HH_EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure_provide 'source' of the noise, 'component' and 'media' of the concentration and 'category' of measure

[sMorrone]

Change proposal description

This change proposal develops in the context of the reuse of INSPIRE for environmental reporting, more specifically in the framework of the alignment to INSPIRE of the reporting under the Environmental Noise Directive (END), in which the data model for the reporting of the Noise Contours of the Strategic Noise Maps builds on the INSPIRE Data Specification for the spatial data theme Human Health and Safety (HH).

This proposal has the twofold objective to:

1. allow, in agreement to what foreseen in the IR, the provision of the type of the noise source for noise intensity measures + the component and the media for the concentration measures (bug fixing)
2. introduce the concept of the 'category' of measure, aimed to model those health determinants measures that do not fit the ISO 19103 Measure Type (enhancement)

The modifications described in this change proposal:

• correct current INSPIRE application schema regarding the provision of noise and concentration measures + correct related GML application schema (xsd) accordingly;
• preserve backwards compatibility with the current GML application schema (https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/schemas/hh/4.0/HumanHealth.xsd);
• have been already implemented in the application schema used for the environmental reporting of END Noise Contours

Issue faced

Below the headings Expected behaviour, Current behaviour and Proposed solution have been duplicated to clearly differentiate the proposal for the resolution of the bug (bug) and the proposal for the introduction of the category of measure (enhancement).

Expected behaviour (bug)

According to the IR, the EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure spatial object has two specialisations aimed to the provision of

• the noise source type for noise intensity measures
• the component whose concentration is measured, and the media in which the concentration is measured for concentration measures

Current behaviour (bug)

In the current HH schema, the EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure spatial object allows to specify neither the source of the noise nor the component/ the media of the concentration.

Proposed solution (bug fix)

The specialisation of the ISO 19103 foreseen in the IR for the specific cases of the noise and concentration health determinants, describes:

• the noise ‘source’ as an attribute of the “UomNoise” type (sub-type of UnitOfMeasure)
• the ‘component’ and the ‘media’ of the concentration as attributes of the UomConcentration type (sub-type of UnitOfMeasure).

However, the ‘measure’ of the EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure spatial object is provided according to the ISO 19103, (and in the GML application schema the ‘measure’ attribute has gml:Measure data type), therefore neither the noise source nor the component and the media of the concentration can ever be provided.
The proposed correction is to specialise the ‘EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure’ feature type by means of two determinant-specific feature types:

• EnvHealthDeterminantNoiseMeasure (for provision of noise intensity measures)
• EnvHealthDeterminantConcentrationMeasure (for provision of concentration measures).

Find description of these specialising feature types below:
Name: Environmental Health Determinant Noise Measure (EnvHealthDeterminantNoiseMeasure)
Description: A noise measurement that is of interest for human health determinant analysis.
Attributes:
Attribute name: source
Attribute definition: The noise source type
Attribute type: NoiseSourceTypeValue

Name: Environmental Health Determinant Concentration Measure (EnvHealthDeterminantConcentrationMeasure)
Description: A concentration measurement that is of interest for human health determinant analysis
Attributes:
Attribute name: component
Attribute definition: The component whose concentration is measured.
Attribute type: ComponentTypeValue
Attribute name: media
Attribute definition: The media in which the concentration is measured.
Attribute type:MediaTypeValue

Expected behaviour (enhancement)

The proposed enhanced schema can model cases of health determinant measures not fitting the ISO 19103 Measure Type definition (value + unit of measure).
As an example, consider END Noise Contours maps, in which measures of the noise levels in a certain area are characterized by decibel ranges relating to specific sound level indicators (e.g. noise level = Lden 50-54).

Current behaviour (enhancement)

The 'measure' attribute of the EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure has ISO 19103 Measure Type and multiplicity 1.
This means that for a noise contour polygon characterised by a measure of the noise level= Lden 50-54, currently one can specify neither the noise level indicator (Lden) nor the range 50-54 (could provide either '50' db or '54' db)
(e.g. 50.0/hh:measure)

Proposed solution (enhancement)

Proposed solution is to extend the EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure feature type in a way that measures not fitting the ISO 19103 concept can be provided through code lists specifying measure categories.

An example of measure category is the Noise Indicator Range code list in the END Strategic Noise Maps data model, encoding all allowed values of (indicator, db range) couples e.g. Lden5054, Lnight4549, LdenGreaterThan75 etc.
Operating through code list has the advantage to use only one field to express the complete information related to the measure and to specify all allowed indicator /value combinations.

The proposed solution is to:

• add to the EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure the 'category' attribute, whose type is the MeasureCategoryTypeValue code list
• create the 'MeasureCategoryTypeValue' code list (empty code list to be used as a super-class for a number of specific code lists, like the above mentioned Noise Indicator Range in the scope of the Environmental Noise Directive reporting)
• add the constraint that environmental health determinant measure shall be provided, either as measure (attribute ‘measure’) or category of measure (attribute ‘category’) snd set multiplicity of 'measure' attribute to 0..1.

Attributes:
Attribute name: category
Attribute definition: The category of the environmental health determinant measure.
Attribute type: MeasureCategoryTypeValue
Code list:
Name: Measure Category Type (MeasureCategoryTypeValue)
Definition: The measure categories.
Extensibility: any
Description: Empty code list to be used as a super-class for a number of specific code lists (e.g. for the Environmental Noise Directive purposes, http://dd.eionet.europa.eu/vocabulary/noise/NoiseIndicatorRangeValue, http://dd.eionet.europa.eu/vocabulary/noise/NoiseIndicatorValue) whose values may be used to specify the attribute value.

Technical details

Related pull request: #5

Additional information

Proposal reason

This proposal is needed both because of a bug in the current HH schema and because the current EnvHealthDeterminantMeasure spatial object does not fit the specific use case of health determinants measures other than ISO 19103 concept. An example of this use case is the environmental reporting of noise contours of the Strategic Noise Maps under the Environmental Noise Directive obligation, in which measures of the noise levels in a certain area are characterized by decibel ranges relating to specific sound level indicators.
The proposed solution of INSPIRE HH enhancement has been included in the conceptual data model of the new Environmental Noise Directive reporting mechanism, following the requirements to align reporting obligations in the field of legislation related to the environment (Regulation (EU) 2019/1010 of the European Parliament and of the Council). The first reporting of the END Strategic Noise Maps according to this new reporting mechanism will be provided in 2022.

Addressed schema

https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/schemas/hh/4.0/HumanHealth.xsd

Impact on INSPIRE TG / IR

This change proposal impacts both, the Technical Guidance document (TG) and the Implementing Rules (IR). An IR Change Proposal was submitted in 2019,approved and included in the proposed revised INSPIRE Implementing Rules on Interoperability of spatial data sets and services (2020), currently pending in the adoption process.
Link to the IR Change proposal

Change proposer

European Environment Agency in collaboration with END thematic community and Epsilon Italia

References

Available implementation

Revised INSPIRE HH schema
UML of revised INSPIRE HH
UML of reporting data model for END Noise Contours

More detailed documentation

63rd INSPIRE MIG-T meeting presentation
INSPIRE Conference 2020 presentation
INSPIRE Community Forum Discussion on how to provide indicators and source in noise measures
INSPIRE Community Forum Discussion on provision of Priority Datasets related to END reporting
EEA Eionet Data Dictionary – Vocabulary (NoiseSourceTypeValue, NoiseIndicatorRangeValue, NoiseIndicatorValue)

[sMorrone]

Subgroup meeting 01-07-2021: modifications proposed by the EEA were already submitted for update of the IR (and included in a draft version) . No need to undergo the overall governance process , they are going directly through the Comitology procedure.