1. NAME OF NATION: FRANCE
2. Name of Respondent Supplying Information: Jean-Claude Lummaux
Title (if any): General Secretary CNIG and AFIGéO Mailing Address: 136bis rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris
E-mail Address: lummaux@cnig.fr
Telephone Number: 33 1 43 98 83 12
Fax Number: 33 1 43 98 85 66
3. Does your nation have an active or proposed initiative for developing a national spatial data infrastructure (or its equivalent)? <Please answer YES or NO
Sorry, but the answer is Yes and No.
No: even an official coordinating body exists in France since 1817, with different names - today CNIG (Conseil National de l'Information Géographique) - I cannot say that there a governmental initiative to develop NSDI in France.
Yes: on the other hand, AFIGéO is currently working on the "Geographic Information in Information Society" in order to define a national policy with a strong support of CNIG permanent staff which could be named "NSDI"
**** POLICY ISSUES ****
4. LEADERSHIP: Which agency or organization is coordinating or leading national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) development efforts in your nation? (If no single agency is coordinating, please provide a primary point of contact from whom we may learn more.)
AFIGéO (Association Française pour l'Information Géographique) is the leading organization.
Agency/Organization Name: AFIGéO
Mailing Address: same as above
Name of Agency Head or Primary Contact Person: President Jean Berthier / General Secretary J.C. Lummaux
5. AVAILABILITY: What are the primary types, categories or forms of spatial digital data being made available through your nation's NSDI?
We define a core dataset (reference data) including topographic information, cadastral information, administrative boundaries and postal address. At this time the dataset exists on 18% of the French territory. The goal of the policy is to cover the nation in few years (5 to 7)
6. MECHANICS OF ACCESS: Through what technical and organizational mechanisms are spatial data being made available through the NSDI?
Our goal is to develop the access by the Internet.
7. LEGAL AND ECONOMIC FRAMEWORKS FOR ACCESS: What are the legal and economic constraints under which citizens, businesses or others may gain access to data available through the NSDI?
The main constraint is the cost recovery policy for public bodies. We have to define a clear limit between public data financed by government and commercial activities. One of the main objective is to obtain a clear definition of reference data, accurate in geometry but with a low level of semantic information in order to be able to finance such data using only (or mainly) government budget. The necessary complement will be a value added activity financed on commercial basis - even when this complement is made by a public agency.
8. DATA COLLECTION COORDINATION: What parties are involved in collecting data for the NSDI and how is data collection coordinated?
The main producers are:
IGN Institut Géographique National (topography)
DGI/Cadastre the land administration body.(cadastre)
INSEE the bureau of census (administrative boundaries, postal adresses)
The CNIG is in charge of public producer's coordination.
9. PRICING: If charges are assessed for spatial data made available through the NSDI, what is the basis or method for determining the price of various forms of spatial data?
See point 7
10. COMMERCIAL INVOLVEMENT: Please describe how private commercial firms are involved in helping to build the NSDI.
Commercial firms are involved in value added product or as primary producer as private surveyors for cadastre.
11. PUBLIC DOMAIN DATA SETS: Please describe those digital spatial data sets for jurisdictions within your nation that are available to anyone without any licensing or intellectual property restrictions imposed on the data sets and the data sets are available at no cost or little cost. How may copies be acquired of these public domain data sets?
We don't have such public domain data sets: even the charged cost will strongly decrease the only way to finance the update of data is to maintain a licensing process.
12. PUBLIC GOODS ASPECTS OF NSDI: Please describe any additional services or goods provided by government in support of the NSDI for which individual users are not charged.
Due to the French law, the access to the cadastre is provided free for citizen but not for commercial purposes. In year 2001 any individual will access cadastral information on the Internet without charge.
13. PRIVACY: Please describe how the information privacy of individual citizens is protected relative to data that may be accessed through the NSDI.
One of the main points to solve quickly is that we have a law "Informatique et Liberté" which restricts strongly the access to individual information but, on the other hand, any citizen can ask for the name of any land owner. That is a contradiction to solve.
**** OPERATIONAL ISSUES ****
14. AUTHORITY: Do the laws or formal orders of any legislative or executive branches of government explicitly recognize the need to establish or further develop the NSDI? <Please answer YES or NO.> If YES, please provide citations to those laws or orders. If YES, to whom has authority been granted and for what tasks?
We try to obtain that. We hope that the first step will be during the last quarter of 98 in a new law "Amménagement du Territoire": this law would include a text with an obligation to reference any information to the national system.
15. FUNDING: Have funds been specifically budgeted and acquired for NSDI activities? <Please answer YES or NO.>
No
16. INCLUSIVENESS: Please describe the types and extent of participants involved in building the NSDI and their roles.
The participants to the definition of the policy are: In order to define the policy we organized a large consultation in France with more than 400 participants.
Now, we are involving parliaments and governments members.
17. COMPONENTS: Please indicate whether the vision of an NSDI for your nation incorporates the following components or concepts.
A. METADATA - Yes
B. CLEARINGHOUSE - No for data, Yes for metadata
C. DATA STANDARDS - Yes
D. CORE DATA - Yes
18. RESEARCH: Have funds been specifically budgeted and spent on research projects to advance NSDI concepts? <Please answer YES or NO. If YES, please describe the types of projects that have been funded.
Not at this time
19. LINKAGE TO GENERAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS - Which international or national information and communication technology standards has the NSDI adopted?
20. GLOBAL SPATIAL DATASETS: Does your NSDI provide access to spatial datasets with global coverage? <Please answer YES or NO. If YES, which datasets and how may access to these datasets be achieved?
No
21. GLOBAL OR REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES: Is your NSDI formally affiliated with or connected to any global or regional spatial data infrastructure initiatives? <Please answer YES or NO. If YES, which initiative(s)?
Yes with Eurogi and Cerco at the European level
22. LONG TERM VISION OR STRATEGIC PLAN: Has a long term vision statement or stategic plan been developed for your country's NSDI? <Please answer YES or NO.
If YES, how may a copy be obtained?
Yes see http://www.cnig.fr/livre_bl.html
23. GRAND CHALLEGES: Name one of the most pressing challenges for NSDI development in your nation.
Definition and production of reference data
24. FURTHER INFORMATION:
If an NSDI WEB SITE exists where information about NSDI efforts in your nation may be found in the future, please provide the web site address.
http://www.cnig.fr
If brochures are other written materials exist describing NSDI efforts in your nation, please provide an address for requesting copies of these materials.
http://www.cnig.fr/livre_bl.html in French only. We intend to translate it in English during the next month.
If a user requirements analysis or cost-benefits analysis was undertaken to estimate the benefits of building a spatial data infrastructure for your country, please provide an address for requesting a copy.
We conduct many studies in order to prepare the final document. You can find the results in French on http://www.cnig.fr/etudes.html In English on the European Commission web site: http://www2.echo.lu/gi/en/docarchive/ref_doc.html (CNIG(France) documents)