European Activities
EuroBoundaryMap, EuroRegionalMap and EuroGlobalMap
BKG takes an active part in the establishment of a European Spatial Data Infrastructure (ESDI) within the framework of the "INSPIRE" Initiative of the EU Commission through its cooperation in the relevant Expert Groups and accompanying development projects in order to be able to recognize early enough any possible consequences from these initiatives for the national range of products.
Within this context, BKG closely cooperates with EuroGeographics, the Association of the European National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies, and is intensively involved in the development and provision of the pan-European reference datasets.
Eurogeographics is supported by BKG in manifold ways both financially and through the dissemination of expert knowledge as well as by the provision of datasets. This is done in particular through the cooperation in dedicated projects as a partner and as a project leader.
Establishment of the EuroBoundaryMap according to a specification prepared at BKG is realized by BKG as project leader in cooperation with the relevant national survey cadastral authorities acting as data suppliers. The EuroBoundaryMap product is continuously developed further while taking into account the most recent technologies.
Concerning the projects EuroRegionalMap and EuroGlobalMap BKG cooperates intensively under the lead management of IGN Belgium and NLS Finnlands, respectively, in the further development of the specification and technical realization of the relevant products, especially with regard to the employment of new GIS technologies.
Further, BKG plays a project coordinator role for EuroBoundaryMap, functions as regional coordinator for EuroGlobalMap, and takes also an active role with the EuroRegionalMap project.
You may obtain more detailed information on these as well as other European development projects, in which BKG is involved, on the web site of EuroGeographics.
EuroDEM
EuroDEM
The new product EuroDEM has been available since May 2008.
The international height datasets maintained by the relevant European Cartographic Authorities (Mapping Organisations) were under the project management of BKG compiled into a harmonised dataset, whereby inconsistencies along national boundaries were removed and gaps existing within the model filled.
EuroDEM is a pan-European terrain model of mean resolution at the scale range 1:50 000 to 1:100 000. This dataset describes the heights of the earth’s surface of the EU27 area as well as of other adjoining countries.
The EuroDEM Digital Terrain Model (DGM) offers a height accuracy of 8 to 10 meters and a grid width of two arc seconds. As a three-dimensional model of the earth’s surface the EuroDEM supplements excellently the hitherto existing two-dimensional products of EuroGeographics.
More detailed information on this product is given on the EuroDEM website.
EuroGeoNames
In 2004 the EuroGeoNames (EGN) project was initiated by BKG and integrated into the working program of EuroGeographics.
The project was launched on 1 September 2006, BKG being responsible for the overall concept and project coordination. The objective consists of establishing services for an internet-based infrastructure. This way, geographic names searches in all European languages shall be enabled.
In this context also geographical names of recognized minority languages shall be considered, as e.g. German names in Sorbian and Friesian.
The national European survey institutions and authorities participate with their respective names data bases in the EGN information network. Data keeping and updating still comes under the sole responsibility of the individual member countries.
EGN will provide a contribution to the setup of the European GeoDataInfrastructure (European Spatial Data Infrastructure, ESDI).
The EGN project will be realized by an international consortium.
Nine partner organizations from the economy, research, and public administration sectors of five countries (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Great Britain) as well as EuroGeographics cooperate within this project.
Presently, different service centers from 12 other countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Turkey) constitute the reference group. These centers are the potential data offerers which are interested in making available their respective national names data bases.
The overall financial volume of the project amounts to 1.8 Mio. Euro, 50% of the cost is borne by the EU within the frame of the eContentplus program. The project duration is 30 months.
Further information on the previous workshops are available on the website of EuroGeoNames.
© 2012 - Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy. All Rights Reserved.