INSPIRE© - Europe-wide uniform Coordinate Reference Systems

based on

"Die INSPIRE-Richtlinie"

Geodatenportal Niedersachsen

 

 

After passing through the European legislation on 15th. May 2007, the INSPIRE directive came into force. INSPIRE means "INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe". The directive is entitled "Directive 2007/2/EG of the European Parliament and the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community". With the therein defined legal framework, the existing problems in the availability, quality and sharing of spatial information are to be resolved.

 

With the creation of a European spatial data infrastructure, based on the national spatial data infrastructures, the use of interoperable spatial data and geoservices across national boundaries shall be made possible. With so-called implementing rules it shall be ensured, that spatial data infrastructures of the Member States are compatible with each other and can be used throughout the Community and across borders.

 

The required Coordinate Reference Systems are listed in Annex I of the INSPIRE directive. So them has been assigned a basic functionality, that is available as a basis for the spatial reference of all other data. The draft implementing rules for the INSPIRE directive has made statements, which Coordinate Reference Systems are supported Europe-wide in the future.

 

All the required Coordinate Systems are based on the Reference System "European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 ((ETRS89)", which is optimally adapted to the GRS80 ellipsoid for the European region. ETRS89 with geographic coordinates is supported by the Web services of the European Joint Research Center (EPSG code 4258).

 

Since with the flat mapping of coordinates of different projection methods there are different distortions, that lead to restrictions on the distance, angle and area accuraty, INSPIRE provides various map projections for mapping the coordinates of the Reference System ETRS89 in the plane:

 

1.Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area ETRS-LAEA, (EPSG-Code 3035). Suitable for statistical purposes and other applications where the area accuraty is irrelevant.
2.Lambert Conformal Conic ETRS-LCC, (EPSG-Code 3034). This projection is largely intended distance and angle accurate and for presentations on a scale of 1:500,000 and smaller. It is a Lambert Conformal Conic projection with two standard parallels at 35°N and 65°N.
3.Transverse Mercator ETRS-TMzn, (EPSG-Codes 3038 – 3051). Corresponds to the UTM -system with bearing in the Reference System ETRS89. For Europe, the UTM zones 26N to 39N are relevant. This system is for presentation on a larger scale (larger than 1:500,000) intended.

 

GeoDLL supports Coordinate Reference Systems listed in the INSPIRE directive completely. Therefore is in the list of the supported Coordinate Reference System a group classification "INSPIRE© (Europe)" is available.