European Activities
EuroBoundaryMap, EuroRegionalMap and EuroGlobalMap
BKG is a member of the non-profit association EuroGeographics, a union of the European national institutions which are responsible for the specific tasks in the fields of cartography and cadastre. Cooperation within the scope of EuroGeoGraphics includes the compilation of transnational products as well as joint working groups and related projects.
The members of EuroGeographics (www.eurogeographics.org) intend to support in particular the EU Commission in setting up the European Spatial Data Infrastructure (ESDI) in connection with the INSPIRE Framework Directive and the project “Global Monitoring for Environment and Security“ (GMES). Within the European Commission EuroGeographics is registered as the largest SDIC (Spatial Data Interest Community) and provides by its experts extensive support with the elaboration of the INSPIRE rules of implementation.
Further, BKG contributes actively to EuroGeographics at a number of levels. The president of BKG is a member of the Management Board. In the context of EuroGeographics BKG is as a Product Coordinator also responsible, among others, for the continuation and further development of EuroBoundaryMap (EBM), which is a reference database of the administrative regions of Europe. Beyond that, BKG's experts perform the German contributions to the topographic EuroGeographics products (EuroRegionalMap – ERM at 1:250,000 scale, EuroGlobalMap – EGM at 1:1,000,000 scale) and also participate in their further development using leading-edge technologies.
A common feature of the products is that they have been prepared in accordance with the applying uniform specifications, and that their contents are harmonized across national borders. In December 2010 a new contract was signed between EuroGeographics and Eurostat on the delivery of new versions of EBM, ERM and EGM. This contract runs for four years and provides for annual updatings, inclusion of further countries as well as for some new feature types and attributes.
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
The EuroGeoNames (EGN) Project was initiated by BKG in the year 2004 and integrated into the work program of EuroGeoGraphics.
In cooperation with the European surveying and cadastral authorities a Web service infrastructure was set up for the handling of authoritative geographical names data in Europe. In this way, the official names data kept decentrally within the EU countries are linked with each other through so-called "Web Feature Services (WFS)" and thus rendered searchable. Data keeping and updating still remain under the sole responsibility of the member states that have collected the respective data. Some EU countries, such as Germany, have already completed their EGN implementation.
EuroGeographics has continued since 2009 expanding the EGN Web services still after termination of the EU project support measures. Since mid-2012 BKG acts no longer as an "EGN Service Center". This function and the associated tasks of maintenance and further development of the related software components have been transferred to the Finnish Geodetic Institute (FGI). Updating of the European exonyms and variant names database, which constitutes one of the infrastructure's key compononents, will continue to be maintained by BKG.
Further information (in English) on the project can be found on the websites of EuroGeoNames and EuroGeographics, respectively.
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