Governance and performance of open spatial data policies in Europe: What can we learn from the INSPIRE Reporting Process?

Many European countries are setting up initiatives and taking actions to make their data ‘open’, i.e. to make their data freely available for use and re-use without restrictions. The Digital Agenda for Europe, the first of seven flagships initiatives under Europe 2020, encourages governments to stimulate content markets by making public sector information available in a transparent and effective manner. It is hoped that the greater availability of interoperable public data will catalyse the secondary use of such data, leading to the growth of information industries and better government transparency. A large part of governmental data can be considered as spatial data, i.e. data that refer to a location on the earth. Typical examples of spatial data are topographical maps, address data, road data, and hydrographical data. Spatial data are becoming increasingly important in society, as most of the societal, environmental and economic challenges that governments, businesses and citizens are facing, require spatial understanding and insight.