A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces

Within a context defined by the rapid increase in the availability of data, combined with the complexity of data sources, infrastructures, technologies and actors involved in data sharing flows, the European Union (EU) is devising approaches that can reap the benefits of data-driven innovation. The policy vision defined in the European strategy for data [1] back in 2020 aims to make the EU a leader in today’s data-driven society through an improved use of data across actors and sectors with the ultimate goal of making better decisions in business and the public sector. This is to be achieved in practice by using a set of interdependent legal instruments (see Figure 1), most notably the following: (i) the Data Governance Act [2], creating processes and structures to facilitate voluntary data sharing by companies, individuals and the public sector; (ii) the Data Act [3], establishing rules and conditions for a fairer access to and reuse of data from industry, including Internet of Things (IoT); and (iii) the upcoming Act on high-value datasets, complementing the Open Data Directive [4] with a list of technical requirements and datasets that public sector bodies are required to publish in machine-readable format, for free, and under open licenses. In addition, the European strategy for data foresees the establishment of a common European data space by combining sector-specific data spaces in domains such as agriculture, mobility, finance and environment. This data space will act as a European single market for data and create value by incentivising digital innovation at scale

Cross-border Data-sharing Pilots

The Danube Reference Data and Services Infrastructure (DRDSI) project currently provides access to more than 6 500 datasets, relevant for one or more Priority Areas of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). These datasets can act as a solid foundation for integration of scientific knowledge into the policy making process on different levels (local, regional and international). From the perspective of macroregional strategies, this would only be possible if data can be used across borders and domains, and put in the right context. That is why the DRDSI project aims at establishing a series of pilot projects which would (i) fill existing gaps through the establishment of missing infrastructure components, such as discovery and view services, (ii) harmonise datasets for cross-border and cross-domains, and (iii) demonstrate the benefit of scientific data for policy support through the creation of value-added products. This JRC technical report aims to provide a synthesised overview of the pilot projects which will be finalised in 2016.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Danube Region data projects

The Danube Reference Data and Services Infrastructure (DRDSI) project currently provides access to more than 6,500 datasets, relevant for one or more Priority Areas of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). These datasets can act as a solid foundation for integration of scientific knowledge into the policy making process on different levels (local, regional and international). From the perspective of macro-regional strategies, this would only be possible if data can be used across borders and domains, and put in the right context. Projects at regional, national, cross-border and macro-regional levels present a useful container to uncover stakeholders, expertise and data creation/sharing capacity for policy-making and research. This JRC technical report investigates the existing project databases and similar resources related to the EUSDR that describe such projects, as well as how this information may be presented in the DRDSI platform.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Evaluation of low-cost sensors for air pollution monitoring: Effect of gaseous interfering compounds and meteorological conditions

In this report the performances of low-cost sensors for air pollution monitoring are evaluated in order to give guidance to users on which parameters to take into account when performing field calibration of these sensors prior to monitor air pollution with those. In particular, the effect of gaseous interfering compounds and meteorological conditions on four low cost sensors selected to be mounted on the AirSensEUR platform is characterised. The selected sensors are of the electrochemical type, as they are less power consuming and they have been shown, in previous studies, to lead to fastest response time and to suffer less from gaseous interferences than metal-oxide sensors. Ten set of four sensors for ozone (Membrapor O3/M-5), nitrogen dioxide (Alphasense NO2-B43F), carbon monoxide (Membrapor CO/MF-200) and nitrogen monoxide (Alphasense NO-B4) were evaluated under controlled conditions in a laboratory exposure chamber. The tests allow the evaluation of the interference of the gaseous compounds together with the effect of relative humidity, temperature and pressure variations. In general, each sensor was found to be highly linear when measuring its target gaseous species. Concerning the gaseous interferences, it appears that only the ozone sensors showed a high interference (> 75%) to nitrogen dioxide. The ozone filter of the NO2-B43F appears to be effective. The sensitivity of the CO and NO sensors was sufficient to be able to detect concentration levels expected at ambient gaseous concentrations. However, the interference of NO on the CO/MF-200 was found relevant at high NO and low CO values. The cross sensitivity (CO and NO on O3 and NO2 sensors and vice-versa) was found low or not significant for each type of sensor. The meteorological evaluation showed that the four types of sensor behave similarly concerning the temperature interference. In fact both sensors showed a quadratic response with the increase of the temperature. Relative humidity was only found relevant for the two Alphasense sensors (NO2-B43F and NO-B4) with a linear type of sensitivity associated with a clear hysteresis effect. Ambient pressure, however, was found relevant only for the two Membrapor sensors (O3/M-5 and CO/MF-200). Finally, the good reproducibility between sensors for the majority of effects including sensitivity to gas concentration and to meteorological variables with relative standard deviation within less than 10 % suggests that satisfactory calibration of sensors could be achieved without the need of a full characterisation of each sensor. By using calibration coefficient equal to the averages of the effects given in this report, reasonable calibration function could be established. This result is promising, allowing for future increase of the use of sensors for low cost for air pollution monitoring both by expert institutes and citizen science projects.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat

Review of GI Usage in the Bulgarian School System

Abstract "Teaching Geography at school means to build up citizens of the world that are conscious, independent, responsible, critical and able to live in consonance with the environment, changing it in a creative and sustainable way, looking at the future" 1 . This striking citation cannot be applied at all in regard to the Bulgarian school system and teaching school geography in particular. We need a dramatic change in the way we think and educate our children in order to provide creativity and adaptability, instead of a robotic memorization of facts and figures. There are number of statistics and studies showing the decrease of educational quality in the school system in Bulgaria -a recent analysis conducted by Reuters Agency shows that the permanent shortage of qualified personnel repels foreign investors and undermines the efforts to improve the economic situation 2 . We believe that geographic information systems (GIS) could be valuable addition and stimulation in several educational subjects. GIS is one of the most relevant uses of computers in school, with roots firmly in geography and geographic education, but fundamental in many other subjects. This article will review the legal basis of the Bulgarian school system and up-to-date review of the general condition of the schools in regard to technical equipment, manuals and quality of education. We will focus on geography as a subject and will investigate the usage of GIS at school level. This article is by no means an elaborated review of the Bulgarian school system, but will try to point out some problems in regard to technical and pedagogical challenges

Making the Sensor Observation Service INSPIRE Compliant

The Sensor Observation Service (SOS) [3] provides access to near real-time environmental data, or observations, in a standardized way. Thereby, the SOS offers flexible spatial, temporal, and thematic filtering capabilities that enable clients to query and discover large sources of time series data over the Web. The SOS standard is already in version 2.0 [6] and applied in many projects and organizational infrastructures (see e.g., [4]). The data encoding leveraged by SOS is the Observations & Measurements (O&M) standard, which is been introduced in the INSPIRE data specification through the Guidelines for the use of O&M. O&M data can also be accessed through the Web Feature Service (WFS), which has been incorporated in INSPIRE [2] as an implementation of the INSPIRE Download Service [1]. However, the WFS interface is very generic and not optimized for O&M data access. So, an inclusion of the SOS in the INSPIRE Technical Guidance (TG) is desired. Hence, this work analyses the SOS specification on how it can be enhanced to conform to the implementation rules for INSPIRE download services.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Building bridges: experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of INSPIRE and e-reporting of air quality data in Europe

The collection, exchange and use of air quality data require diverse monitoring, processing and dissemination systems to work together. They should supply data, which can afterwards be used in different contexts such as planning, population exposure and environmental impact assessment. As air quality is not dependant on national borders this would only be feasible on an international level. This manuscript reports on the lessons learned from using the world’s largest data harmonization effort for environmental information infrastructure - INSPIRE as a backbone of a European wide spatial data reporting system which involves an unprecedented number of actors and volumes of data. It is important in the context of Digital Earth, and the establishment of a global SDI through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), as the quality of ambient air is among the pressing environmental problems of today. We summarize our findings from the perspective of national public authorities, obliged by law to transmit spatio-temporal data in order to streamline reporting and facilitate the use of information, while keeping public expenditure at minimum. To identify what works in this type of reporting we established a cross-border case study, looking at the process of harmonization and exchange of data in Belgium and the Netherlands based on interoperable standards. Our results cover the legal, semantic, technological and organizational aspects of reporting. They are relevant to a cross-thematic audience, having to undergo similar processes of reporting, such as climate change, but also environmental noise, marine, biodiversity, and water management.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Next Generation Air Quality Platform: Openness and Interoperability for the Internet of Things

The widespread diffusion of sensors, mobile devices, social media, and open data are reconfiguring the way data underpinning policy and science are being produced and consumed. This in turn is creating both opportunities and challenges for policy-making and science. There can be major benefits from the deployment of the IoT in smart cities and environmental monitoring, but to realize such benefits, and reduce potential risks, there is an urgent need to address current limitations including the interoperability of sensors, data quality, security of access, and new methods for spatio-temporal analysis. Within this context, the manuscript provides an overview of the AirSensEUR project, which establishes an affordable open software/hardware multi-sensor platform, which is nonetheless able to monitor air pollution at low concentration levels. AirSensEUR is described from the perspective of interoperable data management with emphasis on possible use case scenarios, where reliable and timely air quality data would be essential.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Using new data sources for policymaking

This JRC technical report synthesises the results of our work on using new data sources for policy-making. It reflects a recent shift from more general considerations in the area of Big Data to a more dedicated investigation of Citizen Science, and it summarizes the state of play. With this contribution, we start promoting Citizen Science as an integral component of public participation in policy in Europe. The particular need to focus on the citizen dimension emerged due to (i) the increasing interest in the topic from policy Directorate-Generals (DGs) of the European Commission (EC), (ii) the considerable socio-economic impact policy making has on citizens’ life and society as a whole, and (iii) the clear potentiality of citizens’ contributions to increase the relevance of policy making and the effectiveness of policies when addressing societal challenges. We explicitly concentrate on Citizen Science (or public participation in scientific research) as a way to engage people in practical work, and to develop a mutual understanding between the participants from civil society, research institutions and the public sector by working together on a topic that is of common interest.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom