The GS SOIL portal prototype and its integrated network

The first year of implementing the eContentplus pro ject GS SOIL “Assessment and strategic development of INSPIRE compliant geodata services for European soi l data” by the large project consortium of 34 proje ct partners out of 18 European member states already led to pow erful deliverables (Feiden et. al. 2009, Kruse et. al. 2009). The soil and soil-related data available in the par ticipating countries and by involved data providers were analyzed according to the kind, format, and intellectual pro perty rights applied. By elaboration of best practi ce guidelines the provided and specific datasets will be systematical ly harmonized during the project running time. At t he beginning of the project specific and generic requirements for s oil information, services and products were identif ied by a range of user communities and stakeholders in the 18 partici pating countries. This requirement analysis resulte d in a soil inventory and theme catalogue, which documents the cu rr nt state and ability of data providers to meet t h goal of data harmonization. The activities regarding an INSPIRE (European Union 2007) compliant GS SOIL data specification led to the definition of GS SOIL specific metadata profiles for soil geographic datasets / dataset series and data serv ices. They were developed following the INSPIRE IR for metadata, ot her international, and national standards (like the ISO 19115 and ISO 19119), and the needs of the data users. Al so soil specific test cases were defined as a basis for the development of a generic application schema. Further, th e GS SOIL consortium supports experts in the recent ly established INSPIRE Thematic Working Group (TWG) to deve lop data specification for the theme soil of the an nex III of the INSPIRE Directive. Finally, the project provide s reference material for the TWG. This paper will focus on the establishment of the p rototype for the GS SOIL portal and its relevant ne twork in order to provide a one-stop-portal for an easy access to Eur pean soil data. 1. The GS Soil Portal (prototype) In recent years, one of the most successful attempt s at unifying metadata catalogue and retrieval syst em nation wide, inside the EU, was represented by the InGrid platform. It was first used in the German Po rtalU project, a direct descendant of the older UDK pr ojects (UDK stands for “environmental data catalogue”), and which is now also moving towards INSPI RE compliance. InGrid also forms the underlying driving platform o f the GS Soil portal, thus presenting its users wit h an ISO and INSPIRE-compliant metadata search interface , nd is capable of functioning as a primary metadata publishing service, in addition to harvesting a d indexing. The interfaces of InGrid and therefore of the GS So il P rtal supports all INSPIRE compliant GIS servic es related to the GS Soil project. So the underlying s tructure of the GS Soil Network may technically use all kinds of INSPIRE compatible service applications. 420 EnviroInfo 2010 (Cologne/Bonn) Integration of Environmental Information in Europe Copyright © Shaker Verlag 2010. ISBN: 978-3-8322-9458-8