National Spatial Data Infrastructure
Turkey started studies on establishment of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in 2003 in the context of “e-transformation Turkey Project” which began with the Circular No.2003/48 published by the Prime Ministry. In the context of this Circular, an Action Plan has been prepared and under this Action Plan Action Number 47 “Pre-study for Establishment of Turkish Geographical Information Systems” was directly related with NSDI studies. The responsible institution was determined as General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (TKGM). TKGM established a Working Group consisting of representatives from 32 public institutions, 9 municipalities and 3 universities and prepared a Pre-study Report and submitted to State Planning Organization.
State Planning Organization published “e-transformation Turkey Project 2005 Action Plan” with the decision of High Planning Council. In the Action Plan, Action Number 37 was “Infrastructure Preparation Studies for the Establishment of Turkish Geographical Information Systems” and TKGM was again determined as the responsible institution. There were several Working Groups and Commissions from related institutions established under the Project activities and a Turkish National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Policy and Strategy Report has been prepared and submitted to State Planning Organization.
After the successful implementation of the Action Plans between 2003-2005, with the purpose of determining medium and long term strategies and targets in the process of effective utilization of Information and Communication Technologies and transformation to Information Society, Information Society Strategy 2006-2010 and Information Society Strategy, Action Plan 2006-2010 was published in 2006 with the decision of High Planning Council.
Moreover, a Feasibility Study was conducted in 2009-2010 under the coordination of TKGM. The aim of this study was to make a high level Project Plan in order to develop Geographical Information System. The aim of the project was the provision of technologies, policies and human resource that are encouraging geographical data sharing among public institutions, private sector and public. The Feasibility Report was prepared in 2011.
In addition to the above mentioned issues, the institutional reorganization was a significant milestone of the year 2011: the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization (MoEU) was established on 4.7.2011 by the decree law no. 644 as a result of the unification of the former Ministry of Public Works & Settlement and Ministry of Environment & Forestry. General Directorate of Geo-Information System was constituted under MoEU to carry out the tasks and procedures regarding the building, utilization and development of the spatial data infrastructure and urban information systems used by the local authorities to manage their data related to planning, mapping, infrastructure and superstructure. General Directorate of Geo-Information System is currently responsible for the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive and its establishment accelerated processes of developing the national spatial data infrastructure.
The General Directorate of Geo-Information System has started several projects in order to prepare a road map for Turkey to implement relevant INSPIRE standards by considering institutional reorganization of not only its own but also some other ministries in Turkey. Development of Turkey’s National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Project (TUCBS or TRGIS in English) has been carried out to define national geo-data standards. In 2012 an analysis related to geo-portal development, and institutional and policy requirements was performed by TRGIS. The project consists of 8 working packages: TRGIS Portal Location Analysis, Determination of TRGIS Management Model, TRGIS Enterprise Data Requirements Analysis, Development of Conceptual Data Models, Determination of TRGIS Data Standards, TRGIS Regulatory Requirement Analysis, Determination of Portal Implementation Rules, and TRGIS Training and Dissemination. In order to develop geo-data standards, all stakeholders of NSDI, including 15 ministries, 88 general directorates, 88 departments, and 118 sub-departments utilized use case analyses. As-is analysis was performed with current geo-data specifications. INSPIRE geo-data themes were analysed to ensure compliance with INSPIRE data specifications. As a result: TRGIS geo-data themes were designed for JD-geodesy, TO-topography, OR-orthophoto, AR-land cover, HI-hydrography, UL-transportation, ID-administrative unit, TK-land registry & cadastre, BI-building, and AD-address. TRGIS data specifications were determined with UML application schemas and feature catalogues, based on ISO/TC211 standards and conceptual data components. All application schemas were revised and updated after National GIS stakeholder’s reviews. Following this task GML application schemas of geo-data themes were produced for effective geo-data exchange. Specifications and GML application schemas relevant to other geo-data themes were prepared.
National Geographic Data Portal
In accordance with Turkey’s NSDI Project and the tasks of the General Directorate of Geo-Information System, Turkey’s National Geographic Data Portal (Geoportal) Project was completed with the following five main stages: analysis, design, software development, test and training. Geoportal implementation is based on INSPIRE, ISO and OGC standards. Turkey’s National Geographic Data Geoportal has been opened to the public as of August, 2014. The software performs basic geographic data portal functions such as serving spatial data sources, metadata searches, editing metadata, display query results as text and graphics, downloading metadata and geographic data according to user authorization. For the second phase of the Geoportal project, implementation of Transformation Service, E-Commerce functionality and Mobile versions are planned.
Legal Arrangements
Draft Regulation related to the "Development and Management of the National Geographical Data Infrastructure" is prepared and planned to be published in the 1st quarter of 2015.
Urban Information Systems
In order to establish a standardized structure for improvement of urban information systems, Determination of Standards of Urban Information Systems Project was conducted in 2011-2012, which includes the Investment Programme by the approval of the Ministry of Development. The project consists of the following completed work packages: Legislation Analysis, Corporate Analysis, Data/User Requirement Analysis, International Standards Analysis, Conceptual Data Model Design, Determination of Spatial Data Standards, Development of Urban Information System Data Exchange Format, Administrative and Financial Modelling, Preparation of Draft Legislation, and Reporting and Dissemination Activities.
Within the Legislation Analysis work package, existing legislation related to local governments was examined and inspected for consistence of spatial information, regarding urban information systems. Main work functions and attribute information which would be used by local urban information system users were determined in conjunction with the examination of legislation relations. Approximately 113 Legislative documents were examined in this context.
The Corporate Analysis work package contains a classified analysis of the local governments such as; provincial private administrations, metropolitan municipalities, province municipalities, district municipalities and infrastructure institutions. At least two representative local governments were analysed from each institution. SWOT Analysis was used to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within the processes of the urban information system application. Boston analysis has been made by applying Geo-technological capacity/spatial data need matrix and interest/strength matrix and cost-benefit analysis has been made in order to determine the minimum necessary conditions for an efficient urban information system.
In order to determine corporate/individual usage necessities, input data, processed data and output data that are managed through the lifecycle of an urban information system were analysed in the Data/User Necessity Analysis work package. Work process analysis has been made for local government and infrastructure establishment units. Organisation schemes, process diagrams, work flow diagrams and data flow schemes have been prepared. International Standards Analysis work package consisted the examination of INSPIRE, ISO/TC211 and OGC standards. Apparently, urban information systems which are implemented in specific countries’ local governments have been inspected and analysed through geographic data catalogues, application schemas and data exchange models. In convenience with Turkey’s National Geographic Information System, there have been 10 data themes defined at urban level, with data definition document, application schema and GML based data exchange format: Address, Land use, Land cover,
Building, Vegetation, Geodetic Establishments, Public Services, Urban Furniture, Water Body and Transportation.
Determination of the Road Map Intended for Dissemination of Urban Information Systems by Cloud Computing Project was conducted in 2013. The main goal of the project was to determine how to establish Cloud Computing System in order to provide platform and software services running Urban Information Systems for Local Governments. Within the scope of the project, System Analysis, Cloud Computing Analysis, Transition and Integration Modelling, Corporate Elucidating and Evaluation Reports, Strategy Document and Technical Specifications were prepared. Besides, in 2014 MoEU has completed a Cloud Computing based geospatial software framework taken into consideration INSPIRE and OGC standards. This software basically provides the appropriate infrastructure to develop and maintain software modules that are to be used by municipalities and government institutions.
As it is pointed out by the above mentioned projects’ outputs, specifically small and medium scaled municipalities such as province and district municipalities, have a deficiency in financial and human resources which causes delays for establishing urban information system infrastructure. In this scope, a pilot Project has commenced. The pilot project includes Ardahan, Elazığ and Talas Municipalities and Kırşehir Province targets to establish an urban information system infrastructure.
