Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) established during the past two decades “unlocked” heterogeneous geospatial datasets. The European Union INSPIRE Directive laid down the foundation of a pan-European SDI where thousands of public sector data providers make their data, including sensor observations, available for cross-border and cross-domain reuse. At the same time, SDIs should inevitably adopt new technology and standards to remain fit for purpose and address in the best possible way the needs of different stakeholders (government, businesses and citizens). Some of the recurring technical requirements raised by SDI stakeholders include: (i) the need for adoption of RESTful architectures; together with (ii) alternative (to GML) data encodings, such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and binary exchange formats; and (iii) adoption of asynchronous publish–subscribe-based messaging protocols. The newly established OGC standard SensorThings API is particularly interesting to investigate for INSPIRE, as it addresses together all three topics. In this manuscript, we provide our synthesised perspective on the necessary steps for the OGC SensorThings API standard to be considered as a solution that meets the legal obligations stemming out of the INSPIRE Directive. We share our perspective on what should be done concerning: (i) data encoding; and (ii) the use of SensorThings API as a download service.

Vocabularies or thesauri, lists of terms with their definitions and unique ID, like a dictionary of a language, play a critical role in the domain of soil science, providing a standardized framework for accurately documenting and communicating soil characteristics. In soil science, the use of precise and consistent terminology ensures the effective exchange of data, promoting interoperability among researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers. A well-structured vocabulary, part of soil classification or soil description standards, facilitates the classification of soil properties, such as texture, structure, fertility, and organic content, allowing combining data from different sources but described in a similar way. And thereby enabling reliable comparison and interpretation across different regions and time periods. Furthermore, these vocabularies enable and support the development of standardized databases, soil datasets and soil monitoring systems, which are essential for environmental management, land use planning, and agricultural practices. Inaccurate or ambiguous soil descriptions can lead to misinformed decisions, making the establishment of clear, universally accepted vocabularies crucial for advancing soil science, conservation efforts, and sustainable land management practices. Such practices would greatly enhance the FAIRness of the data being managed, ensuring data conservation over time.Soil vocabularies come from many sources, some national or regional, some from international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) or the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), e.g. World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) or FAO Guidelines on Soil Description. Several initiatives worked on the identification and provision of agreed vocabularies in order to ensure the interoperability of their results at different scales (national, EU, international). This includes work by standard setting organizations (eg. ISO TC190), legislation (eg. EU INSPIRE Directive) and of course numerous collaborative projects, such as SIEUSOIL, EJP SOIL, ISLANDR, SoilWise, SPADES, Soil Mission Support and MARVIC. At present, many existing vocabularies have not been exposed in a referenceable and machine-readable manner, and instead remain “trapped” within PDF documents. Extracting the relevant concepts and exposing them in both human and machine readable forms on persistent URIs would be a valuable step towards soil data harmonization.The European Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe, with currently about 50 research projects and a network of 100 living-labs and lighthouses, offers an interesting environment and opportunity for the co-creation of a harmonised framework for soil vocabulary description. Due to the diversity of Soil Mission Projects, gaps in existing vocabularies can be identified and experience can be gained in how to best present vocabularies for both data annotation as well as data discovery.In this presentation we will share the current status on this topic, offering a non-exhaustive yet hopefully informative overview on existing materials (vocabularies and associated technologies to share them), on-going work and key challenges for achieving better soil data interoperability.This study was made possible through funding from the EU's Horizon Europe program, specifically the ISLANDR and SoilWise projects.

De nos jours, la préservation de l’environnement constitue un enjeu prioritaire. La compréhension des phénomènes environnementaux passe par l’étude et la combinaison d’un nombre croissant de données hétérogènes. De nombreuses initiatives internationales (INSPIRE, GEOSS) visent à encourager le partage et l’échange de ces données. Dans ce sujet de recherche, nous traitons de l’intérêt de mettre à disposition des modèles scientifiques sur le web. Nous montrons l’intérêt d’utiliser des applications s’appuyant sur des données géoréférencées et présentons des méthodes et des moyens répondant aux exigences d’interopérabilité. Nous illustrons notre approche par l’implémentation de modèles d’estimation des besoins en eau agricoles et domestiques fonctionnant à diverses échelles spatiales et temporelles. Un prototype basé sur une architecture entièrement orientée services web a été développé. L’outil s’appuie sur les standards Web Feature Service (WFS), Sensor Observation Service (SOS) et Web Processing Service (WPS) de l’OGC. Enfin, la prise en compte des imperfections des données est également abordée avec l’intégration de méthodes d’analyse de sensibilité et de propagation de l’incertitude.