Main learnings from UN-GGIM: Europe core data. The key questions core data answers (or not).

Core data is related to geospatial information, so the first question it answers is “where?” – obviously. For each of the selected themes, core data recommendations for content specify a geometry (in the data model) and the geographic extent of expected data, in practice if core data covers only land or also the sea (at least partly). To answer the question “what?, core data proposes an implicit data model with feature types and some classification attributes together with some data capture recommendations (mainly selection criteria). The importance of the question “when?” depends on themes. Whereas life-cycle attributes in the database are generally enough for topographic data, the validity in real-life is required for most of administrative data. The questions “who?” and “why?” are relevant for some themes only. As general principle, the road manager, the parcel owner, the manager of a regulated or administrative area are considered out of scope of geospatial core data but the existence of related registries is quite encouraged. The link with related regulation texts is the answer to the question “why?” for regulated or managed zones.