INSPIRE Empowers Re-Use of Public Sector Information

Ready access to public sector information offers unprecedented opportunities for the development of new products and applications and to make existing processes more efficient and effective. These developments have perhaps the greatest opportunities in the field of geographic information. Although the Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI Directive) was specifically drafted to address the needs of re-users, the Directive establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) is equally important for re-use of public sector information regarding the physical environment. INSPIRE requirements promote that geographic information, concerning 34 spatial reference and various environmental themes, can be found and is physically attainable on the Internet. With the requirement to provide datasets and service metadata, the obligation to conform to INSPIRE data specifications, and the requirement to do this through discovery, view, and download services, INSPIRE makes a significant contribution to the re-usability of public sector information