Scholarly record
EXPLORATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUBLIC SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE IN LATVIA AND ASSESSMENT OF DATASET AVAILABILITY OVER THE LAST DECADE
Abstract
Spatial data infrastructure is an essential tool for the management, planning, and analysis of sustainable development. The Latvian ecosystem, which consists of numerous decentralized resources, has successfully established a foundation by fulfilling the requirements of the European Union's INSPIRE and Open Data directives. The transition from a culture of viewing 'paper maps' to the automated machine processing of standardized, vectorized, and semantically rich data represents the primary benefit. To evaluate and document these changes, this study assesses the current availability of public spatial data. The modern online spatial resource environment was compared with the situation in 2016 and 2017. Methodologically, this assessment was conducted by programmatically collecting data from the national metadata catalog using Python scripts. Additionally, cross-border interoperability and metadata synchronization were verified through automated API data extraction from the unified European Data Portal. The research results indicate that a structural paradigm shift has occurred, although a significant transition toward data access at the web service level is still ongoing. Spatial data catalogs can no longer be strictly separated from text data catalogs. Furthermore, the European Data Portal could become the main entry point for searching both textual and spatial data. Overall, this strengthens the foundation for ensuring effective and evidence-based decision making in the areas of environmental protection and sustainable spatial planning.
Publication details
References15
S. Schade et al., "Geospatial Information Infrastructures," in Manual of Digital Earth, H. Guo, M. F. Goodchild, and A. Annoni, Eds., Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2020, pp. 161-190. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-32-9915-3_5.
European Commission. Joint Research Centre. Institute for Environment and Sustainability., Data quality in INSPIRE: balancing legal obligations with technical aspects. LU: Publications Office, 2013. DOI: 10.2788/9648.
European Commission. Directorate General for Informatics., New European interoperability framework: promoting seamless services and data flows for European public administrations. LU: Publications Office, 2017. DOI: 10.2799/78681.
Ministru kabinets, "Ministru kabineta r?kojums Nr.718 (2007)." [Online]. Available: https://likumi.lv/ta/id/166686-par-latvijas-geotelpiskas-informacijas-attistibas-koncepciju
Ministru kabinets, "Ministru kabineta r?kojums Nr. 12 (2018)," LIKUMI.LV. [Online]. Available: https://likumi.lv/doc.php?id=296376
A. Nikiforova, N. Rizun, M. Ciesielska, C. Alexopoulos, and A. Mileti?, "Towards High-Value Datasets Determination for Data-Driven Development: A Systematic Literature Review," in Electronic Government, vol. 14130, I. Lindgren, C. Csáki, E. Kalampokis, M. Janssen, G. Viale Pereira, S. Virkar, E. Tambouris, and A. Zuiderwijk, Eds., in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 14130., Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2023, pp. 211-229. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-41138-0_14.
Publications Office of the European Union, "Unlocking the potential of high-value datasets: The impact of the HVD implementing regulation | data.europa.eu." [Online]. Available: https://data.europa.eu/en/news-events/news/unlocking-potential-high-value-datasets-impact-hvd-implementing-regulation
European Commission. Joint Research Centre, "GeoDCAT-AP." [Online]. Available: https://knowledge-base.inspire.ec.europa.eu/evolution/good-practice-library/geodcat-ap_en
Jurijs Holms and Gatis Vitols, "Latvian spatial metadata catalogue' content and summary for referenced spatial data sets and services," presented at the 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2017, Jun. 2017. DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017/23/S11.071.
European Commission, "Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1372 of 19 August 2019 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards monitoring and reporting," Aug. 2019, [Online]. Available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2019.220.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2019:220:FULL
European Commission, "Calculation of INSPIRE Monitoring and Reporting indicators." Feb. 13, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/INSPIRE-MIF/mr-tools/main/mr-dashboards/mr2025/resources/MR_indicators_calculation_v1.4.pdf
European Commission, "INSPIRE Geoportal Monitoring and Reporting software information." Mar. 10, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/INSPIRE-MIF/mr-tools/main/mr-dashboards/mr2025/resources/software_information_2025.pdf
European Commission, "INSPIRE Monitoring and Reporting 2025." Dec. 15, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://inspire-geoportal.ec.europa.eu/mr/mr2025.html
M. Minghini, J. Escriu, and A. Kotsev, "Monitoring the FAIRness of geospatial data: Lessons learnt from the European Union," Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci., vol. XLVIII-4/W13-2025, pp. 179-184, Jul. 2025, DOI: 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-4-W13-2025-179-2025.
K. Charvat, "From ISO 191xx, DCAT and STAC to RAVEN: Semantic Metadata Catalogues for GeoLLM and JackDaw," 2026, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19003.99366.