities of spatial data and service providers and users (e.g. Mapping and Cadastre Agencies, Government departments, local public administrations). The guidelines provide recommendations on elements of best practice in procurement in which location information and location enabled services are important, with some practical examples; and describe some concrete sample texts that could be used in invitations to tender when reference is made to location information and location enabled service requirements. The procurement process is also explained as part of a potential future e-procurement platform in which the application and updating of geospatial standards (through change requests) could be integrated as well.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Improving use of location information in e-government processes: methodology and use case

Many e-government public services and underlying processes use location information but the use of this information is not always optimal, inhibiting both efficiency and effectiveness. This report describes a two step methodology for analysing and improving how location information is used in e-government processes, together with an approach for estimating the impact of location enablement on the performance of e-Government processes. The use of the methodology is illustrated by examining an existing use case: the Traffic Safety Monitoring process in Flanders. The process and the current and potential integration of location information are described in detail, as well as the potential improvements, the potential impact of further spatially enabling the process and a series of recommendations. This document is one of a series of guidance documents associated with the European Union Location Framework (EULF) Blueprint. It should be read in conjunction with the companion guidance document “EULF Design of Location-Enabled e-Government Services”JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Guidelines for public administrations on location privacy

Public administrations increasingly use location data to deliver public services, including location-enabled tools, apps for tourists, toll collection services and cadastral web applications. Location data, such as addresses, GPS coordinates or camera images, is key to many public services and can also be linked to all sorts of other data, generating new information that was not available before. Despite the increased consumption of location data, its potential to reveal personal information is often underestimated, especially in comparison to other sensitive data, for instance in the financial and health domains. Location data not only say where an individual is, but it also says who he/she is and what his/her interests and preferences are. Therefore, location data privacy is of paramount importance for public administrations dealing with location data. While location data privacy has many aspects in common with general data protection principles, it also has unique characteristics that require specific consideration. The goal of this guidance document is therefore twofold: to outline the key obligations that public administrations should comply with when handling personal location data and raising awareness about the importance of location data privacy, highlighting key implications and risks associated with the processing of location data. It does so by guiding the reader through concrete scenarios that public administrations might face when processing personal location data and provides a set of effective and practical recommendations that can help ensure the adequate protection of personal location data. The guidance has been updated following the introduction of GDPR, taking into account market research in the location industry of the impact of GDPR. The updated document includes new models and concepts as well as using examples throughout to illustrate changes and potential approaches. It is a guide to practitioners and while touching on the key relevant parts of GDPR, it is not a legal document or legal advice.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Assessment of the Conditions for a European Union Location Framework Report EUR

The European Union Location Framework (EULF) is a set of good practices and actions to promote more effective and efficient use of location information in e-government services. The EULF is part of the Interoperability Solutions for Public Administrations (ISA) Programme, which supports interoperability solutions, sharing and re-use among European Public Administrations. This report assesses the conditions for an EULF, based on a survey of Member States and an examination of EU policies and work programmes. Five focus areas are being considered initially: policy and strategy alignment, e government integration, standardisation and interoperbility, costs and benefits and committed partnerships. The assessment confirmed their importance in realising and maximising the benefits of location-related information and services. There are various good practices demonstrating that these issues can be addressed and that benefits for governments, citizens and businesses can be delivered. However these good pratices are not universally deployed and there are some significant gaps. The assessment also identified other important issues, including the need for effective leadership and governance, a user-driven approach, an open and balanced data policy, training and awareness raising and appropriately targeted funding. There is, therefore, a need for an EULF, to build on the good practices and interest from Member States and to develop a framework of guidance and actions that will foster interoperable cross-sector and cross-border sharing and use of location information.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Location data for buildings related energy efficiency policies

Based on the priority currently given by the European Union to the energy efficiency topic through its Energy Union Package, this feasibility study has focused on the role of location data in support of energy efficiency policies, taking into account the requirements of INSPIRE, EPBD and EED Directives, as well as the CoM initiative. The EU Member States are already due to implement such Directives according to different roadmaps, but there are benefits to be gained from a coherent and consistent approach. Moreover, data is not always available in consistent form and with good quality. The monitoring and reporting requirements set by the CoM need real data and models, that can be used and that should work consistently across different administrative levels. The analysis reported in this document support these statement, showing that there is lack of data quality and reliability. These aspects might hinder the effective application of the energy efficiency policies at the municipal, district and national level. Geospatial technologies in general and accurate location data in particular can support this field, because they can significantly support efficient processes related to data collection, elaboration and communication to be executed in all the phases of energy efficiency policies life cycle; and effective decision-making. INSPIRE has a role to play as it can provide common data models and common data access rules adopted by all EU MS and a roadmap to provide interoperable datasets of high relevance with energy efficiency. The study has identified areas of development and analysis that can be useful to fill the recognised “data gap”, and proposed an initial pilot activity as a start-up project to investigate concretely these ideas with a limited number of pilot citiesJRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

EULF Energy Pilot - Final Report Phase 1

The European Union is giving more and more emphasis to its energy policies, reinforcing a political commitment to very high energy savings, with the aim to achieve a more competitive, secure and sustainable European energy system. Increased energy efficiency is vital to achieve the challenging goals set for the future and energy efficiency constitutes one of the five dimensions of the European Commission's Energy Union Package, designed to enhance energy security, sustainability and competitiveness. Within this policy context, this report focused on the 2010/31/EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings and the 2012/27/EU Directive on Energy Efficiency, describing an initial set of pilot activities undertaken to enable and test the use of geospatial technologies in Digital Government processes and services related to energy efficiency EU policies, aiming to show, through a set of use cases, that accurate and interoperable location-based information can lower the barriers faced by government, companies and citizens involved in the energy efficiency policies’ lifecycle. The approach adopted is based on the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support Community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment, such as energy policies. The enabling role played by INSPIRE consists in the provision of common data models and common data access rules adopted by all EU MS and a roadmap to provide interoperable datasets of high relevance with energy efficiency. The report has identified a series of next steps to be undertaken to achieve the expected benefits deriving from the use of interoperable location-based information within the analysed energy policy instruments and to solve the issues encountered.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Methodologies for energy performance assessment based on location data: Proceedings of the workshop, Ispra, 12-14 September 2016

This expert workshop is one of a series covering the following topics: energy, buildings, location, assessment methods and data in relation to European Directives on Energy Efficiency (EED), Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD), INSPIRE, establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe and the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative. These workshops are jointly organised by the EC DG JRC project on Energy and Location and the European Union Location Framework (EULF) action of the EC ISA Programme (Interoperability Solutions for Public Administration) . So far the JRC team has produced a feasibility study and started a dedicated pilot project on location data for buildings related energy efficiency policies . The first event organised was the workshop on “Spatial data for modelling building stock energy needs” held at JRC in Ispra 23-25 November 2015 . The aim of this second workshop was to discuss different approaches and methodologies to assess energy efficiency measures as well as energy usage and monitoring of energy flows at building, urban and regional level, representing an opportunity to share information, integrate stakeholders’ views and set the ground for mutual collaboration. Eleven invited leading organisations and EU projects were invited to take part in this workshop sending experts to present their projects and discuss how to assess synergies and how to arrive to a coherent approach for assessment of energy use in the built environment. Another twelve people from JRC, experts on energy efficiency, energy performance, geospatial data modelling and processing participated to the workshop. From the discussions, it has emerged that a holistic approach would give more evidence of the needs for measures to reduce energy consumption. This is a bit in contrast to what the EU policy requests by the present energy related Directives. More and more it becomes evident that the target should be reducing emissions and not necessarily reducing energy consumption. Integration of energy technologies are playing an important role at a higher level than the building only (i.e. at the EPBD–level). The energy market (gas and electricity) is able to provide an enormous buffer in storing energy virtually and the buildings itself should be much better balanced in energy terms to the thermal needs, e.g. heating and cooling. At the same time the energy network requires buildings for balancing. INSPIRE could be very relevant for energy assessment in the built environment and for this reason the Energy Pilot initiated under the “Energy and Location” and “European Union Location Framework” projects will be continued over the next years. Main objectives of the pilot project will be to continue to work on Use Cases already outlined, to be further elaborated based on the information gathered at the workshop. The JRC will seek to develop partnerships to implement the defined use cases with the selected partners.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

EU gazetteer evaluation

This JRC technical report summarises the ELISE (European Location Interoperability Solutions for e-Government) activities in support to the development of an EU gazetteer. Most Member States have their own national gazetteer service so, if an EU gazetteer service is to be justified, there needs to be sufficient demand for pan-European applications or sufficient added value beyond existing national gazetteers. The ELISE Action of the ISA2 Programme carried out a survey in conjunction with EuroGeographics in 2018, aimed at understanding the demand-side and supply-side perspectives related to pan-European gazetteer data and services. The results clearly showed that there is demand for an EU gazetteer to support multi-national applications or complement existing national gazetteers, for purposes such as emergency response, searching for datasets, news items, or tourism / cultural heritage sites, validating foreign addresses, etc. This report further investigates two datasets on the pan-European level: Geographical names and Addresses as the most relevant datasets for the EU gazetteer. In the report we also analyse authoritative vs. volunteered spatial datasets. The results of the analysis showed that both data sources, official and volunteered, are complementary and mutually enhanced results can be obtained by combining the two. In addition, "Cultural Heritage Testbed" application has been developed with the aim to identify data, functionality gaps and improvements needed in different gazetteer solutions. The findings and possible applications were discussed with several existing use cases, with cross-border and pan-European coverage. Overall findings in this report can be used to justify the relevance and importance of Geographical names and Addresses datasets in the context of defining future high value datasets at an EU level.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom