Manuela Vasconcelos
Engineer
Directorate General for Territorial Development
Portugal

Abstract
iGEO: An Internet Portal to Access Open Spatial Data in Portugal

Co-Authors:
Paulo Patri­cio, Eng., Directorate General for Territorial Development
Mario Caetano, Prof. Dr., Directorate General for Territorial Development

In 2014 the Portuguese government promoted the creation of iGEO, an internet portal to boost the use of open spatial data and that is a complement to the national spatial data infrastructure (SNIG). iGEO began with the cooperation of the following public institutions: Directorate-General for the Territory, Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests, National Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation and Portuguese Environment Agency, which provided access to most of their geospatial data, through web services created under OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards. This geoportal is divided in two main sections: a list of spatial data sets, with the reference to their OGC services, and a collaborative area for open code of mobile apps developed using these data. To promote the usage of the available geographic information and to reach new types of users, a contest of ideas for new mobile apps was open, with the support of the Portuguese-American Foundation. The goal for the future is that new public entities will join this initiative as well as other spatial data producers, like NGOs, universities and private companies.