France 2001 | N.C.L.

2001 National Report for France

ICA Spatial Data Standards Commission

François Salgé

Secrétaire Général

Conseil National de l’Information Géographique

adresse: CNIG, 136 bis rue de Grenelle, 75700 Paris 07SP, France

téléphone: + 33 1 43 98 83 07

télécopie/fax: + 33 1 43 98 85 66

mobile: + 33 6 85 83 61 95

mél: francois.salge@cnig.fr

http://www.cnig.fr

French transfer standard EDIGéO has been turned into an official french standard by the French national standardisation body AFNOR since july 1999 (NF Z 52-000 : July 1999).

With regard to ISO/TC 211 due to the lack of interest from the industry and the lack of resources from the public sector, France decided to no longer be a P-member and turned into the 0-member status. Few industry companies and one university are OGC members but are not very active. Though the French national council for Geographic Information (CNIG) is undertaking an awareness raising campain in order to combine the scarce resources to monitor and contribute to both OGC and ISO/TC 211.

As all CEN/TC 287 standards and reports did, the adopted experimental standard for metadata (ENv 12657) has been published by AFNOR as an experimental standard in August 1999 asking for comments by Mai 2002 . Regardless the MEGRIN or the GEIXS activities that are European although hosted in France, most of the activities in France related to metadata are coordinated by the CNIG (<http://www.cnig.fr> ).

Under the CNIG umbrella several activities took place:

Publishing of an information sheet on metadata for the governmental departments and local governments (<http://www.cnig.fr/commun/proserv/ficheamo/fserie3/fiches/23catal.htm>)
Development of a cataloguing tool based on the CEN experimental standard available on line with CERTU (Centre d’études sur les réseaux, les transports, l’urbanisme et les constructions publiques) (http://www.certu.fr/sitcert/geomat/minisi01/pg_home.htm)
Updating a catalogue of GI sources available in France (<http://www.cnig.fr/commun/proserv/source/source.html>)
Information, raising awareness and assistance to local governments to set up “Region wide” metadata servers (Vendée, Provence Alpes Cotes d’Azur, Picardie, etc.)
towards the setting up of a metadata service related to the coastal zone within the frame of one of CNIG working parties.

France has a population of some 58 million people over and area of 550,000 km2 not including the overseas departments (DOM). Its structure of government includes 22 regions (+4 for the DOM), 100 departments, and more than 36,000 municipalities. Key players in the provision of geographic data are the National Statistical Institute (INSEE) in charge of gathering statistics at the commune level, the National Tax Office (DGI), which is responsible for the cadastre, the National Geographic Institute (IGN) in charge of topographic mapping and the military hydrographical service (SHOM) in charge of the nautical charts.

The DGI launched in the early 90’s a Digital Cadastral Plan (PCI) project to vectorise its paper-based holdings through a series of partnerships with local authorities and utilities. This programme has developed in the main urban areas and agglomerations but also in some departments such as Vendée or Haute-Savoie, but given the size of the task with over 100 million land parcels on 560,000 sheets, a decision has been taken more recently to expedite the process by moving to raster images of most of the cadastral sheets with seed points for each land parcels.

The IGN has traditionally been responsible for the topographic maps at 1:25,000 scale or less. As an increasing number of digital products have become available, the government commissioned a thorough review of the IGN operations in April 1999. The “Lengagne” report delivered the 30 September 1999 recommended a refocusing of operations with priority given to complete and maintain national digital coverage for key datasets (Référentiel géographique à grande échelle RGE) considered as the large scale dataset for France, including not only topographic maps, but also administrative boundaries, postal addresses, and cadastre in partnership with the relevant organisations. Moreover, it recommends that public subsidies are targeted clearly for the completion of these tasks, whilst fees charged are dedicated to updates and maintenance of the database. This approach, together with a charging mechanism based on volume of the requests and copyright royalties, would reduce the unit cost to consumers and increase use among final users and value-added resellers [http://www.ladocfrancaise.gouv.fr/ ]

On 19 February 2001, the French government issued an inter-ministerial decision following the instruction of the Lengagne report [<http://www.cnig.fr>]. Among the nine items one can find the assignment to IGN of the task of producing, integrating and distributing by 2007 the RGE composed of four components: imagery (i.e. orthophoto colour, 50cm pixel, 1m accuracy in rural area up to 12,5 pixel, 25 cm accuracy in dense urban area), topography (in its wider sense with a 1m accuracy), land parcels and addresses. There is also a clear commitment to set strong relationships between DGI and IGN for the joint production of the rasterized and seamless version of the cadastral maps over the country and the integration of the vector version of the cadastral map where agreements are signed by DGI and local authorities or facility management companies. Beyond its role of integrating data from diverse sources including local government, IGN has the remits to facilitate the dissemination of RGE and the development of value adding services using the RGE data. The last decision is the signature of a contract between IGN and the government setting objectives for IGN with the appropriate governmental grant. The consequence of the agreement is that the RGE will be made available to users at a cost including the marginal cost of reproduction and a licence fee with the aim of maximizing the number of users and minimising the costs for the user, yet enabling a long term sustainable funding of the RGE creation and maintenance.

Whilst the Lengagne report focuses on the IGN, a more wide-ranging cross-sectorial review of data policies in the information society has also been undertaken by the government and published in November 1999. The “Mandelkern” report [http://www.ladocfrancaise.gouv.fr/ ] identifies a number of opportunities and challenges created by the digital revolution. These include the potential for much greater dissemination of public sector information, and world-wide presence of the French culture, but also challenges in relation to the conditions of access to data for value-added resellers, pricing structures, and potential synergies between public and private sectors. GI is identified as one of the areas were such synergies are particularly evident. The report also argues that whilst the nature of digital information, by making marginal cost of reproduction virtually zero, points to a policy of cost-free access to information, there are significant financial and organisational costs for public sector agencies to keep abreast of technology and maintain quality of service once they move on “the net”. This suggests that some form of charging may be necessary, and different scenarios are explored, including the use of partnerships, advertising, or end-user fees.

Whilst France has had legislation on access to public sector information since 1978, the report makes the case for a policy of active dissemination of public sector information and recommends i.e.:

That “essential data”, defined as those necessary to all French citizens and residents to exercise their rights, should be accessible free of charge. Such data may include legislative, statistical, and geographic data such as administrative boundaries,

That all agencies working for the public sector, i.e. including the utilities and private companies if working on a contract paid by the public sector, have the obligation of disseminating “essential data”,

That each governmental organisation must submit to the government and to an independent panel a list of the “essential data” it holds already in digital format, and a digitisation plan for that held in analogue format.

As far as “non-essential” data is concerned, the report envisages a ice the user requirements for core data including the RGE. A significant co-ordinating role in matters of information policy is however played directly by the government through the office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Planning. An action Plan for the Information Society (PAGSI) was presented in January 1998 (www.plan.gouv.fr <http://www.plan.gouv.fr>). In conjunction, the French government funded the creation of information systems for departmental offices of the ministries (Système d’information territorial) in which there are plans to provide the 10m accuracy core data quoted above.