June 23, 2020 -- National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration authorities across Europe have provided official data for the latest seamless administrative boundary and topographic datasets available from their membership association, EuroGeographics.

EuroBoundaryMap (EBM 2020) and EuroRegionalMap (ERM 2020) are created by the not-for-profit organisation using a unique data integration process which harmonises national data to standard specifications.

Angela Baker, Programme Manager, EuroGeographics says: “Our production system is a particularly important example of international collaboration in the geospatial area.  By working together to deliver pan-European data, our members are demonstrating not only what can be achieved through Europe-wide cooperation but also the benefits that result for the wider public good.”

EBM 2020 enables the exact matching of administrative areas in 55 European countries and territories using geospatial data from 39 EuroGeographics members. Available at 1:100 000 scale, it contains geometry, names and codes of administrative and statistical units, and links to the updated statistical LAU- and NUTS-codes for all local administrative units of the EU Member States.

Angela Baker adds: “EBM 2020 enables users to geo-reference statistical data. The Statistical Atlas published by the European statistical agency, Eurostat is a good example of how it can be used to link different datasets about people and places to visualise complex information. EBM 2020 also allows users to search the dataset using multilingual geographical names with information from our Regional Gazetteer.”

Working with Germany’s Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG), which manages the production of both datasets, EuroGeographics has also updated the settlements, boundary and hydrography themes in ERM 2020, its 1:250 000 scale dataset covering 51 European countries and territories.

To improve accuracy and achieve a harmonised full European dataset, national data is validated against specifications using a tool developed by The Netherlands Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency. ERM 2020 focuses on edge-matching watercourse features along borders. The advantage for the end user is that the feature is linked across boundaries, so the physical feature is not stopped by a non-physical border.

As well as ERM 2020 and EBM 2020, EuroGeographics offers pan-European open data, EuroGlobalMap, which is supported by the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN France), a digital elevation model and a Regional Gazetteer managed by BKG.

EuroGeographics is an international not-for-profit organisation (AISBL/ IVZW under Belgian Law. BCE registration:  833 607 112) and the membership association for the European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities. It currently brings together members from 46 countries, covering the whole of geographical Europe.