1 
BUILDING CROATIAN SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE 
IN LINE WITH EUROPEAN STANARDS 
Z. Bacic, Lj. Rasic, I. Landek, N. Malnar 
State Geodetic Administration, 10000 Zagreb, Gruska 20, Croatia - 
(zeljko.bacic, ljerka.rasic, ivan.landek, nada.malnar)@dgu.hr 
Commission IV, WG IV/1 
KEY WORDS: Spatial Data Infrastructure, Spatial Database, Interoperability, Geo-Information Market, Metadata, Capacity 
Building 
ABSTRACT: 
Croatia is on its way to join the European Union as well as European information society what means that policies, technical 
standards and operational facilities should be harmonized with European standards and Inspire. One of the main initiators for SDI 
establishment activities was the State Geodetic Administration (SGA), the national mapping and cadastre authority in Croatia. The 
study dealing with SDI was produced in 2005. It is an operative document that gives institutional framework and procedures 
compliant with EU information communication technology standards. The first legislation concerning SDI in Croatia was the new 
Law on State Survey and Real Estate Cadastre that came into force in February 2007. It is also necessary within a short time upon 
passing the Law to create SDI tools which will serve for its materialization. In this context, the SGA has undertaken establishment of 
IT systems which are important for the future functioning of SDI. Being aware the fact that one of the key factors will be the degree 
of education of SDI subjects as well as whole Geo-Information market and community the SGA already took steps which were 
directed at establishing such forms of communication and education. The main goals for the next time are SDI capacity building and 
strengthening its bodies, adopting standards and specification in line with INSPIRE, establishment of metadata service firstly for 
SGA data and then for other SDI data, networking other key players, releasing NSDI tools in use as foreseen and spreading 
knowledge and information. 
1. NATIONAL SCENE FOR INFORMATION SOCIETY 
In 2004 Croatia received candidate status for membership to 
European Union (EU) and it is expected to get full membership 
in the near future. This fact understands also joining European 
information society what means that policies, technical 
standards and operational facilities should be harmonized with 
European standards, with the Infrastructure for Spatial 
Information in Europe (Inspire), which entered into force on 
15 th May 2007. Since several years Croatian information 
society has been aware of need to achieve interoperability of 
spatial data and spatial data infrastructure (SDI). Croatian 
government has recognized importance of SDI, what is visible 
in the field of developing national IT systems, GIS-supported 
and spatial databases. The national SDI (NSDI) should be an 
integral part of the Croatian e-govemment infrastructure. 
The e-Croatia 2007 programme marks the efforts of the 
Government of the Republic of Croatia to transform the 
Croatian society into an information society. In accordance with 
the EU recommendations, the e-Croatia 2007 programme will 
provide the Croatian citizens and the economy with the highest 
level of information services and the most widespread use and 
exchange of information, thus creating opportunity for their 
active participation in global developments. It follows the 
guidelines of The Action Plan e-Europe 2005, supplemented 
with the recommendations for the Action plan after 2005 (e- 
Govemment beyond 2005) and finally The 2010 Initiative 
which recognizes information and communication technology 
as a powerful moving force in both development and 
employment (Republic of Croatia 200x). The e-Croatia 2007 
programme consists of several areas and one of them is e- 
Govemment. 
Support given by the Government has resulted in many 
activities in the field of developing the entire IT infrastructure 
and increased investments in this field. The Government has 
adopted a series of strategic documents streamlining the 
activities of State administrative bodies and has initiated a 
number of projects. 
To accomplish the aim of initiating economic and social 
activities, the authorized expert bodies within the Government 
of the Republic of Croatia (the Central State Administrative 
Office for e-Croatia and the Central State Administrative Office 
for Public Administration) have created the HITRO.HR 
Programme (the One-Stop-Shop Programme) which has been 
launched in order to increase the level of service quality within 
the bodies of state administration. HITRO.HR also involves six 
other services: establishing a craft - e-OBRT, e-REGOS 
(Central Registry of Insured Persons), e-KATASTAR 
(e-Cadastre), e-PDV (VAT), e-MIROVINSKO (Pension) and e- 
ZDRAVSTVENO (e-Health). 
At the same time process of SDI establishment has already 
started and with the new Law on State Survey and Real Estate 
Cadastre (2007) it got legal and institutional framework. Major 
steps for SDI establishment have been already undertaken. It is 
the main task for the national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) 
bodies and wider seen to whole GI community to run SDI 
establishment process fully harmonised with Inspire and on the 
other hand with e-Croatia programme. SDI establishment 
process has to be fully implemented into e-Croatia programme,