Information and Knowledge Management using ArcGIS ModelBuilder

Maria Concetta De Vivo, Alberto Polzonetti and Pietro Tapanelli
responsible for making choices or taking decisions, but also in a loss of control over the quality of the
information used (Rifkin 2001).
Today the entire administrative apparatus in each EU member state can count on several financing
sources specifically aimed at helping to achieve the goals promoted and sponsored by the European
Commission: for example, the “i2010 European initiative on e-inclusion” and the subsequent “Digital
Agenda”.
From the point of view of European legislators, the TLS package aiming to make the electronic
communications sector more efficient (and competitive) has become fundamental. It is composed of
the framework Directive 2002/21/EC and four specific directives (the “Authorisation Directive”
2002/20/EC, the “Access Directive” 2002/19/EC, the “Universal Service Directive” 2002/22/EC and
the “Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive” 2002/58/EC), in addition to subsequent
integrations and modifications. Furthermore, although currently under revision by public consultation,
the 1999/93/EC Directive (“Community framework for digital signatures”) is particularly important in
order to establish the legal requirements for the identification of citizens, in this case, accessing
government services. Directives 95/46/EC and 2002/58/EC along with EC regulation 45/2001 are also
fundamental regarding data protection. In this context, Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of
information in the public sector (so-called data recycling), also becomes essential.
Final reference, although in reality this should be the starting point, must be made to EU treaties. In
particular, articles 15 and 16 of the TFEU (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) and
articles 8 and 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also play a key role in
establishing the core principles of what has now become a Europe-wide legal framework.
2. Scenario: Italian body of laws related to eGovernment
Italian law has several different references to ICT issues, especially in the context of government
services. The regulations are particularly well structured. The danger of fragmentation and division by
sector has been overcome by the practice, implemented by Italian legislators, of creating sectorspecific
Regulations or regulatory bodies capable of gathering the legislation regarding the various
categories in an organised manner.
The most well-known texts are the Digital Administration Law (Italian CAD, Codice
dell’Amministrazione Digitale), the Data Protection Law (Codice della Privacy) and the Consumer
Protection Law (Codice del Consumo), all of which were created in compliance with EU requirements.
The CAD (Legislative Decree 82/2005) is considered as the cornerstone of the “Modernisation and
Digitalisation of Government Services Plan”. The decree’s main aims are: the reorganisation of
government services through the creation of a single office responsible for ICT activities; the
simplification of relations with citizens and enterprises through the introduction of online payment
services, the exchange of data between enterprises and administration authorities, the promotion and
use of certified electronic post, access to online services, the use of digital signatures, the
dematerialisation of documents and the development of institutional websites; to ensure the security
of data exchanges; to reduce the time necessary for administrative procedures; to reduce the cost of
legal procedures; to reduce the use of paper (Carloni 2009).
The Consumer Protection Law (Legislative Decree 206/2005) is intended to provide consumer
protection even when consumers make use of digital technology and environments.
The Data Protection Law (Legislative Decree 196/2003) has several references both to data handling
and computer security.
The areas of intervention by Italian legislators can be divided into groups by sectors:
The Data Protection sector, with reference to the abovementioned Legislative Decree 196/2003;
The infrastructures sector: the unified public authorities network (RUPA) and the public
connection system (Sistema Pubblico di Connettività);
The accessibility and website sector. In this sector, recent regulations include several specific
decision of administrative authority such as CNIPA (Italian Authority for Informatics in Public
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