Open Maps For Europe wins BeGeo Best Project Award

The seventh BeGeo Congress, organised by The National Geographic Institute Belgium and Agoria, with the support of TMAB Business Events, pulled together geo-information experts from government, academia and the private sector in the Benelux area.

Accepting the award on behalf of the Open Maps for Europe consortium and EuroGeographics members, Sallie Payne Snell, Head of Operations said: “We are delighted that the jury of experts recognised this innovative approach to unlocking the power of open data from official national sources, as well as the economic potential to be gained by realising the benefits of the Open Data Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive which specifically identifies geospatial as a category of high value datasets.”

“Open Maps for Europe is the first time that pan-European datasets, created using our members authoritative geospatial information and EuroGeographics’ unique data integration process, have been easily discoverable, accessible, and released as open data under a single licence. This customised approach harmonises official national geospatial information to standard specifications so users can be confident that it is consistent, comparable and easily shared.”

“The easy-to-use online user interface addresses the challenges of accessing trusted geospatial open datasets created from multiple official national sources and includes topographic and height data, imagery, Open Gazetteer service and Open Cadastral Map prototype.”