
Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE)
The INSPIRE Directive aims to create a European Union spatial data infrastructure for the purposes of EU environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment. This European Spatial Data Infrastructure will enable the sharing of environmental spatial information among public sector organisations, facilitate public access to spatial information across Europe and assist in policy-making across boundaries.
INSPIRE is based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the Member States of the European Union. The Directive addresses 34 spatial data themes needed for environmental applications.
The Directive came into force on 15 May 2007 and will be implemented in various stages, with full implementation required by 2021.
This video provides an overview of why INSPIRE is needed and what types of spatial are covered by INSPIRE. Homepage: https://inspire.ec.europa.eu

INSPIRE Common Transport Elements
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Common Transport Elements application schema.
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
- Code list and enumeration values are mapped to
skos:Concept
. - The properties
validFrom
andvalidTo
are mapped to the global properties defined by the base ontology. - Geometry types are mapped to classes from the Simple Feature ontology.
- Code list and enumeration values are mapped to
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
. - Properties of spatial object types with value type
GeographicalName
are aligned to propertylocn:geographicName
. - Properties with a geometry value type are aligned to
locn:geometry
andgsp:hasDefaultGeometry
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions:
- Property
inspireId
is omitted. See the guidelines for further details.
- Property
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Network
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Network application schema.
The following properties have been encoded with global scope (see guidelines for further details):
SimplePointReference.offset
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
- Code list values are mapped to
skos:Concept
. - The properties
beginLifespanVersion
andendLifespanVersion
are mapped to the global properties defined by the base ontology. - Geometry types are mapped to classes from the Simple Feature ontology.
- Property
SimpleLinearReference.offset
is mapped to the global propertyoffset
from this ontology.
- Code list values are mapped to
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
. - Properties of spatial object types with value type
GeographicalName
are aligned to propertylocn:geographicName
. - Properties with a geometry value type are aligned to
locn:geometry
andgsp:hasDefaultGeometry
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions:
- Property
inspireId
is omitted. See the guidelines for further details.
- Property
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Hydro
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Hydro - Base application schema.
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings: none
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Properties of spatial object types with value type
GeographicalName
are aligned to propertylocn:geographicName
.
- Properties of spatial object types with value type
-
Omissions: none
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Hydro ― Physical Waters
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Hydro - Physical Waters application schema.
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
- Code list and enumeration values are mapped to
skos:Concept
. - The properties
beginLifespanVersion
andendLifespanVersion
are mapped to the global properties defined by the base ontology. - Geometry types are mapped to classes from the Simple Feature ontology.
- Code list and enumeration values are mapped to
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
. - Properties of spatial object types with a geometry value type are aligned to
locn:geometry
andgsp:hasDefaultGeometry
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions:
- Property
inspireId
is omitted. See the guidelines for further details.
- Property
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Hydro ― Network
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Hydro - Network application schema.
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
- Code list values are mapped to
skos:Concept
.
- Code list values are mapped to
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions: none
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Geographical Names
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Geographical Names application schema.
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
- Code list values are mapped to skos:Concept.
- The properties
beginLifespanVersion
andendLifespanVersion
are mapped to the global properties defined by the base ontology. - Geometry types are mapped to classes from the Simple Feature ontology.
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
. - Type
GeographicalName
is aligned withskos:Concept
. - Property
NamedPlace.geometry
is aligned to propertylocn:geometry
andgsp:hasDefaultGeometry
. - Property
NamedPlace.name
is aligned to propertylocn:geographicName
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions:
- Property
inspireId
is omitted. See the guidelines for further details.
- Property
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Cadastral Parcels
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Cadastral Parcels application schema.
The following properties have been encoded with global scope (see guidelines for further details):
CadastralParcel.referencePoint
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
- Code list values are mapped to
skos:Concept
. - The properties
beginLifespanVersion
,endLifespanVersion
,validFrom
, andvalidTo
are mapped to the global properties defined by the base ontology. - Geometry types are mapped to classes from the Simple Feature ontology.
- Property
label
is mapped tordfs:label
. - Property
CadastralZoning.referencePoint
is mapped to the global propertyreferencePoint
from this ontology.
- Code list values are mapped to
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
. - Properties of spatial object types with value type
GeographicalName
are aligned to propertylocn:geographicName
. - Properties
CadastralParcel.geometry
,CadastralBoundary.geometry
, andCadastralZoning.geometry
are aligned tolocn:geometry
andgsp:hasDefaultGeometry
. - Property
CadastralParcel.referencePoint
is aligned tolocn:geometry
andgsp:hasGeometry
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions:
- Property
inspireId
is omitted. See the guidelines for further details.
- Property
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Building 3D
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Buildings 3D application schema.
The following properties have been encoded with global scope (see guidelines for further details):
Building.geometry3DLoD1
Building.geometry3DLoD2
Building.geometry3DLoD3
Building.geometry3DLoD4
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
GM_MultiCurve
andGM_MultiSurface
are mapped to the according classes from the Simple Feature ontology.GM_Solid
is mapped to the according class from the GML ontology.- Properties
geometry2D
are mapped to the global propertygeometry2D
from the buildings 2D ontology. - Properties
horizontalGeometryReference
,verticalGeometryEstimatedAccuracy
, andhorizontalGeometryReference
are mapped to the according global properties from the buildings base ontology. - Properties
BuildingPart.geometry3DLoDX
(with X=1,2,3,4) are mapped to the global propertiesgeometry3DLoDX
(with X=1,2,3,4) from this ontology.
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
. - Properties with a geometry value type are aligned to
locn:geometry
andgsp:hasGeometry
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions: none
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Building 2D
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Buildings 2D application schema.
The following properties have been encoded with global scope (see guidelines for further details):
Building.geometry2D
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
- Property
BuildingPart.geometry2D
is mapped to the global propertygeometry2D
from this ontology.
- Property
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions: none
Version: 1.0.0

INSPIRE Building Base
This is a draft RDF vocabulary for representing spatial data sets in INSPIRE as RDF. This vocabulary has been created using the “Guidelines for the RDF encoding of spatial data”.
The use of RDF is optional and does not supersede or replace the requirements regarding encoding specified in Clause 9 of the INSPIRE Data Specifications. This optional encoding is intended to support the e-government and open data community in Europe, which is increasingly looking at RDF to represent data.
This is a draft version. It has limitations and is expected to contain errors. Please report any issues or concerns in GitHub.
This ontology contains classes and properties that have been derived from the INSPIRE Buildings Base application schema.
The following properties have been encoded with global scope (see guidelines for further details):
BuildingGeometry2D.horizontalGeometryReference
BuildingGeometry2D.horizontalGeometryEstimatedAccuracy
BuildingGeometry2D.verticalGeometryEstimatedAccuracy
During the derivation, the following mappings, alignments, and omissions have been applied:
-
Mappings:
- Code list values are mapped to
skos:Concept
. - The properties
beginLifespanVersion
andendLifespanVersion
are mapped to the global properties defined by the base ontology. - Geometry types are mapped to classes from the Simple Feature ontology.
- Code list values are mapped to
-
Alignments (through subsumption):
- Spatial object types are aligned with
gsp:Feature
. - Properties of spatial object types with value type
GeographicalName
are aligned to propertylocn:geographicName
. - Properties with a geometry value type are aligned to
locn:geometry
andgsp:hasDefaultGeometry
.
- Spatial object types are aligned with
-
Omissions:
- Property
inspireId
is omitted. See the guidelines for further details.
- Property
Version: 1.0.0