Objectives and Solutions

The Dutch- and German-speaking Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) and the German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) initiated the EuroGeoNames (EGN) project in 2004.

During its EU-funded project period (Sep ’06 to Feb ’09) it established a European geographical names infrastructure by connecting the existing national data sources of the participating NMCAs. By that the geographical names data is updated in a consistent way and maintained at the source level by the responsible organisations. Hence, EGN neither affects the independence or the organization nor the responsibility of the national agencies that produce and maintain geographical names repositories.

The EuroGeoNames project targeted primarily at value added resellers (VARs) and service providers to develop specific applications for their customers and deploy value-added GIS products by using the EGN Central Service.

EGN also capitalised on the knowledge of European geographical names experts with respect to using authoritative geographical names context sensitively and appropriately. Sometimes wider political issues are related to them and almost always, linguistic issues were taken into account e.g. majority and minority languages, pronunciation etc.
Thus, a full-blown distributed multilingual geographical names data infrastructure for Europe helps to promote cultural diversity and multilingualism.

Project’s objectives

The main objectives for the EGN infrastructure and services proposal were:

• Aggregation of existing European public sector geographical names information in order to provide harmonized access to a multilingual pan-European data infrastructure for the citizen, governance and value-added services.
• Increased availability and usability of authoritative national geographical names data.
• Increased re-use of geographical names in spatially related decision-making processes.
• Increased re-use and value-adding by commercial enterprises.
• Support of all officially recognized minority languages (where data is available and applicable).
• Development of a network of geographical names experts.
• Easy and rapid linkage of exonyms with their corresponding endonyms and vice versa.
• Stimulation of European National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies towards better integration of geographical names data into national SDIs.
• Gain cost efficiencies in the collection, handling, storing, maintenance and distribution of geographical names data.
• Development of an implementation plan for continuing and extending the service beyond the end of the project.

Project’s solutions

The EGN consortium addressed the current deficiencies within Europe with respect to the management and exploitation of geographical names resources by the following means.

• EGN established a European infrastructure of geographical names data sources and set up an interoperable Web (Gazetteer) Service compliant to open standards (specifically OGC standards). The network of the geographical names sources is based on a harmonised data model. Access is provided by a Web Feature Service (WFS) interface implemented at each data provider’s database. A so-called EGN Central Service accesses these distributed WFS to query the EGN data network and return standardised result sets to the inquirer. Single searches for geographical names within the EGN Central Service are free of charge.

• Pragmatically, the project aimed at connecting 5 to 10 national databases to the EGN infrastructure over the project duration and one year thereafter. After the funded period ten countries have already been connected. The current status of the EGN infrastructure can be seen here. The EGN Central Service enables names searches using all official European languages (at minimum the languages in use in all participating countries – including the officially recognized minority languages where such data is available and applicable).
• Apart from the EGN Central Service, a Web GIS reference application was also developed, showcasing a graphic user interface for names searches and for the visualization of the search results. A linkage with the EuroGeographics product EuroRegionalMap (ERM) was made via the EGN reference application.

• The infrastructure enlarges the availability and accessibility of multilingual geographical names data by providing tools to commercial companies and other organizations. It is anticipated that they will develop specific applications for their customers and deploy value-added GIS products using the EGN Central Service. An example of an operational Web GIS application in a commercial context based on ESRI technology was delivered within the project.

• EGN also actively encouraged and engaged with those non-participating NMCAs in order to better integrate geographical names data within national SDIs and in the European SDI, by acting as an exemplar of best practice and by providing a sound data model.
• EGN is providing an INSPIRE compliant gazetteer service for Europe. Additionally the EGN infrastructure – from the technological point of view – provides the whole service architecture for a real service needed for Europe within the context of INSPIRE.

EXAMPLE: Danube as border-crossing spatial object

- Link between EGN Central Service, the EGN Local Services and the Exonyms and other variant names database (EVN-DB)

The objective of EGN

A German user wants to get the information about the Danube river and starts his/her single inquiry with “Donau”. He/she aims at getting information (all names and the geographic extent) about the complete spatial object (which may be a combination of 9 spatial objects from 9 national datasets).

EGN Local Services

Assuming that all EGN Local Services needed are running, the EGN Local Services provide the following information:

One country/NMCA may provide more than one geographical name associated to the respective spatialObject_UID.
The linkage between the “national” pieces of the whole spatial object (border-crossing spatial objects) is done within the Exonyms and other variant names database – EVN-DB.
The EGN Central Service provides the respective national pieces from the EGN Local Services together with the information stored and maintained in the EVN-DB.

Relation to the Exonyms and other variant names database – EVN-DB

The EVN_DB stores one set of exonyms and variant names [1..*] which can be associated to all (national) spatialObject_UIDs with cardinality [1..*].
As for the Danube river, 1 set of exonyms and variants are stored for 9 spatial objects – which are linked together through the EVN-DB.
The English exonym or variant name is always introduced if available.
Border-crossing spatial objects without associated exonyms are not linked within the EU-funded period.

Results provided through the EGN Central Service in combination with the EGN Reference Application (according to the EGN data model):

The compiled boundingBox will not be calculated automatically, but the national parts will be provided together with their respective boundingBoxes!