The Geodata Act
The Norwegian Geodata Act came into force in 2010. This Act implements the European Union INSPIRE Directive, regulating establishment of the Norwegian NSDI. Various detailed regulations have been added since 2012 as supplementary legal elements.
The Act regulates sharing of data from public agencies to be used in the private and public sectors.
- In geographical terms, the Act covers the whole of the Norwegian territory, including the mainland, sea territories, Svalbard and Jan Mayen.
- Thematically the Act covers most sector data, specifically defined with 34 broad themes such as population, health, risk management, transport, geology, energy, minerals, land use, farms and aquaculture, water and biodiversity, alongside more general themes such as aerial and satellite images, elevation and bathymetry (depth measurement).
National public agencies producing special data are the main target group for the Act. A series of technical and administrative requirements are defined which have to be resolved by the public agencies by specific deadlines:
- Sharing of data for public agencies
- Documentation of data and APIs in the form of metadata
- Data to be supplied according to certain standards and formats (e.g. GML)
- View services, APIs of map presentations of spatial data (e.g. WMS, WMTS)
- Download services, APIs of the spatial data itself (e.g. WFS, SOS, WCS)
- Documentation of other relevant APIs (spatial data services, e.g. REST services)
- Harmonisation of data, requiring data to be supplied according to structures and formats defined by the European Union in the INSPIRE Directive
The Norwegian mapping authority following up on public agencies, with guidance, but also controlling technical deliveries.
The Planning and Building Act
The Planning and Building Act provides a broad framework for regulation of Planning and Building Activities in Norway, regulating cooperation of the public, municipalities, county institutions and national public agencies via defined work flows.
As regards spatial data, the Act defines requirements relating to the establishment and maintenance of master plans, detailed zoning plans, reference data and sector-specific and environmental data to be used as input for Planning and Building Act processes.
The Act provides municipalities with responsibilities concerning the mapping of their own territory. This has resulted in the definition and development of the standardised product FKB, the joint technical spatial reference database, which now covers all municipalities. Municipalities are also responsible for maintaining cadastral data, with up to date information on properties, construction work and address information. The municipalities produce different kinds of detailed thematic maps.
The Planning and Building Act defines roles for the Norwegian Mapping Authority and other public national agencies by definition of a collection of defined themes; “public spatial data” (DOK).
The Cadastre Act
The Act concerning a national land information register (the Cadastre Act) aims to ensure access to important land information by means of a uniform and reliable register (the cadastre) which is to be maintained of all real estate in the country, and by clarification of boundaries and property-related matters. Furthermore, the Act aims to ensure access to a joint geodetic reference framework.
The Norwegian Mapping Authority is coordinating the efforts of the municipalities in this regard. There is a national centralised system, and all municipalities send information from their local systems automatically in order to keep the central system updated. Cadastre APIs are available.
Other Norwegian acts on spatial information
A series of other sector-specific laws include requirements relating to spatial data. These laws and underlying regulations may be from any sector, e.g. the Place Name Act, the Forestry Act, the Petroleum Act, the Cultural Heritage Act and the Nature Diversity Act.
There are also international conventions ratified by Norway, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.