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 to 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 a way 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.

The INSPIRE guidelines for the implementation of the Download Services, for vector data, suggest that such a service, with direct access, will be implemented by using the standard ISO 19142 Web Feature Service supporting ISO 19143 Filter Encoding (OGC Web Feature Service 2.0 and OGC Filter encoding 2.0).

The WFS (Web Feature Service), generated according to the standard, provides the end user an XML in which the features are encoded in Geography Markup Language (GML) allowing the transfer of individual geospatial features and then direct territorial access with the ability to analyze and process the spatial data from different sources.