Publishing metadata of geospatial indicators as Linked Open Data: a policy-oriented approach

Geospatial indicators are becoming increasingly important for governments in monitoring and underpinning policy planning and political decision making. Currently, the discovery, viewing and sharing of these indicators is often made possible through geoportals that are developed according the concepts of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). However, this type of ‘business information’ exceeds the scope of traditional SDIs that solely focus on the common spatial aspects constituting a generic location context. The concept of an ‘augmented’ SDI adopting Linked Data principles reveals meanwhile much potential in integrating disparate reference and non-spatial business data but requires a formal revision of underlying standards. In this study we propose an alternative and policy-oriented viewpoint for publishing geospatial indicators as Linked Open Data. Focussing on metadata, we have elaborated a profile of the Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) for describing geospatial indicators, including additional information on the related policy assessments, spatial characteristics, the provenance, and the measurement variables and dimensions of indicators. By implementing the vocabulary in an existing monitoring system it allows us to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of this approach.