Co-funded by the Community programme e Contentplus Euro

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Euro. Geo. Names (EGN) – developing a European geographical names infrastructure and services Preserving the past – Linking to the future Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie Frankfurt am Main, Germany 1

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus … one name, or more? . . . in South Africa? Berlin? . . . in the USA? . . . or in Germany? Geographical names have - a lot to do with multi-cultural aspects - a lot to do with multi-linguality - should have nothing to do with translation 2

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Examples of exomyms used in various languages for the endonym “Aachen” 3

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Current linguistic minorities in Western Europe Language boundaries and state boundaries do not coincide => Multilingual areas and minorities Map provided by F. Ormeling

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Identified needs to set up a European geographical names infrastructure as expressed by EC services, translators and interpreters, tourism, news agencies, etc. Tasks to be solved - officially approved national names data (endonyms), - relating exonyms with official endonyms, and vice versa, - avoiding storage and maintenance of secondary data sets, - continuous updating of geographical names data by the countries themselves, - integrating names data into National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI) and ESDI,

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Analysis of EU policies versus INSPIRE data components Source: Inspire TF Scoping, 26 -02 -2004

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, 2002 Resolution VIII / 6 Integration of Geographical Names Data into National and Regional Spatial Data Infrastructures The Conference, …. Recommends, that standardized geographical names data should be considered in the establishment of national and regional spatial data infrastructures and included in their constructions. 7

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus The primary access to spatial information is via geographical names Project Euro. Geo. Names (EGN) – Developing a European geographical names infrastructure and services based upon the decentralizedly kept and maintained national names data bases 8

Some official local names Co-funded by the forms (endonyms) of the Community programme e. Contentplus Danube river („Danube“ being an exonym) EGN will help to promote cultural diversity and multilingualism in Europe and provide a means by which users can search for geographical names spelt in their native language. 9

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Participants & roles Euro. Geo. Names Consortium § Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG), Frankfurt am Main, Germany (Co-ordinator) § Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen (BEV), Wien, Austria § Surveying and Mapping Authority of Slovenia (SMA), Slovenia § Euro. Geographics Head Office (EGHO), Paris, France § Universiteit Utrecht, Geographic Department, The Netherlands § Edina National Data Centre, Edinburgh, United Kingdom § Geodan Holding, Amsterdam, The Netherlands § Geo. Task, Dortmund, Germany § ESRI, Kranzberg, Germany

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Participants & roles EGN Reference Group Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey signed a ‘Declaration of Participation’

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Participants & roles EGN Group of Interest OGC Europe, UNGEGN (United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names) and several divisions, ICA, Eurogi, DDGI (German umbrella organization for GI), GDI-DE (Secretariat of the German spatial data infrastructure), Imagi (Interministerial Committee for GI of the German Federation), AGISEE (Association for GI in South-East-Europe), National Geographic Germany, ICOS (International Commission of Onomastics Sciences), Westermann (German publishing house for school atlases), Ed. Hölzel (Austrian publishing house for school atlases), Carto. Travel (German publishing house of GI products), EEA (European Environment Agency), PCGN (UK Permanent Committee on Geographical Names), St. AGN (PCGN of German-speaking countries/regions), Greenland Language Secretariat (Oqaasileriffik), Bookings (Hotel reservation service, Amsterdam), Ad. V (Association of German survey administrations), Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library), Intergraph (Germany) signed a ‘Letter of Support’

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Concept - Spiral engineering process for 2006 - 2008

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Needs & benefits – Examples (1) News agencies EGN service to provide additional location based information EGN service integrated in a news portal as additional functionality e. g. search for geographical names and presentation of the geographic situation

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Needs & benefits – Examples (2) International purchase of real estates with Internet property services Location based information on Pozzuolo, Toscana (IT) and its pronunciation, possibly directly from the Italian data repository! EGN service to provide additional location based information

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Needs & benefits – Examples (3) Google Earth Application EGN service to provide additional location based information EGN service integrated in the Google Earth portal as additional functionality e. g. provision of exonyms related to Milano

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Target users border crossing routing; transport and delivery service networks cross border market analysis & asset management educational establishments, libraries emergency services; health and safety private sector map and atlas producers mass media (broadcast, TV) hotel reservation services; tourism location based services (LBS) 17

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Summary of Benefits § Accessibility of geographical names (GN) and their related toponymic attributes (exonyms, language, scripts/diacritics etc. ), § Continuous updating by the EU countries themselves, i. e. no secondary data sets, § Endonym as the primary entry, § Considering of approved minority language names, § Higher attractiveness of services / geoportals, multi-lingual graphic user interface, § Bringing in the knowledge of GN experts and consolidating existing networks (Inspire, Euro. Geographics, UNGEGN, etc. ). Stimulating cooperation and a better integration of geographical names in a European SDI

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus Euro. Geo. Names website: www. eurogeonames. com or via www. eurogeographics. org/ eng/03_projects_Euro. Geo Names 19

Co-funded by the Community programme e. Contentplus … we need good ideas and good cooperation!!! Thank you for your attention Dr. Jörn Sievers Pier-Giorgio Zaccheddu Euro. Geo. Names-Project Coordinator Euro. Geo. Names Project Manager Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG) Richard-Strauß-Allee 11 D-60598 Frankfurt am Main joern. sievers@bkg. bund. de pier. zaccheddu@bkg. bund. de