Towards a strategy for harmonising the soil information in Spain: Some perspectives considering INSPIRE

A. Senar1, E. Amezketa1, M. Cabello1, J. Porta2

1Tracasa, Sarriguren (Navarra), Spain

2Sociedad Española de la Ciencia del Suelo, C/Serrano, 115-dpdo.

28006 Madrid, Spain

This paper analyzes the situation about the soil information in Spain with regard to its lack of standardization and coordination and the necessity of overcoming those problems in order to improve the management of the environment, to support policies or activities which may have a direct impact on the environment and the sustainable development, as well as to comply with the INSPIRE European Directive.

Soil information in Spain is very patchy, disperse and heterogeneous, complicating its comparability, interoperability and exploitation. The problems related to its availability, quality, organization and accessibility have negative consequences in the different levels of public authority and in the agronomical, environmental and economical sectors. The absence of a National Soil Survey Organisation in Spain has been, partly, responsible for this situation.

Historical aspects and different policies in Spain in matters of agriculture and natural resources and environment since the 1950’s have given rise to build soil surveys and soil mapping and more recently soil databases using different criteria and approaches. Hence, Spanish soil information is characterized by a lack of harmonization: different standards and methods, different scales of mapping, difficulty with its accessibility, etc.

To promote a more rational natural resource management and a sustainable growth, change is needed in how geographical information is made available. The INSPIRE European Directive encourages data producers to harmonise their data sets and services in accordance with specific implementing rules to ensure a technical but also semantic interoperability between data from different sources.

Recognizing the urgent need for improved soil information nationwide and considering the INSPIRE European Directive, Spain is taking up again the initiative of facing the necessity of establishing a harmonised, compatible and interoperable inventory of soil information (soil database and mapping). The completion of this comprehensive harmonised and interoperable soil information database will facilitate the planning and achievement of a sustainable development. It will improve the estimation of land potential productivity, help identify land and water limitations and enhance assessing risks of soil and land degradation. This is of critical importance for a rational natural resource management.

Providing harmonised and interoperable soil information will also increase the added value of that spatial information and will exponentially boost its exploitation for multiple applications. The development of services with that harmonised information will encourage its accessibility, use and exploitation.

In this context, our paper aims to present the first steps in order to establish a strategy for harmonizing the soil information in Spain. Identification of the main Spanish implicated agents or stakeholders (soil data producers and users, including public administrations, universities, institutions, agencies, soil researchers, soil consultants, policymakers, etc), getting in touch with them to make aware of the urgent need for facing the challenge of harmonizing the soil information, and to form a common scenario to tackle that challenge are discussed in this paper. Results from inquiries made to know the state-of-art of the soil information in Spain, as well as the testing of the soil data model defined by INSPIRE with the different soil data models used in the Spanish Autonomous Communities will also be discussed in this paper. A “roadmap” for harmonizing the soil information in Spain is intended to be developed with the implication of Spanish Society of Soil Science.

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