EU support to the Moldovan Agency for Land Relations and Cadastre: results and next steps
September and October months of 2021 were full of activities within the EU-funded Twinning project “Improving spatial data services in the Republic of Moldova following EU standards”. In addition to the 5th Project Steering Committee meeting organised in this period, missions were carried out in 4 out of the 5 Components of the project. The following achieved results are worth mentioning:
- The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) cost report was finalised,
- Work began on drafting the methodology for identifying NSDI-generated benefits,
- The Modelling Guidance document containing requirements for the development of the data models* was presented to 24 participants from 15 NSDI public institutions during a workshop,
- Work continued on the development of a methodology document on the creation and maintenance of standard Metadata**. The experts provided detail description of many metadata elements and their encodings with illustrative examples,
- Continuous provision of expertise and support during the procurement process of the NSDI Geoportal***,
- The Data Harmonisation report including guidelines/recommendations for the data harmonisation between various data sets has been finalised and presented to 19 participants from 10 Moldovan NSDI public institutions,
- The existing Technological Framework of the NSDI has been reviewed and recommendations were given for spatial data sets and services, based on international technical standards,
- The NSDI Awareness and Communication Plan was finalised and agreed with the BC institution,
- Government Decision No. 254/2018 on data sharing was analysed and the needs for improvement were identified.
Despite the working circumstances given the COVID-19 virus pandemic and existing travel restrictions worldwide, the experts’ missions were very effective, cooperation among partners was intensive, and the project outputs and deliverables were produced in due time according to the plan.
The project aims to contribute to further development of NSDI in the Republic of Moldova based on EU INSPIRE Directive. The NSDI should be a functional tool for citizens, public institutions and economic operators in order to check relevant information regarding properties, infrastructures and environmental issues, as well as a reliable tool to the authorities for better planning capabilities in a broad range of sectorial policies. Developed NSDI leads to avoiding the duplication of costs and efforts, as well as contributes to the improvement of the state-level decision-making processes.
* A data model is an abstract model that organises elements of data and standardizes how they relate to one another and to the properties of real-world entities.
** Metadata is data about data and represents one of the basic components of Spatial Data Infrastructure. To properly and efficiently use data, it is necessary to know basic information about them. People collect and use metadata for a long time, while making lists, inventories, and other systematic records of objects or phenomena to get an overview of the collected data.
*** NSDI Geoportal serves as a starting point for accessing spatial data sources that are part of NSDI. It provides the services of metadata collecting, discovery, viewing, and download. By using the NSDI Geoportal, metadata can be edited and maintained, spatial data sources searched, analysed and viewed, information found on the terms of their use, and data can be downloaded for use.
