Survey of key GI players within Europe - EC GI & GIS Portal

Finland
Player Type Sectors Products Turnover Staff
National Land Survey of Government CG,Env,Uti, MapSite
46,5Mill 1855 (2002)
Finland
Organisation Ret,Tra,Def, Tel, Maastotietokanta (2002)
Fin,
Kiinteistörekisteri
Forestry
Digiroad
SLICES
Ilma- ja ortokuvat
Maastomalli
Association of Finnish Association of CG,LG, Tra, Uti,
Local & Regional Regional Env
Authorities
Government
Geological Survey of Government Prop,Env,Uti, Maaperäkartta 20/50 48,2Mill 809 (2002)
Finland
Research Edu,LG
000, Kallioperäkartta (2002)
Institute
200 000 Geokartta
Active Map Explorer
Geologinen
retkeilykartta
Geoimage
Finnish Environment Government
Land Cover
36.8Mill 598 (2002)
Institute (SYKE)
Research
Corine2000 River (2002)
Institute
(+lake) network
Natura2000
Snow extent
Water quality
FM-Kartta PLC CG,LG,Tra Aerial photographs
Genimap Corporation PLC CG,LG,Uti,Prop,
Tra,Ems
Maastotietokanta
Kiinteistörajakartta
GT Kartta 200 000
12Mill
(2002)
110 (2002)
ProGIS (www.progis.fi) is the National Association for GI and the Finnish member of Eurogi. It is an
open forum for users and data producers, system and service providers. Membership includes about
40 organisations and 140 private persons. Co-ordination of data policy in Finland is managed by the
multi-agency body set up in 2001 and called the Finnish Council for Geographic Information (FCGI).
This permanent co-operation between ministry departments, national institutions and private
companies acts as the central part of the Finnish SDI institutional framework and is currently
coordinating NSDI development.
In Finland, national surveying and mapping is guided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, but
the Finnish Geodetic Institute as the mapping research institute, and the National Land Survey of
Finland (NLS) (www.maanmittauslaitos.fi) a decentralized government agency, are responsible for the
actual land survey duties. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is also responsible for the creation
and maintenance of an agricultural land parcel system, a core national dataset that is at the heart of
the Integrated Agricultural Control System required by the EU.
The NLS produces and provides information on and services in real estate, topography and the
environment for the needs of citizens, other customers and the community at large. It is also
responsible for Finland’s cadastral system and general mapping assignments. It also promotes the
shared use of geographic information. It produces a range of digital data products from 1:20k through
to 1:4.5 Million and also maintains the National Geographic data description directory. The NLS
consists of 13 District Survey Offices, five national operational units and the small central
administration. The NLS has staff of over 2,000 of whom over 80% are employed in the District Survey
Offices. The Land Information System (LIS) managed by the NLS integrates both rural and urban
information systems to provide a common service for the whole country. A public website portal called
MapSite provides access to browsable topographic maps at various scales from all over Finland.
MapSite provides services to two types of users: "Citizen's MapSite" is available free of charge to all
Finnish users, whereas "Professional's MapSite" offers a more varied range of maps and additional
on-line Ordering Services which are subject to charges. The NLS Service Centre acts as a broker or
clearinghouse, connecting several databases to users' own applications. The ordering and delivery of
data is based on standardized messages.
As in Sweden the local and regional administrations play a large role in the supply of GI data,
providing, for example, city plans and other core datasets. The City of Helsinki for example was the
first one of 120 cities or municipalities to develop an advanced GIS/Survey department. In total 87
cities have legal cadastres and have developed GIS. Others are dependent on consultants and state
data. The 446 municipalities are less concerned with data production. The 87 major Finnish cities are
Survey of key GI players within Europe Page 26