GS Soil - Assessment and strategic development of INSPIRE compliant Geodata-Services for European Soil Data
 
GS Soil project was implemented as a best practice network with a runtime from June 2009 until May 2012. The project leader was the German Environmental Information Portal (PortalU). 34 partners from 18 countries participated in the project. Of those, 24 partners belong to the soil domain, and have provided their data to the network. The main focus of the project was to provide regional, national and European level soil data, and to set up a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) for soil data until May 2012.
The GS Soil project aimed to establish a network to improve the access to spatial soil data in Europe. The project pursued the following objectives:

  • to support of the development of a European spatial data infrastructure for soil data by improving the accessibility of digital soil data.
  • to develop methods to produce interoperable spatial soil data, and the analyse of requirements to harmonise soil information.
  • to develop of "harmonised" metadata and spatial data sets.
  • to establish and operate a network of services provided on basis of a well operating project data infrastructure.

With these objectives, GS Soil supports two main policy processes in Europe: the Soil Thematic Strategy (EC Soil; EU Soil Policy) and the INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC).
The Soil Thematic Strategy focuses on the known threats to the functioning and services of soils. This process has led to a draft directive, which - if implemented - needs harmonized information about the status of and any trends in the condition of soils. INSPIRE requires EU members states to provide interoperable data about the environment. Soil has been identified as one of the domains of interest. Currently, specifications for the exchange of soil data are being developed.
 
More information: Borut Vrščaj  , Jani Bergant