GS SOIL

In order to achieve the aims of the project, GS Soil is structured in seven work packages (WPs): • WP1 for project coordination and networking, • WP2 for building up the content provision framework, • WP3 with focus on metadata, • WP4 with focus on harmonisation and semantic interoperability, • WP5 for establishing of an integrated network and a soil portal, • WP6 for evaluation and sustainability • and WP7 with focus on dissemination, awareness and clustering activities with other projects. WP2 to 4 will set up on each other. The soil and soil related data will be analysed, necessary metadata will be identified and provided and specific datasets will be systematically harmonised. The improved access to soil information by the GS Soil Portal is the main objective of WP5, while WP6 focuses on user needs and the long-term perspective of the GS Soil Portal. At the beginning of the project specific and generic requirements for soil information, services and products have to be identified by a range of user communities and stakeholders. This requirement analysis will result in a soil inventory and theme catalogue, which documents the current state and ability of data providers to meet the goal of data harmonization. Based on this, specific content requirements and characteristics will be defined as fundament for the establishment of harmonized soil data sets. As a fundament for harmonizing different kinds of soil data, basic information about the data sets have to be made available in the form of methodical metadata, which describe the underlying data models in depth, and which comply with a generic framework for developing application schemata for the relevant data. Therefore a schema for describing spatially linked soil data and database services to comply with the INSPIRE Directive will be developed, which meet the needs of data users for a harmonised, interoperable EU-wide, national and regional soil data infrastructure. A soil oriented metadata structure profile will be developed following the INSPIRE IR for metadata, other international, and national standards, like the ISO 19115:2003, and the needs of the data users. In the context of data harmonization a framework will be developed that enables existing soil datasets to be linked up from one country to another. Therefore data specifications will be developed and made available as basis for designing and testing of transformations or translations. The level of spatial data consistency depends to a large proportion on user level harmonization efforts. Such efforts will be thoroughly analysed in order to identify, to which degree pre-harmonization is needed and how it can be implemented. However, particular focus will be given to the development of user level transformation services in the context of the INSPIRE harmonization framework. Exemplary services will be developed with the objective to present comparable and meaningful data portrayal. The focus on soil map legends and soil inventory data is important because attribute and property data are crucial for developing evaluation and transformation services. The results will enter in a best practice guideline for soil data specification development under INSPIRE.