Data portals
The datasets of the General Administration of Patrimonial Documentation are documented via the open data and INSPIRE portals on which the federal administrations publish. These portals provide all relevant information about the datasets and services in a structured manner, such as:
- The title;
- The summary;
- The key words
- The distribution format;
- …
They make it easier for users to identify the dataset(s) of interest to them. In addition, the portals are common to several institutions, making their respective catalogues more interesting to outside users.
The datasets are all documented and accessible via the open data and INSPIRE portals. Furthermore, depending on the dataset, it is possible to download them either via a direct download link or via a WFS. In this case, a SIG should be used to control the download. Besides, some datasets are viewable via a WMS.
Most of the geometric datasets are also available through the CadGIS viewer, the viewer developed by the General Administration of Patrimonial Documentation to provide access to data related to the cadastral parcel plan and administrative units.
The federal level
The General Administration of Patrimonial Documentation publishes its datasets via:
- The federal open data portal (managed by the FPS Policy and Support within the implementation framework of the PSI directive);
- The federal INSPIRE portal (managed by the Belgian national geographical institute, within the implementation framework of the INSPIRE Directive) .
Data from most federal jurisdictions are available on these portals.
Regional and municipal levels
At the level of regions and communities, institutions publish via the open data and INSPIRE portals specific to their level of authority.
In Flanders for instance, the following coexist:
The region of Brussels Capital also has:
At the Walloon level there are:
- A Walloon INSPIRE portal;
- A Walloon open data portal (also used by the French Community).
The European level
At the European level, there are:
As the operation of these portals follows common IT standards, it is possible for one portal to automatically retrieve the content of another portal. Thus, in general, the content of the INSPIRE portals is integrated into the open data portals, be it at regional, federal or European level. On the other hand, the European portals take over at least part of the content of federal and national portals. Similarly, the Belgian open data portal takes over the content of the regional open data portals.