Chapter 5The Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) is a collaborative initiative of
the European Commission (EC) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) aimed to
establish an integrated and shared EU-wide environmental information system together
with the Member States.
SEIS presents the European vision on environmental information interoperability. It is
a set of high-level principles & workflow-processes that organize the collection, exchange,
and use of environmental data & information aimed to:
• Modernise the way in which information required by environmental legislation is
made available to member states or EC instruments;
• Streamline reporting processes and repeal overlaps or obsolete reporting obligations;
• Stimulate similar developments at international conventions;
• Standardise according to INSPIRE when possible; and
• Introduce the SDI (spatial database infrastructure) principle EU-wide.
SEIS is a system and workflow of operations that offers technical capabilities geared to
meet concept expectations. In that respect, SEIS shows the way and sets up the workflow
effectively in a standardise way (e.g, INSPIRE) to:
• Collect Data from Spatial Databases, in situ sensors, statistical databases, earth
observation readings (e.g., EOS, GMES), marine observation using standard data
transfer protocols (ODBC, SOS, ft p, etc).
• Harmonise collected data (including data check/data integrity) according to best
practices proven to perform well, according to the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC
(1) Annexes I: II: III: plus INSPIRE Implementation Rules for data not specified in
above mentioned Annexes.
• Harmonise collected data according to WISE (Water Information System from
Europe) or Ozone-web.
• Process, aggregate harmonise data so to extract information in a format understandable
by wider audiences (e.g., Eurostat, enviro-indicators).
• Document information to fulfi l national reporting obligations towards EU bodies
(e.g., the JRC, EEA, DGENV, Eurostat)
• Store and publish information for authorised end-users (e.g., citizens, institutions).
This paper presents the development and integration of the SEIS-Malta Geoportal.
The first section outlines EU Regulations on INSPIRE and Aarhus Directives. The second
covers the architecture and the implementation of SEIS-Malta Geoportal. The third
discusses the results and successful implementation of the Geoportal.peer-reviewe
