PROMISING STEPS TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL ON-LINE
SERVICE
Dr. Szabolcs MIHÁLY and Katalin TÓTH, Hungary
Key words: on-line, real-time service, up to date
administrative boundary data, interoperability, ABDS for the CEEC
project.
1. INTRODUCTION
The transition towards the Information Society - it is the
challenge of the new Millennium. Geographic Information Systems play a
special role in forming the new infrastructure, as 80% of any kind of
information can be linked to its location by direct or indirect
positioning.
For a big deal of users the co-ordinate systems are too specific.
Indirect positioning, e.g. linking the information to administrative
territorial units suits much more users' requirements.
Administrative territorial units can be represented by their
boundaries; the addition of attributes widens the circle of interest
to them. The registry of boundaries, the data capture and compilation
of the administrative boundary database is generally the task of the
national mapping agencies and partly those of the statisticians, all
representing a part of the National Geographical Data Infrastructure (NSDI).
The globalisation and the increasing number of cross-border
co-operations require unified interoperable data for any region. This
awareness led to the creation of SABE (Seamless Administrative
Boundaries of Europe) by the European mapping agencies and then - as a
kind of geographic extension and in the same time a technological
innovation - the ABDS for the CEEC (Administrative Boundary Data
Services for Central and Eastern European Countries) project.
2. ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARY DATA AS PART OF E-GOVERNMENT
Provision of reliable up-to date basic data infrastructure is
generally the task of the government. Nowadays this task is even more
important, when the transition towards the Information society takes
place. The overwhelming amount of data however require systematisation
which can be for example thematic ones such as databases for different
sciences and disciplines, or for everyday use (e.g. timetables of
different means of transport). Another approach is offered by the
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) where the base for
systematisation is the linkage to the location. Co-ordinates fully
define the location, by direct way. However these entities are
meaningful only for a certain circle of the users. For the everyday
user and for a number of types of information the location usually
means indirect positioning, e.g. a settlement, a region, or a whole
country; in one word an administrative territorial unit. Naturally,
the administrative territorial units are represented by the
co-ordinates of their boundaries, meanwhile these data may remain
hidden for the user.
The Administrative boundary data - being the base information
infrastructure for different kind of analysis when spatial reference
is required - are core part of the NSDI. The number of potential users
is practically indefinite, range from statistics to economic analysis,
from environment to logistics, from business administration to
marketing, etc. A wide spread use of such kind of information can
greatly contribute to modernisation of the whole infrastructure of a
country, or a region. The provision and integration of such data and
services seems indispensable for the modern electronic governance. But
what are the key requirements for such a service?
Firstly, the service must be reliable. It means that it must
exactly reflect the actual legal status of the territorial units.
Secondly, it must be relatively cheep and accessible for a wide range
of users (with certain products to be served for the public free of
charge). Finally, it must be interoperable in respect of merging the
different data sources as well as user friendly such that the user
could specify the product wished to purchase.
Obviously, such criteria can be met only by on-line real-time service
accessible via internet, all based on interoperation between the
authorised data providers, on harmonising the data content, on
adequate data and quality assurance, on well organised automatic data
handling and service as well as on adequate data policy.
3. ABDS FOR THE CEEC PROJECT
As preparatory phase of a future service, the ABDS for the CEEC
project, supported by the INCO Programme of the European Commission
was launched on 1st December 1998 and was finished on 31 December
2000. "The project aimed at the preparation and partial
implementation of on-line delivery of administrative boundary data
collected, processed and delivered with defined rules for data model
and products, using the new European and ISO standards". It was
intended to support the data collection for the existing datasets of
similar content (e.g. the topographic map based SABE).
The project was co-ordinated by the Institute of Geodesy,
Cartography and Remote Sensing (FÖMI), Hungary and was implemented by
a consortium of 19 organisations from 12 countries, representing the
national mapping agencies, statistical offices and other public and
private organisations of the region as given in the following table.
The task of the project was elaborated in three main work packages
- Inventory, Generalisation and Memorandum of Understanding -
accompanied with the horizontal activities of standard conformity
checking, quality assurance, and legal protection. The geographically
scattered project team was supported by modern on-line facilities of
information technology like document handling system, internet
conference, and web-based voting. The work packages were divided into
tasks, which were strictly planned both in content and timescale. The
interactive working methodology of collaboration guaranteed on one
hand a creative environment for original ideas and on the other hand a
critical control mechanism and feedback.
4. RESULTS OF THE INVENTORY
The objective of the first work package was to clarify everything
about the input of a future service. For this purpose the consortium
compiled a questionnaire where the following questions were answered
in details:
- What are the data sources in different countries?
- What is the administrative hierarchy in the different countries?
- What is the legal background of different administrative
territorial units?
- Who are the data owners in different countries
- What kind of data are available in different countries
- What are the formats of delivery AB data and their attributes?
The research showed us, that the possible source for the ABDS
varies from country to country. In some countries data are registered
and maintained in the cadastral offices, while in certain countries
such precise registers do not exist at all, administrative boundaries
are presented on topographic or other maps.
The kind of source of AB data greatly defines the accuracy and
influences directly on the largest possible resolution of the service.
Therefore, each country can join the service depending on the quality
of their available data. Consequently, as a result of the inventory we
defined the so-called consolidation levels which can serve as data of
basic resolution to be used for different products of the common ABD
service:
- 2 m resolution - traditionally 1:10,000 scale - for those
countries where data are available in large scale,
- 10 m resolution - traditional 1:50,000 scale - for the other
countries.
The hierarchy of administrative units varies from country to
country. However the international character of the future service
requires some possibility for comparable handling. The NUTS
(Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics) system of EUROSTAT
created for similar purpose is quite suitable. In the following table
we give the summary on the administrative hierarchy of the
participating countries of the project as compared to the NUTS:
1) NUTS 0 level is assigned to the country in case
of every participants.
2) The terminology has not been harmonised with the Eurostat. In
certain countries NUTS 5 level units rather are called as
"settlements".
5. THE RESULTS OF GENERALISATION
The objective of this work package was to elaborate generalisation
rules for the ABDS using a model oriented approach, formulating the
requirements, coming to agreement on scales/resolutions and
elaborating recommendations on the base dataset derivation. All with
the aim to give the answer to the question on how we can convert our
data into a product.
Since the objective of the ABDS for the CEEC project is to deliver
digital datasets of the administrative boundaries and not to produce
maps, a model generalisation approach has been decided to be used
rather than a cartographic one. That means in fact a simplification
procedure using well elaborated and accurately tested algorithm(s).
In the model generalisation process a geometry driven approach is
applied. The elements of the consolidation level database then derived
from the elementary datasets of administrative boundary data and then
delivered by the specialists of the respective country itself. The
commonly used method of production guarantees the unified quality all
over the area of participating countries. This method is to
- guarantee the integrity, topological consistency at all
resolution,
- produce predictable and repeatable results,
- reduce at maximum the data volume for the chosen resolutions,
- minimise the deviation of the boundary lines from the original
position,
- allow on-line delivery of the tailored dataset,
- allow parameterisation of the main rules by the users (scroll
menu with visualisation of the effects of the chosen parameter),
- allow the calculation of the deviation from the area of the ATU.
The steps of the model generalisation and their results are given
in the table below:
The experience of the project partners (FÖMI with Hungarian
Administrative Database (MKH) and MEGRIN with SABE data base) showed
that majority of customers liked to purchase standard products rather
then to order something more specific. Therefore creation of a
standard product line seems to be reasonable, which can greatly
accelerate the on-line service. These products might be generated
beforehand so the customer could download it immediately. The project
consortium agreed on the following content of the standard product
line:
It was also agreed, that for better satisfaction of customers the
delivery of other types of product also would be possible. In such
case the customer might specify its request on-line, while the product
will be delivered in several days later depending on the complexity of
the request. Such individual product might be prepared in any case and
using any simplification method, and also attaching any available
attributes. The customer will be informed about his/her possibilities,
and also will be given a short demonstration of the results of the
different possibilities, all on the international portal.
6. THE ABDS DATA AND SERVICE MODEL
The results of the country inventories and the generalisation gave
input to the data model of the service, which was elaborated in
several iterations, through clarifying the data content, considering
the output of the future service and investigating the technical
possibilities for practical implementation. The data content, data
model, service model and metadata descriptions has been elaborated
conforming with the existing GI standards.
To provide a common service of geographic information the data must
be managed seamlessly in space and time as well as standardised by
their content, structure and format. Requirements to the service
portal and the data flow must be precisely formulated and correspond
to the principles quoted bellow:
- The objects of the service and databases are the ATU-s
(Administrative Territorial Units) of different level the
properties of which are given by the attributes. The attributes
and their values are related to the objects and to each other in a
relational description. This idea expresses the object oriented
database model.
- The main groups of the attributes are the followings: spatial
identification, the thematic properties of ATU-s, the attributes
of the co-ordinates delimiting the ATU-s and the data quality
parameters.
- Based on international GI standardisation the spatial schema
follows the geometrical description and topological description.
- The ATU-s geometrically are expressed with surfaces, bordered by
boundaries, consisting of boundary lines, the last being described
by points. The points are given by their plain co-ordinates and
optionally by their height.
- The topological description of ATU-s is done with faces, edges
and nodes.
- In case of data quality the data origin, accuracy certification
and actuality are involved into the database as attributes. There
are additional information in the metadata.
- The thematic properties of ATU-s are the results of agreement
between the countries. The thematic properties are the dominant
attribute elements in databases.
- Starting points of the data to be supplied are the primary data
sources. Here the clear knowledge on data quality is the purpose
rather than only the accuracy or data collection simplicity.
- The data management and data service is based on the concept of
distributed databases of the countries, at so called National
Portals, established and managed by the National Focal Points. The
International Portal is assuring the unique search facilities and
all kind of harmonised Value Added Services based on the connected
country data set. The international portal is a core element of
the national portal, optionally in bi- or multilingual realisation.
It is based on computer networking: with merged, free of charge
accessible search database - the targeted scale in a harmonised
way is the 1:2.500 000 with metadata and LAN/Internet.
- The future ABD supplier consortium is expected to be interfaced
to the user community with a web-site at the National portal of
each country being linked to each other by Internet and being
connected to their own product database by LAN through fire-wall.
The service model foresees the following products: gazetteer, free
of charge products, standard (catalogued) products, customised
products and value added services, as well as providing the data in
national projection systems, in 2D geographical coordinates of ETRS'89
(GRS80 ellipsoid) and in data formats of dominant GI softwares.
In practical terms it means a separate data collection in every
country in accordance to the strategic principles, the technical
specifications and other adequate local running project in the
country. The collected data will form the elementary database of the
country, which must be transformed then according to the
specifications elaborated in the generalisation work package of the
ABDS project. The consolidation level database is forwarded to the
international focal port (international ABD portal) in order to be
merged with data of the other partner countries. The change management
procedure is very similar to the initial data collection, with the
difference that only change files are to be supplied to the
international portal (change management procedure).
7. ON-LINE SERVICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARIES
The master databases are stored on the server of the national
portal in each country. Depending on the technological possibilities
the database system can be fully, or partially distributed. The
national portals will communicate with the international portal, which
is intended to consist of two units, the data server and the client
server. The client server will provide the facilities or browsing,
querying and ordering the standards products, and also will contain a
module for individual ordering, according to the specifications of the
user.
The theoretical achievements if the project were tested in frame of
the pilot service based on Hungarian data. In Hungary the source of AB
basic data is the national cadastre of the Hungarian National Agency
on Lands and Mapping. Data of more than 3200 settlements are stored
and maintained in the nation wide network of 116 Land Offices.
Therefore the initial step for the pilot service was to collect these
data from the cadastral registers. The existing intranet, called
TAKARNET between the Land Offices and the FÖMI made possible the easy
information transfer to FÖMI which is the National Focal Point with
national and provisionally international portal. The Hungarian ABD
master database then was compiled according to the specification fixed
by the project consortium. We developed as well an uploading module
for ensuring the communication between the data and client server.
In order to fulfil requirements of interoperability, for map
browsing we tested an XML/VML based software Axiomap 1.2 which is
commercially available and very cheap. Besides of the map based
browsing the Axiomap offers possibilities for different queries based
on the attached attributes.
We included data about the area of the territorial units, the
population, housing, etc. taken from the Hungarian Central Statistical
Office. We provided a gazetteer type searching unit too. For the
better orientation of the client metadata descriptions were included
as well. A prototype of the pilot ABD services elaborated on the
Hungarian example has been presented successfully at the project
closing review meeting in Prague, January 18-19, 2001.
8. MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
The project was finalised by the signature of the Memorandum of
Understanding at the Prague closing review meeting. It describes the
technical, organisational, and some other aspects of the future
service. It regulates the relationship between the SABE and the future
ABDS. The ABDS will be not a competitive product to the SABE, but
rather a complementary one, as regarded the geographical scope, the
technological innovation and the resolution of the data to be
supplied. On one hand the experience of SABE in managing of such kind
of databases, on the other hand the geographical and resolutional
extension and the technological innovations of the ABDS open together
a good base for joint thinking and actions at European level, too.
9. CONCLUSION
The "Administrative Boundary Data Services for the CEEC
project implemented a work in harmony of general trends of Geographic
Information Infrastructure and the Information Society. Its main
objective, to define framework for implementation of a new ABD service
in the region was achieved.
The innovative approach - on comparing with other existing services
of the same character - was expressed in the following fields:
Using administrative boundary data with legal background rather
than the topographical ones of secondary data source
- Scientific selection of the generalisation/simplification
methods
- Providing a full range of scales (resolutions) starting with
1:10.000 large scale AB data
- Presenting the possibility of unique position determination of
the points on the border between the states in a
Hungarian-Romanian pilot action
- Full range of products of the service, including the product
tailoring according to the demands of the users
- Steps towards an on-line real time service.
Besides of the innovation described in details in this report the
project has some more positive results:
- Formation of a competent network of specialists able and willing
to work together
- Impact on the development of the GI infrastructure of the
participating countries
- Impact on the development on the European GI infrastructure
(possible further contribution with SABE and/or other projects)
The positive experiences of the pilot project have proven, that we
took a promising step towards the implementation of a modern
international on-line service of the base data infrastructure. Our
results were highly appreciated by the European Commission. The public
report of the results of the project "ABDS for the CEEC",
including the names of representatives of participating countries and
organisations, can be visited web site.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Szabolcs Mihály
ABDS project coordinator
Academic experience: Dipl. Photogrammeter-Surveyor
(Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Surveying and Cartography, Moscow,
1967), Doctor Tech. (Budapest Technical University, 1982), Ph.D.
degree (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1981)
Practical experience: Satellite geodetic techniques and GPS,
elaboration of satellite geodetic adjustment software systems,
elaboration and nationwide harmonisation of the Hungarian
"Digital base map" standard and "Digital topographic
map database" standard, coordination and successful realization
of numerous national and international R+D project, database modelling,
National Spatial Data Infrastructure, coordinate system
transformation.
Publications: lecture notes, monographs, more than 90 papers
published in proceedings and registered journals, similar amount of
internal reports, a big part of it on GIS and digital cadastre.
Recent membership: Geodetic Scientific Committee of HAS (subcommission
chairman), Chairman of GI Standard's WG of Hungarian Office of
Standars, Representative to Eurogeographics, Hungarian representative
to FIG Commission 3.
Recent position: Director, Institute of Geodesy Cartography and
Remote Sensing, Hungary.
Katalin Tóth
ABDS project manager
Msc. In photogrammetry (Moscow Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Surveying
and Cartography, 1985), MS in financial management (Rouen Graduate
School of Management, 2000).
After twelve years of research experience in remote sensing at the
Department of Photogrammetry of Technical University of Budapest
started the management of the ABDS project. Since that time her
primary interest has shifted to the general questions of economy and
data policy of GIS as well as the usage of on-line technology in GIS.
She had published for the last two years 7 papers on this topic.
CONTACT
Dr. Szabolcs Mihŕly
Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing, Hungary
Bosnyák tér 5
H-1149 Budapest
HUNGARY
Tel. + 36 1 222 5111
Fax: + 36 1 222 5112
Email: szabo@fomigate.fomi.hu
Katalin Tóth
Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing, Hungary
Bosnyák tér 5
H-1149 Budapest
HUNGARY
Tel. + 36 1 251 0775
Fax: + 36 1 222 5106
Email: katalin.toth@fomigate.fomi.hu
14 April 2001
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