Presentation of GI-CLAN, as INSPIRE Spatial Data Interest Community

Emanuele Roccatagliata and Giorgio Saio

GISIG - Geographical Information Systems International Group (IT)
ICCOPS - Landscape, Natural and Cultural Heritage Observatory (IT)

"GI-CLAN (Geo-Information Community in Coastal LANdscape)" is a volunteer community of organisations operating in the field of GI and coastal management (SDIC).
It has been constituted following the call addressed within the EU initiative INSPIRE to any organisation or network which has an interest in the spatial information themes and services, referred to in the INSPIRE proposal for a Directive COM (2004) 516.
GI-CLAN application domain is coastal zone management, with particular regard to coastal landscape, meant as the contact point between the natural and human features of a coastal area, and subject to a continuous pressure. Since these two groups of issues have to be considered jointly, the data and the outcomes related with each involved sector should be as interoperable as possible.
GI-CLAN main aim is to create opportunities to discuss and share knowledge, expertise, needs, methodologies in the field of Geographical Information (GI) for the sustainable management of the coastal areas and of their resources.
In particular, it focuses on two broad issues:

• to improve the access and the sharing by coastal planners and stakeholders to the geographical information required for the elaboration and the implementation of management programmes, oriented to the ICAM principles and criteria, through the harmonisation of the data from the different involved fields;
• to enhance the scientific value of coastal landscape analysis and planning, by easing the access to good quality data about the natural and human features that, as also pointed out by the European Landscape Convention, characterise the landscape itself.

One essential element for the achieving of the GI-CLAN objective is to efficiently get together the different stakeholders, on one hand improving communication and co-operation among the scientists and planners involved in the elaboration and implementation of the programme, on the other hand, increasing the awareness of local communities, in order to encourage a proactive participation to management. This two-fold action is especially relevant in the field of coastal landscape, meeting point of the natural and human features of a territory, but also an economic resource.
On this basis, GI-CLAN main activities will include:
1. Forum and discussion: to put together coastal stakeholders and GI experts in order to better understand the GI requirements for an operational approach to ICAM; to better relate the GI scientific context with the academic research world working in the field of coast and landscape.
2. Scientific assessment and training: to contribute, through the drafting and the diffusion via traditional means and web of tutorial material and best practices, to the elaboration and the dissemination of a GIS based approach.
3. Implementation: to implement GIS pilot projects for the inclusion of coastal landscape within ICAM programmes.
4. INSPIRE test-bedding: to assess, through the exploitation of pilot projects, the applicability of the INSPIRE principles to the available coastal GI. Such projects could be used as test cases or best practices in order to tune up the Implementing Rules for coastal issues.
Another important field of GI-CLAN activity is education, finalised to train experts able to employ the different features of geographical information in a cross-cutting, multidisciplinary approach to coastal area management.
Other than ECO-IMAGINE, the activity of the SDIC is supported by two initiatives that will be introduced at the end of the SDIC session by some of their members, who attend the course:

• GI-INDEED, Geo-Information in the Implementation of Netbased Distance Education for Environmental Decision-making;
• Oceans 21, GIS for Coastal Management and Coastal Education (http://www.iccops.it/oceans21).

GI-CLAN currently includes about 30 partners form different countries and the ECO-IMAGINE Community is welcome to be active in GI-CLAN as well.