Cartographic data harmonisation for a cross-border project development

An essential support for environmental monitoring activities is a rigorous definition of a homogeneous cartographic system, required to correctly georeference and analyse the acquired data. Furthermore, since 2007, the European Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) Directive affirms the necessity to harmonise the European maps for permitting cross-border analysis. For satisfying these requirements, the authors have developed a procedure for the cartographic harmonisation in the cross-border area studied during the European project Alpes Latines-Coopération Transfrontalière (ALCOTRA)–Alpes Latines-Individuation Resources Hydriques Souterraines (ALIRHyS). It concerns the hydrogeological study of various springs and other water resources in an area between Italy and France including their constitution in a cross-border system. The basic cartographic information is obtained from existing national maps (Italian and French data), which use different coordinate systems or projection methods and are produced from different data acquisitions and processes. In this paper, the authors describe the methods used to obtain well-harmonised middle-scale maps (aerial orthophotos, digital terrain model and digital maps). The processing has been performed using geographic information system (GIS) solutions or image analysis software in order to obtain useful and correct cartographic support for the monitoring data, even if the obtained maps could be further analysed or refined in future works. © 2016, Società Italiana di Fotogrammetria e Topografia (SIFET).