IHLET Tisza River Development Program
A Cross-Border SDI Approach
"From Local to Global"

European Parliament, Brussels, 20-22 of June 2007

Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusions 1.

The Workshop on the IHLET Tisza River Development Programme agreed that the establishment of a regional Geospatial Data Infrastructure is a foundation for

• the establishment of a water resources management and an environmental and flood protection system
• the efforts to enhance the region's economic potentials to attract investment and promote trade
• promoting social development in the region, including the social cadastre

Conclusions 2.

The Workshop in recognizing the global nature of the problems to be solved in the Tisza River basin agreed to a close cooperation with other watershed development initiatives in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Conclusions 3.

The Workshop recognized the importance of the EU INSPIRE Directive as a legal framework for the establishment of a SDI and agreed that the IHLET Tisza River Development Programme should be a pilot for INSPIRE of an implementation of a cross border regional SDI.

Conclusions 4.

Geospatial Information should be fully incorporated into

• National Development Policies, Strategies and Programmes
• Development Aid Programmes

Recommendation 1.

Supporting the approach "From Local to Global" the participants of the workshop recommend that:

• IHLET programme management with the help of the 48 centres and international experts should take the lead in formulating a policy framework taking into account the aspect of environmental protection, economic and social development
• The 48 centres should implement this policy, act as a link to all local communities and contribute to homogeneous and strong institutional ties with their governments

Recommendation 2.

Recognizing the need for an open infrastructure which can be integrated with other applications on a local, regional or national level, the participants of the workshop recommend:

• To build the IHLET TISZA River Basin SDI on the emerging INSPIRE standards
• To give priority to establishing a metadata catalogue with a metadata search portal

Recommendation 3.

Recognizing the need for a broad institutional foundation of this project the participants of the workshop recommend that

• IHLET should apply to become a member of EUROGI
• All countries of the TISZA River Basin should establish a national organisation for Geospatial Information using IHLET and EUROGI as facilitators

Recommendation 4.

IHLET will inform the five governments about the conclusions of the workshop and ask them to give consideration to the formulation of a Charter with the purpose of achieving the integrated development and management of the Tisza River Basin. The IHLET Programme should serve as an integration platform to achieve these goals.