Preparation of integrated geographic information for marine and coastal water management

Project facts

Project promoter:
Portuguese Task-Group for the Extension of the Continental Shelf
Project Number:
PT02-0005
Target groups
Civil servants/Public administration staff,
Researchers or scientists
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€2,352,941
Final project cost:
€1,940,227
From EEA Grants:
€ 1,559,846
The project is carried out in:
Portugal

Description

The project results from the obligation to implement the spatial data infrastructure in accordance with Inspire Directive. The main goal is to develop a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) database to collate and harmonize marine data spread over institutions and connect the data to geographical information, ensuring better coordination and information sharing. MSDI will integrate technology, methodology and scientific standards with policy and serve as a basis for decision-making. Contributing towards fulfillment of the outcome "Increased capacity for assessing and predicting environmental status in marine waters", but also towards integrated marine management and monitoring. The beneficiary target groups will be government administration, academic and research institutions and citizens. A partnership agreement was established with the Donor Project Partners that aims at transferring knowledge and experiences to build a spatial infrastructure according to the Inspire Directive.

Summary of project results

In Portugal, the marine information is collected and processed by several public and private entities from different marine-related areas of activity. However, each entity collects the specific data it needs through its own methodologies and generally without knowledge of the type of data that other entities hold. This disconnection between entities leads to the duplication of data collection efforts and makes it difficult to know what data exist, where they are and how to access the information. In this context the mission of SNIMar project was to develop a technological solution that could increase the capacity to access the environmental status of Portuguese marine waters, the main goal of the Marine strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This led to the creation of the SNIMar – the National Marine Information System – which is a geoportal that centralizes the information of various entities allowing its sharing, search and access (www.snimar.pt). In order to achieve the planned results expressed in the next table, a marine geographic data infrastructure based on a common sharing environment was created (geoportal.snimar.pt). This central infrastructure is linked to nine local catalogues that feed the central catalogue. By the end of the project 2113 metadata and 283 services were available in the geoportal and more than 5000 marine historical records were recovered. A booklet about the project was produced for the final session and was delivered in the final report of the project. By July 2017, nine metadata sets were synchronized. These metadata sets belong to nine different participating entities (geoportal.snimar.pt). Regarding the data access, by July 2017, 2997 web products were downloaded per month from SNIMar geoportal. Another important outcome of the project was the possibility of connections to other technological spatial data infrastructures. Presently SNIMar geoportal is a thematic branch of the National Geographic Information System (SNIG) that is linked to the European spatial data infrastructure, the INPIRE geoportal. In order to ensure that SNIMar geoportal will be in the future a thematic branch of the SNIG, a legislative change was promoted: Decree-Law 29/2017, March 16th, Article 8A - amend the Decree-Law 180/2009 (national transcription of the EU Directive). A second connection was performed with the Iceland geoportal. All the testes to harvest from SNIMar geoportal with GeoNetwork software to connect were successful.

Summary of bilateral results

In July 2014, a partnership agreement was signed with the two donor partners: the Norwegian Mapping Authority and the National Land Survey of Iceland. This agreement aimed to support the project in the areas of training and consulting, for which four training sessions were held in Portugal. Within the scope (and spirit) of cooperation, the SNIMar project team visited the donor states where technical meetings were held. In December 2014, several Norwegian public institutions that work on Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) were visited, and in June 2016 a project presentation was held for marine-related Icelandic institutions. All the expected results were achieved regarding the cooperation between the beneficiary state and the donors states mainly networking, exchange, sharing and transfer of knowledge, technology and experience. By the end of the project it was possible to connect SNIMar geoportal with geoportal from the National Land Survey of Iceland.