Radko Radkov
Project Manager
Remote Sensing Applications Center (ReSAC)
Bulgaria

Biography
Radko Radkov graduated as a civil engineer in the University of Architecture, Building and Geodesy in 1996 – Sofia. From 1995 up to now he work as a project manager in IT development and RS/GIS technology programs in STALKER Ltd, ASDE and ReSAC. His relevant experience is a project management in map analyses, fast track services for disaster management, creation of reliable database, control and revision by space imagery, land cover mapping, development of GIS based system for monitoring linked with control devices for dynamic data provision, satellite imagery orthorectification, DEM creation. He participated in several training courses, organized by JRC/EU, SICAD/SIEMENS, ESRI, FAO/UN, others

Abstract
INSPIRE in Support to Cross-Border Territorial Cooperation between Bulgaria and Romania - The Example of Project SPATIAL

Co-Authors:
Pavel Milenov, Agency for Sustainable Development and Eurointegration (ASDE)
Kristian Milenov, Agency for Sustainable Development and Eurointegration (ASDE)

The benefits of introducing the principles of INSPIRE at national level to address a number of issues in relation to the building up of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure in the EU Member States is currently beyond doubt.
Yes, the recently conducted consultation on the INSPIRE implementation in the European Community, revealed the fact that although the process is well co-ordinated within the country, the cross-border coordination is rather limited.
This gap can be filled at certain extent by the numerous initiatives at cross-border level initiated and conducted in the scope of the European Territorial Co-operation Programme of the European Commission. According to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the proposal to map macro-regional strategies in Europe, one of the prerequisites for "good" macro-regional governance is the availability of reliable information at regional level. Certainly, implementing INSPIRE is the key to achieve the required cross-border data interoperability.
An important step in that respect is the Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Project SPATIAL ?€œCommon Strategy for Sustainable Territorial Development of the cross-border area Romania-Bulgaria?€, funded by the European Regional Development Fund. A key work package of the project was the development of common resources for a territorial planning for the cross-border area between Bulgaria and Romania, which comprises large part of Lower Danube. It required a setting-up and development of harmonized datasets and interoperable services at macro-regional level in compliance with INSPIRE principles to allow efficient cross-border analysis and reporting. A particular output of the project was the generation of detailed common land cover database for the cross-border area (70 000 sq.km.), based on the philosophy of the Land Cover Meta Language (ISO 19144-2).
Project SPATIAL made important contribution to the JRC initiative for the building-up of Danube Reference Data and Service Infrastructure (DRDSI) as part of JRC scientific support to the Danube Strategy.