The MARS Online GIS viewer is a software platform for handling EEA (European Environment
Agency) spatial data. The platform includes an underlying centralized database, the administration
(back end) environment and the viewer with basic query/analysis functions (front end).
1.
The database
The present database consists of a series of files in Shapefile format. Moreover, the development of
spatially-enabled database use (instead of raw file environment, such as Shapefile) is underway. The
files are not necessarily stored in a single location, but rather in various desktop computers and
servers in the network.
The presently available dataset consists of spatial data provided by the EEA:
 Country borders: Administrative units 2010 at country level (1:1M)
(https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/data/global/geography/eea_v_4258_1_mio_gisco-adminboundaries-kosovo_2010/)
 MSFD Marine Subregions: regions on the sea areas as defined by the Marine Strategy
Framework Directive (http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/etc-icmconsortium/library/subvention_2011/activities_2011/assessment_assessment/msfd_regions
_reference)
 Regional seas: seas surrounding Europe, incl. complete Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Baltic
Sea and North-East Atlantic Ocean (http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/etc-icmconsortium/library/subvention_2011/activities_2011/assessment_assessment/msfd_regions
_reference)
 Coastal waters: "Coastal water" means surface water on the landward side of a line, every
point of which is at a distance of one nautical mile on the seaward side from the nearest
point of the baseline from which the breadth of territorial waters is measured, extending
where appropriate up to the outer limit of transitional waters.
(http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/transitional-and-coastal-reference-layers)
 Transitional waters: "Transitional waters" are bodies of surface water in the vicinity of river
mouths which are partly saline in character as a result of their proximity to coastal waters
but which are substantially influenced by freshwater flows (http://www.eea.europa.eu/dataand-maps/data/transitional-and-coastal-reference-layers)
 River basin districts: River Basin Districts (RBD) and/or their subunits (SU) are the main units
for the management of river basins and have been delineated by Member States under
Article 3 of the Water Framework Directive. (http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-andmaps/data/wise-river-basin-districts-rbds-1/rbd-methodology,
http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/wise-river-basin-districts-rbds-1)
 Coastline: The line where a land mass is in contact with a coastal or transitional waterbody
(http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/etc-icmconsortium/library/subvention_2011/activities_2011/141a_wfd_reporting/milestone_servic
e/aug2011_version0.zip)
 Large rivers: Large rivers are rivers that have a catchment area large than 50,000 km2 or
other rivers and tributaries that have a catchment area larger than 5,000 km2. Large lakes


2.
are lakes that have a surface area larger than 500 km2. (http://www.eea.europa.eu/dataand-maps/data/wise-large-rivers-and-large-lakes)
Bathing water locations: according to the BWD, the popular bathing places in fresh and
coastal waters and monitor them for indicators of microbiological pollution (and other
substances) throughout the bathing season which runs from May to September
(http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/bathing-water-directive-status-of-bathingwater-6)
SoE Lakes and Rivers: Point locations of lakes and rivers within the SoE network. Collected
data are also published in Waterbase, a series of water topic-specific databases and web
pages, publicly accessible via the EEA Data Service's web site.
(http://dd.eionet.europa.eu/datasets/3074, http://dd.eionet.europa.eu/datasets/3075)
The administration tool
The administration tool enables to connect different locations into one working environment so that
all spatial data can interact. The tool is based on the Geoserver software – an open-source solution
with various extension possibilities. The software serves the data to clients (e.g. front end website
with an interactive map, see below) as well as provides a graphic user interface (GUI) for data
administration. It allows for grouping the elements, defining metadata and projections as well as
providing web map services (WMS, WFS etc.).
The layers are listed within Data > Layers Preview menu where they can be previewed through
popular formats (most notably OpenLayers, KML and GML). The individual layer can also be
downloaded to local disk through WFS protocol (available at the right-most drop-down menu “All
formats”). The layers can be grouped together at Data > Layer Groups.
3.
The online viewer and downloading functionalities
The online viewer is being developed on the OpenLayers framework. The basis is available at
http://89.212.110.9:8080/geoserver/web/. Based on JavaScript programming language, the
framework allows for user-friendly front end interface which can be used by public or authorized
users. It is to be accessible through the website. The test layer group (“EEA_spatial_data”) is
available within the menu which opens the OpenLayers viewing pane at
http://89.212.110.9:8080/geoserver/EEA_spatial_data/wms?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=
GetMap&layers=EEA_spatial_data&styles=&bbox=-8083365.8391715735,8854804.578097817,1.6715203151414253E7,1.4866252306400456E7&width=512&height=489&srs=
EPSG:3035&format=application/openlayers.
The interface provides zoom in/out tool, styled (colour-coded) layers, transparency settings (in order
to view more overlapped polygon layers), layer download option and the basemap which improves
orientation (e.g. OpenStreetMap).
The most important issues to be solved are as follows:
 Bandwidth for large volumes of spatial data – when composing more complex layers, the
data transfer becomes slow, unlike on classic local GIS environments which are not limited by
internet bandwidths
 Projections and coordinate systems – even the spatial datasets provided by one author (e.g.
EEA) sometimes differ in terms of spatial reference. The adjustment of these takes effort at
setting the layers as well as at rendering them (on-the-fly re-projection by the Geoserver).
At present there are 20 GIS layers available for viewing and downloading as follows:
open in
Google
Earth
with KML
Google
Earth
with GML download
Title of GIS layer
Description of GIS layer GEOServer
EEA_spatial_data:B
WD_stations_2013
Bathing Waters in
Europe reported
under BWD (2013)
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:CL
C_100_2006
CLC_100_2006
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:Co CNTR_RG_01M_2010_E
untries
urope
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:EC
RINS_Lakes
ECRINS Lakes
OpenLayers KML
GML
OpenLayers KML
GML
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:EC
RINS_Rivers
ECRINS Rivers
EEA_spatial_data:Eu
rope_coastline2013
0708
Coastline
EEA_spatial_data:GR
ID_100k
GRID_100k
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:Lar
ge_rivers
Large rivers
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:M
SFD_Marine_Subregi
ons_draft_EU_EEZ_2 MSFD Marine
0130614
Subregions
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:Re
gional_seas_extende
d_version_ETRS89_2 Regional seas (v
0130925
20130925)
OpenLayers KML
GML
SoE Lakes 2013
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:So
E_Rivers_2013
SoE Rivers 2013
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:sw
b_cw
Coastal waters
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:sw
b_surfacewaterbody swb_surfacewaterbody
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:sw
b_tw
Transitional waters
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:W
FD_Art3_Rivers
OpenLayers KML
GML
OpenLayers KML
GML
EEA_spatial_data:W
FD_RBD_f1v4_clippe
dToCoast
River basin districts
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
EEA_spatial_data:So
E_Lakes_2013
WFD_Art3_Rivers
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
EEA_spatial_data:W
FD_referenceSWST_
Lakes
EEA_spatial_data:W
FD_referenceSWST_
Rivers
WFD reference stations
- Lakes
WFD reference stations
- Rivers
EEA_spatial_data:Po
pulationCount
PopulationCount
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
OpenLayers KML
GML
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
OpenLayers KML
OpenLayers KML
GML
GML
as picture in WMS or as
vector file in WFS
For downloading the layers you have to login with username: mars and password: geoserver.