Annex I - “Description of Work” - Hlandata

CIP-ICT PSP-2009-3Pilot BHLANDATAB2.2. Long term viabilityLong term impact at European levelAs it has been already explained, this project will undoubtedly imply a strong impact in the EuropeanCountries or Regions participating in the implementation of the pilot projects defined. Thedevelopment of harmonized Land Cover and Land Use Databases freely accessible throughinteroperable web services, together with the added-value of the implementation of high-level servicesproviding further functionalities, will certainly suppose a great step forward in the way towards theharmonization and fully interoperability of the geographical information systems and databases at aEuropean Level. Moreover, these newly developed services will be specifically aimed at a concretetarget user, already defined as intermediate-level user and with well-determined characteristics andneeds.In addition, the experience and knowledge collected along the project through the implementation ofthe different Work Packages planned, jointly with the different features of each pilot project, willproduce as a result very useful public guidelines and best practices for further initiatives developed onsuch area, which may be used in the future by other public or private organizations as well as policystakeholders. The usage of the HLANDATA results and experience for the coming INSPIRE activitiesis expected to be very advantageous.Although the aforementioned relevant consequences of the HLANDATA project are indeed veryimportant, the expected long term impact will not be achieved if the dissemination activities plannedfor the obtained results are poor. For such reason, the Consortium is made up of public and privatepartners that can assure the dissemination of the project results, not only at local level, but also at aEuropean level and to the public and private sector as well as to European geographic informationpolicy makers. The dissemination plan of the project, to be led by ISOCARP, with the support andcooperation of the rest of the partners within the Consortium, will collect all the activities to assure theimpact of the project results in a long term.Viability and sustainabilityThe set of newly developed pilot services conceived as final results of the HLANDATA Project showthemselves as public services aimed at providing high-quality functionalities to the citizens of theirrespective geographical areas. It seems reasonable to make a distinction between two different kindsof viability issues to be taken into account:- Technical viabilityThe technical viability of the HLANDATA proposal gets ensured by the fact that all foreseendevelopments to be undertaken plan to make use of already existing technologies (mainly matureinformation management and computing technologies). As already stated when referring to thematurity of the technical solution adopted, the activities to be carried out in the frame of theHLANDATA work plan do not imply any specific difficulty from a technological point of view,whereas the key point to deal with will be rather related to functional and organizational issues.In addition to this, the involvement of a set of public bodies and technological companies with wellknownand proved expertise and long experience in the field of Geographical Information Servicesreinforces the strengths of the HLANDATA technical proposal, contributing to its positiveperspectives in terms of technical viability.- Financial viability23/03/10 v11 31