A Download Service “allows you to download copies of spatial data sets or a part of them and, where practicable, accessed directly” (Directive 2007/2 / EC).

There are several spatial data, in accordance with the INSPIRE Directive, they must be made available in the form of coverage. In this sense, the current INSPIRE guidelines for the implementation of download (download Services) are being updated to implement the WCS (Web Coverage Service).

A WCS provides the end user the possibility of being able to use spatial data in the form of coverage that is, the spatial data representing continuous variable phenomena in space / time, which are often of some GB or even TB.

A WCS provides access to spatial data in the form of coverage for example in ways that are useful for client-side rendering, or as input into scientific models. A WCS can be likened to a Web Feature Service (WFS), or to a Web Map Service (WMS). In fact, similar to a WMS or WFS, WCS allows clients to choose parts of spatial data based on spatial queries or performed with other criteria.

Unlike a WMS, which returns spatial data as static maps (represented as images directly from the server), the WCS makes available spatial data together with their attributes that can be interpreted, analyzed, processed, etc.

Unlike WFS, which returns discrete spatial entity, a WCS returns a coverage representing variable phenomena in space / time ranging from a space-time domain to a set of properties, also multidimensional.