1. A Brief History

2. The Situation Today

3. Project Scope

A brief history of EuroRegionalMap, where we come from

    In January 2001, has started the EuroRegioMap project, an incremental development of a pan-European database at medium scale, and was co-funded by the eContent program.

        The main objective of this project aimed at demonstrating the feasibility to harmonise the medium scale topographic databases owned by the NMCAS at a European level by using a pragmatic approach. The approach is called pragmatic, because it starts with data collections at medium scale for the European level and gives priority to those aspects of harmonisation that are both significantly useful and realistically achievable under cost constraints.

        The first result has been a EuroRegionalMap data model and data specifications, which reflect the negotiation between partners on a compromise between 'ideal' specifications for users on the one hand and a 'practical' specifications that could be implemented at acceptable costs by the project partners on the other hand. This is at heart the 'pragmatic approach' towards harmonisation of existing national datasets.

       The second result has been a multi-functional (medium-scale) 1:250.000 topographic reference database covering 7 countries (France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark, Ireland and Northern-Ireland) suitable for spatial analysis and for presentation or visualisation.

        In June 2004, this first set of EuroRegionalMap data has been distributed on the market as release 1.0.

        To conclude, the EuroRegioMap project has demonstrated that the mentioned pragmatic approach can be extended to the establishment of a true pan-European dataset covering all the European countries by motivating more and more European Mapping and Cadastral Agencies to join the project in order to reach this ambitious goal.
The EuroRegioMap project can be considered as a demonstration phase of the more global EuroRegionalMap project.

        Right after the completion of the EU-funded project, the next step tackled the European extension of EuroRegionalMap by means of a harmonisation of the national topographic databases according to the EuroRegionalMap specifications and data model.

        This step was considered as a new project phase named the “extension phase” of EuroRegionalMap (ERM)

       The main objective aimed at covering at least the European Union and the EFTA countries including a first update of the seven initial countries with a very tight deadline of delivering the data by end of the year 2006. The main challenge was to be ready as potential candidate for the call of tender regarding the supply of GIS reference data at medium scale that Eurostat (EC) launched by end of that year 2006.

        As a result of these efforts, EuroRegionalMap is now covering 31 country datasets ( 26 EU countries , 4 EFTA countries,  and the republic of Moldova ). Further EuroGeographics succeeded in the contract with Eurostat to deliver an annual release of ERM including its maintenance for up to 4 years until 2010.
       

The situation today

        Now as the 4 year period of the Eurostat contract already started, it is required to deliver a yearly updated release of ERM.

       The priority for EuroRegionalMap is now to enhance the quality of the data by gradual improvement of the level of harmonisation of the European dataset in order to satisfy one of the main stakeholders on the user market, which is the European Commission. Another challenge is to be able to maintain a regular update of the ERM dataset. Moreover these improvements also aim at satisfying a maximum of identified user requirements mainly for spatial analysis purpose and as a result they will consolidate the position of EuroRegionalMap on the market.

Thus, EuroRegionalMap can now be considered as entering into a third phase named the “consolidation phase” following the “demonstration phase” and the “extension phase”.

Project Scope

               In summary the project phase aims at consolidating the position of EuroRegionalMap on the market on the one hand by improving the data quality in terms of harmonisation so that a maximum of identified user requirements mainly for spatial analysis purpose can be satisfied and on the other hand by delivering a yearly update of the data.

By achieving its objectives, the project insures that EuroRegionalMap data become THE European reference data at scale 1:250 000 used as a European standard on the market.