Inspire
Since 2008, Sextant's successive developments have always been part of the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive.
What is the INSPIRE Directive - Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (source CNIG)
The INSPIRE Directive, elaborated by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Environment, aims to establish a spatial data infrastructure in Europe to ensure interoperability between databases and facilitate the dissemination, availability, use and reuse of spatial information in Europe.
The Directive is structured in five parts corresponding to the components of a spatial data infrastructure :
– Metadata : it is the gateway to the infrastructure as it allows to know the data and services available and their possible uses
– Geographical data: they must be available in harmonised formats and structures in order to facilitate their use by all
– Online services: all data and metadata must be accessible via Internet, privileged vector of exchange
– Sharing between public authorities: the principles of exchange, pricing and conditions of use should facilitate access to data and online services
– Coordination and monitoring mechanisms of the Directive: it is necessary to set up coordination structures for both contributors and users
The INSPIRE Directive applies to digital spatial data held by public authorities. It does not require to collect new data, but to provide data in accordance with sandardised technical specifications.
The online services required by INSPIRE are :
– Discovery services to search for data through metadata
– Consulting services to visualize the data
– Download services to obtain copies or extracts of databases
– Transformation services that will perform the processing necessary for interoperability (e.g. changing the coordinate system)
– Service call services that will allow a series of treatments adapted to the user's needs
Sextant and the INSPIRE Directive
Sextant offers three data access services: a search service, a visualization service and a download service. In order to be interoperable with national and international geographic data dissemination portals, Sextant relies on ISO and OGC standards to disseminate the data.
The Catalog Services for the Web (CSW) allows harvesting with catalogues carried by geographic information distribution platforms:
- https://sextant.ifremer.fr/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw?SERVICE=CSW&REQUEST=GetCapabilities&VERSION=2.0.2
The viewing (WMS) and downloading (WFS) services allow access to Sextant's public geographic layers from GIS software (ArcGIS, QGis) and from web map portals. You will find in the corresponding pages the addresses of these web services.