1. NAME OF NATION: GREECE
  2. Name of Respondent Supplying Information: Katerina Nota, Surv. Eng.
    Title (if any):
    Mailing Address: Tim. Vassou 11-13, GR-11521 Athens
    E-mail Address: hemrense@otenet.gr
    Telephone Number: +30 1 6450434
    Fax Number: +30 1 6447039
  3. Does your nation have an active or proposed initiative for developing a national spatial data infrastructure (or its equivalent)?

    4. YES

    **** 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.)

    HEMCO is responsible for coordinating and leading this kind of data, and we are under procedure to realise a NSDI.

    Agency/Organization Name: Hellenic Mapping & Cadastral Organization (HEMCO)
    Mailing Address: Tim. Vassou 11-13, GR-11521 Athens
    E-mail Address: ktima@otenet.gr
    Telephone Number: +30 1 6445718
    Fax Number: +30 1 6447039
    Name of Agency Head or Primary Contact Person: John Badekas, President of HEMCO
  5. AVAILABILITY: What are the primary types, categories or forms of spatial digital data being made available through your nation's NSDI?

    6. The spatial digital data of HEMCO are: CORINE LAND COVER-GREECE project (production of digital maps 1:100.000 of land use where every polygon refers to a three digit code according a special nomenclature, using satellite raster data). Division of Remote Sensing (available) Municipalities & Communities Administrative Boundaries (digitalization of maps 1:50.000 provided from the Hellenic Military Service). The information contains coastline, country border, region border, capital city, area, name and codes. Division of Cartography (availability under negotiations) Coordinates (local system of reference) of the national network of points of reference. Division of Geodesy (available) Digitized maps of Greek Wetlands 1:1.000 (available) From the National Cadastre Project which started recently, it will be available a very important data base containing Land Use and Building Use. (available when ready) HEMCO has proposed the creation of “Geospatial Information Infrastructure”, which will be realized when approved from the European Community. HEMCO has also proposed the creation of a National Cartographic Data Base.

  6. MECHANICS OF ACCESS: Through what technical and organizational mechanisms are spatial data being made available through the NSDI?

    7. Once an agency or a civilian needs the digital information, has to be addressed to the owner of the data. Some data are available to the Internet, i.e. the site of the Ministry of Environment, Planning & Public Works, where the quality of the sea water is presented for the whole of the country. Some private companies who have developed digital data bases or applications, can be accessed to their site to Internet where the application is presented, i.e. http\www.eranet.gr where there is a GIS application for a small part of Athens. There are also data which are provided from international and not national agencies such as satellite data. In the address http\www.terraserver.com there are satellite images of all the region of Attica where Athens belongs.

  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?

    8. The above digital data (in case they are available), usually are for sale and the user should declare the reason he needs them. The information can not be transferred from one user to another.

  8. DATA COLLECTION COORDINATION: What parties are involved in collecting data for the NSDI and how is data collection coordinated?

    9. Every agency has his own way to collect data. In some cases the data are collected and coordinated from private companies (after procedure of tenders in case the data will belong to the public domain), and in other cases the data are collected and coordinated from the agency itself.

  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?

    10. Each agency calculates the pricing with his one way. The common method is by calculating the men-days needed for the collection and coordination of the data and the cost of their maintenance and update.

  10. COMMERCIAL INVOLVEMENT: Please describe how private commercial firms are involved in helping to build the NSDI.

    11. As mentioned before, private commercial firms take the initiative to digitize non digital original data or to develop applications. Some of them present the result to Internet. They also undertake to produce digital data bases for Public Authorities after tender procedures.

  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?

    12. See Question 6. The number of the copies is unknown.

  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.

    13. Usually the services or goods are charged.

  13. PRIVACY: Please describe how the information privacy of individual citizens is protected relative to data that may be accessed through the NSDI.

    14. All datasets provided on the web are subject to the common low of privacy of Greece.

    **** 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?

    15. For the moment, there is not a special policy towards these matters. The development of the NSDI is based on the initiative of each provider. Nevertheless the need is high, and for that reason HEMCO has proposed the “Geospatial Information Infrastructure”.

  15. FUNDING: Have funds been specifically budgeted and acquired for NSDI activities?

    16. YES

    If YES, please describe the purpose of the funds and the amounts. Funds have been budgeted from each Public Authority which provides data. Concerning the HEMCO proposal, fund is requested from the European Community.

  16. INCLUSIVENESS: Please describe the types and extent of participants involved in building the NSDI and their roles.

    17. This information is to complicate to provide, given that there is not a unique coordinator or leader so far. Each provider has his own participants involved. Concerning the HEMCO proposal, the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) will participate.

  17. COMPONENTS: Please indicate whether the vision of an NSDI for your nation incorporates the following components or concepts.

    18. A. METADATA YES
    B. CLEARINGHOUSE ?
    C. DATA STANDARDS YES
    D. CORE DATA YES

  18. RESEARCH: Have funds been specifically budgeted and spent on research projects to advance NSDI concepts?

    19. Not yet. See Question 15 concerning HEMCO proposal.

  19. LINKAGE TO GENERAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS - Which international or national information and communication technology standards has the NSDI adopted?

    20. We will be able to give you that information when and if the Geospatial Information Infrastructure will be created. The information already provided uses in case of Internet the World Wide Web. In case of information taken at the Agency which is the owner, common formats are used, i.e. Arc Info format, dxf, Ascii and others, even hard copies.

  20. GLOBAL SPATIAL DATASETS: Does your NSDI provide access to spatial datasets with global coverage?

    21. 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?

    22. NO

  22. LONG TERM VISION OR STRATEGIC PLAN: Has a long term vision statement or stategic plan been developed for your country's NSDI?

    23. NO

  23. GRAND CHALLEGES: Name one of the most pressing challenges for NSDI development in your nation.

    24. Coordination of the NSDI efforts

  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.

    25. There is not an NSDI WEB SITE actually