Working Group Geodata

The Working Group Geodata was founded in 2015. It was confirmed as a working group of the SDI Germany at the 33rd meeting of the steering committee in June 2020. 

The aim of the Working Group Geodata is to promote interoperable or harmonised geodata in the SDI Germany. Interoperable geodata can be combined by adhering to common standards and interfaces and can be processed together in a geoinformation system, for example. Harmonised data are combined into a common dataset by a central body, taking into account previously defined rules. 

The members of the Working Group Geodata come from different geodata specialist domains and include staff from state authorities, the Coordination Office SDI Germany, science and industry. Some of the members have concrete experience in the development of standards and interfaces for interoperable provision or were involved in projects for spatial data harmonisation.  

This practical experience and conceptual work within the framework of INSPIRE form the basis for the "Interoperabilitätskonzept für Geodaten in der GDI-DE (Interoperability Concept for Geodata)" developed by the Working Group Geodata, the first version of which was adopted by the Steering Committee SDI Germany in 2017. It describes the framework conditions for the provision of interoperable and harmonised geodata in the SDI Germany.

The interoperability concept is addressed to the specialist bodies for geodata at all federal levels, in particular to those responsible for the collection, provision and harmonisation of geodata. 

The concept essentially pursues two goals

  1. The identification of elements whose uniform definition is necessary for an interoperable provision of geodata within the SDI Germany (interoperability elements).
  2. The development of a methodology for a demand-oriented and step-by-step harmonisation of existing data sets and data models within the SDI Germany.

The interoperability concept is not intended to define mandatory data specifications analogous to INSPIRE, but to serve as a guideline for the cross-procedural use of geodata and to provide information on important aspects of the fundamentals, data modelling and data management.

The concept adopted at the 28th meeting of the Steering Committee SDI Germany has been continuously developed since then. Version 2.0, which was adopted in May 2022, is a fundamentally updated version of the concept. 

The Working Group Geodata welcomes feedback from practical use cases by e-mail.