INSPIRE: Support for and requirement of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

This paper documents how to apply INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC principles for efficient implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC (MSFD). It provides an overview of the different INSPIRE components, explains the relationship between the MSFD requirements and improves the understanding of distributed data management. The MSFD reporting cycle is analyzed in detail, identifying spatial data requirements and mapping them into the INSPIRE implementation roadmap. The study comprises a thorough analysis on MSFD requirements of data & information sharing from the initial assessment and monitoring programmes, applying INSPIRE data management.