Spatial e-Government: The Development of a Soil Database for Science and Public Sector Usage

The deployment of information systems that use and manage spatial data has become an essential application of eGovernment concepts. The importance of such systems results from the fact that many governmental decisions and provisions have traditionally related to the administration of land and real estate. Today, spatial data applications for environmental, agricultural, disaster management, infrastructure planning and numerous other domains are of paramount importance. In this short paper, we present the key objectives and the design of a recently started research project that aims to develop a national soil database for Luxembourg. We focus on the e-Government issues of this multi-disciplinary project. First, a short introduction into the role of spatial data for e-Government applications is given. Then, the project that is run in collaboration by a scientific institute and Luxembourg's Ministry of Agriculture, in charge of the soil survey, will be presented in its national and scientific context, and key challenges are discussed. Some first and preliminary observations finish this short paper.