SDIGER: Experiences and identification of problems on the creation of a transnational SDI

SDIGER is a pilot project on the implementation of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE), funded by the Statistical Office of The European Communities (EUROSTAT), which aims at demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of the solutions for sharing spatial data and services proposed by the INSPIRE position papers and to estimate the costs and to find the problems and obstacles of implementing interoperability-based solutions on the basis of real cases. SDIGER consists in the development of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) to support access to geographic information resources concerned with the Water Framework Directive (WFD) within an inter-administration and cross-border scenario that involves: two countries, France and Spain; and, the two main river basin districts at both sides of the border, the Adour-Garonne basin district and the Ebro river basin district. The objective of this paper is to present the project and its objectives, making special emphasis on the feedback provided by the development of this project and the problems associated with the creation of a transnational Spatial Data Infrastructure.