Examination and assessment of compliance with INSPIRE

Abstract

After passing the Law on spatial information infrastructure in Poland, the interest of making spatial data and services available has increased significantly, particularly among public administration and private institutions. This entailed a series of initiatives that guaranteed building of so-called ‘thematic geoportals’, dedicated to different subjects and issues, also called thematic nodes of Spatial Information Infrastructure at regional or local level. Many companies and institutions supporting implementation of such undertakings have appeared in the market and, moreover, assured that their solutions and products are INSPIRE compliant. But what de facto means ‘INSPIRE compliant’? How to check that a product, solution or service is INSPIRE compliant?
The capability to examine and estimate compliance with INSPIRE is particularly important from the public administration point of view, that spends public money to implement its projects and is scrupulously accounted for by the society.
The main aim of this paper is to work out and propose methodology of examination and assessment of compliance with INSPIRE, basically with regard to data, metadata and services.