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Abstract
The Directive 2001/18/EC regulates the deliberate release of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) into the environment. According to Article 31 (3) of this Directive
EU Member States shall establish location registers recording the locations of GMOs
grown for monitoring purposes and information of the public. As a partner within the
EU-project PRICE, the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food
Safety developed a GIS-based location register (GLOREG) for GMOs, adaptable to
the different requirements of the EU member states. Using a questionnaire the BVL
asked the Competent Authorities of EU and non-EU countries in Europe for (i)
detailed background information of their current location registers and (ii) their
expectations on the functionality of location registers. This information should put us
in the position to develop a location register, which is adaptable to the demands of
EU-Member States (MS). Most MS already implemented the Directive into national
law, even if they do not perform any deliberate release or cultivation of GMOs in their
country. The Competent Authorities distinguish between deliberate release (mostly
‘experiments’) and cultivation of GMOs within their national regulations and
notification rules. National regulations also vary regarding the organization of
cadastral data in the agrarian landscape. GLOREG considers these differences with
modular structure, which can be maintained, expanded or modified in its existing
functionality according to the different demands. The modules are designed for
language, customizable data, geo data, service purpose, authorization purposes, and
farmer verification. We used open source software systems, libraries or frameworks
for all components of the application. It provides an interface to its data via web
service and can be installed on established operating systems. The user interface of
GLOREG is web based and can be adapted to the corporate identity of the appropriate
agency or organization. Four different clients with different access rights interacting
with the user interface were defined exemplarily. For protection against unauthorized
access these different clients got different certificates. A web feature service of
GLOREG provides an INSPIRE conform access to the spatial information to cover
the requirements of Directive 2007/2/EC (INSPIRE).