Key Elements of the Dutch NSDI

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By Sabine Put | 03 May 2010 | 8114

Following the European guidelines developed in INSPIRE, the Dutch have pioneered with an NSDI – and success is on its way with the many projects and pilots that have been or are currently carried out. This article explains some key aspects that characterize the Dutch NSDI and how it facilitates the success of all kinds of geo-information users.

A well-developed infrastructure is the basis for everything. Take the transport industry for example. Who would be able to travel properly from location A to location B by car without a road network? Of course, one could argue that with a little effort, the trip can succeed. Nevertheless, the voyage will be far from comfortable and will take more time than necessary – and time is money. In a similar way, the basis for nationwide successful use of geo-information is a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). This involves the development of standards and agreements that enable the exchange and use of geo-information.

Following the European guidelines developed in INSPIRE, the Dutch have pioneered with an NSDI – and success is on its way with the many projects and pilots that have been or are currently carried out. This article explains some key aspects that characterize the Dutch NSDI and how it facilitates the success of all kinds of geo-information users.

INSPIRE and GIDEON

To cope with the increasing amount of various types of geo-information, the European Commission initiated a project known as INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe) with the aim to harmonize the acquisition and dissemination of geo-information throughout the European Union. The resulting set of guidelines and regulations have entered into force as the INSPIRE Directive in May 2007.

Although already much work has been done by the European Commission, the actual implementation of the guidelines by INSPIRE remain a serious effort. Crossing the Dutch border, GIDEON takes over the important role of implementing INSPIRE in the Netherlands. GIDEON describes the vision and long-term strategy of the realization of an NSDI. This strategy has been developed and is supported by a significant number of organizations, including ministries, universities, the Dutch cadastre, Stichting Geonovum, and several other governmental agencies.

Standards and metadata

Regulations, visions, strategies. What is the actual impact on the various geo-information users? Ask an arbitrary user and he will probably formulate an answer containing the term ‘standards’. One who is more familiar with the concepts of an NSDI will also probably mention the term ‘metadata’. Especially the latter is currently an important topic in Dutch organizations, as correct metadata is mandatory for following the INSPIRE Directive.

When I visit customers who are new to the concept of metadata, I explain it to them by comparing metadata to a tin can in a supermarket. Without a label, no one knows what is inside of the can, let alone what the quality of the content is. No one (except for an adventurer, perhaps) will buy this can. Similarly, valuable geo-information needs to be labeled properly. This can be achieved by creating correct and complete metadata.

However, one of the problems with metadata is that the existing metadata standards leave us with far too many degrees of freedom. In other words: the rules that describe how one should put the ingredients on the label of a tin can are not strict enough. The Dutch organization ‘Stichting Geonovum’ is concerned with this problem and has therefore developed Dutch metadata profiles on top of the existing ISO standards.

Obviously, for these metadata profiles to become a success, a metadata editor is required that continuously adheres to the currently valid standards. GeoSticker – the metadata editor developed by ESRI Netherlands – is now one of the leading products in the market. It is widely adopted by ministries, virtually all provinces, and many other organizations due to its ease of use and seamless integration with ArcGIS. The latest release of GeoSticker (version 3.0) not only supports metadata for geo-information datasets, but also for web services. Although ArcGIS does not directly support metadata for web services, a few cunning work-arounds now enable GeoSticker users to automatically create web service metadata based on the metadata of the used datasets – provided that the metadata are correct and complete. GeoSticker makes the labeling process of cans a lot easier.

The interface of GeoSticker, the Dutch metadata editor that is widely adopted by many organizations.

The Dutch as Pioneers

The road to an NSDI can sometimes be a harsh struggle, especially for the ones actually creating metadata and those who are trying to keep up with latest standards. Nevertheless, taking into account the current status of metadata in the Netherlands, the Dutch can be considered pioneers. Part of this is thanks to our users and the people who are the driving forces behind metadata specifications and implementations.

“These people provide us with great ideas and feedback to improve when it comes to metadata," said Bert Vermeij, senior business consultant at ESRI Netherlands. "They are always willing to participate in discussions on the topic. Just call them and they will join.”

On the problem that the given standards allow for many different implementations, Vermeij continues, “The different implementations of the international standards is like wanting to screw a nut with a diameter of 5.9 mm onto a bolt with a diameter of 6.0 mm. It just does not fit very well. Fortunately, ArcGIS provides users with many tools to actually fit the two pieces together.”

The combination of the ArcGIS platform and a custom product like GeoSticker allows for a tight integration with the NSDI. Not only within the Netherlands, but also on a European level ArcGIS forms the basis for a future SDI.

Geoportals Are on the Way

Standards and metadata are not the only key aspects of an NSDI. The acquisition, storage, and management of geo-information is one thing, to disseminate it properly to a wide variety of users is another. Here, geoportals take up an important role. A number of Dutch  provinces already started the deployment of a geoportal – both for their organization and for their customers – and more are on the way.

“Geo-information supports primary processes that are essential for the tasks of our province,” says Guust Vriends, GIS expert at the Province of Noord-Brabant. “To realize this in a satisfactory way it is very important to create and maintain metadata. Our geoportal can be used to search for geo-information and to retrieve the metadata. In addition to this, the Province of Noord-Brabant has to exchange metadata and data with third parties. We have to provide services for several national and European geoportals (INSPIRE) as well.”

The ArcGIS Server Geoportal Extension has proven very valuable to organizations who want to have their own geoportal set up. This is due to a number of reasons. First of all, the Geoportal Extension can be deployed fairly quickly and has most of the required functionality already available out-of-the-box. Secondly, geoportals built with the ArcGIS Server Geoportal Extension are highly interoperable – they make it possible to combine bolts and nuts of various sizes. Next to this, these geoportals are easy to use and customizable. Finally, integration with other ArcGIS components saves the user much time and effort.

Plans, Pilots, and Projects

To accelerate the development of an NSDI, several projects have been initiated in recent years. I will explain two of them here. The first project concerns the development of a national geoportal, known as the ‘National Geo Register’ (NGR). The goal of this project is to aid the discovery and use of geo-information for professional geo-information users. “If the NGR contains sufficient and accurate records of geo-information, it will surely save me a lot of time searching for data. Furthermore, it will stimulate innovative ideas and thinking”, says Gert-Jan van der Weijden, senior staff member at the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. The geoportal was launched in 2009 and now contains datasets and services from several different Dutch suppliers and organizations.

The NGR is built on open source technology to make it independent of any party. Fortunately, because the NGR makes use of open standards, ArcGIS can consume the contents of the NGR. For example, from a geoportal built with the ArcGIS Server Geoportal Extension, one can search the NGR for data without having to leave the geoportal. For ArcGIS Desktop an additional tool exists, known as the CS-W Client, which makes use of the CS-W standard to search for data in geoportals and catalogues that support this standard.

A new project that started in 2009 is PDOK. This acronym stands for ‘Publieke Dienstverlening Op de Kaart’ which can be translated as ‘public services put on a map’. The aim is to make geo-information easily accessible for all users, including citizens, through a solid infrastructure. A number of use cases will be demonstrated on spatial planning and on the involvement of society in planning activities. An example of the latter is to encourage people to send geo-tagged photographs of their surrounding environment. In this way, governmental agencies get more grip on what their citizens really think is important.

Gert-Jan van der Weijden recognizes an important advantage of doing this project, “PDOK forces us to think about how to balance the supply and demand of geo-information – not only within an organization, but between different organizations as well. Exciting!”

Searching for data on the NGR with the CS-W Client for ArcGIS Desktop.

Future Developments

This article explains the way we deal with standards, metadata, and the dissemination of geo-information, which plays a key role in the development of the Dutch NSDI. Many enthusiastic people of a number of organizations exchange ideas and initiate projects to make the Dutch NSDI work in reality. However, there is always room for improvement as current agreements and guidelines still leave too much room for different interpretations and implementations.

In my opinion, many ideas for improvements should come from the users, because they are the ones who face shortcomings on a day-to-day basis. Vermeij summarizes a possible solution, “The organizations who are responsible for developing standards should make agreements and rules even more strict than they currently do. The parties involved should take this challenge and reduce the number of possible interpretations of any agreement.” The basis of the Dutch NSDI is here, it should now be improved further to meet the needs of users in order to make them successful with geo-information.

About the Author

Sabine Put is product consultant at ESRI Netherlands. She advises and informs customers about ESRI products. Furthermore, she contributes to many technical marketing activities and media. She received her engineering degree in Geomatics at Delft University of Technology in 2008.

About Matt Ball

Matt Ball

Matt has been promoting the application of sensors, systems, models and simulation for the better stewardship of our planet for the past fifteen years. The first ten years of that span were as editor of GeoWorld magazine and show manager of the GeoTec Event. The past five have been as a founder of Vector1 Media, with publications Sensors & Systems, Informed Infrastructure and Asia Surveying & Mapping. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.