Stephan Arnold
Secretary of EAGLE-Group and Leader of Data Model Editing Committee
Federal Statistical Office
Germany

Biography
Studies: Geography/Geology/Public rights. Thematic focus on Climatology, Geomorphology, Development planning, Urban Geography, GIS/Remote Sensing. Working experience: remote sensing and land surveying projects (IACS, LUCAS, Digital Land Cover Model for Germany DLM-DE), national expert in INSPIRE TWG Land Cover, FP7 Projekt HELM (Harmonised European Land Monitoring) – closed by End of 2013. Previous stations: several german remote sensing companies, Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy. Currently employed at Destatis: Land Cover / Land Use Statistics and Accounting, Eurostat pilot study for a LUCAS Bottom-up approach; national representative in Eurostat´s LUCAS Task Force, Secretary of the EAGLE-Group and leader of the Data Model Editing Committee.

Abstract
The EAGLE Concept's Land Cover Data Model - Current State of Play and Outlook

Co-Authors:
Barbara Kosztra, Institute of Geodesy Cartography and Remote Sensing, Hungary - FOMI
Gebhard Banko, Environment Agency Austria
Nuria Valcarcel Sanz, National Geographic Institute, Spain - IGN
Tomas Soukup, GISAT - Czech Republic
Geir-Harald Strand, Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute

The EAGLE group is working on the long-term target to provide with the EAGLE concept a conceptual basis for the operational implemetation of a new European land monitoring system. A data model has been drafted to serve that target. It aims at being object-oriented according to the principle of descriptive characterization of landscape rather than classification. In parallel, it aims at being a vehicle for semantic translation between different classification systems. As a first step, an explanatory documentation has been compiled about the thematic content of the concept, as well as the data model has been expressed in UML with EntrepriseArchitect.
In the EAGLE data model, a close relation to the data specifications particularly of the themes INSPIRE Land Cover (LC) and Land Use (LU) is kept in the of code lists (in parts or entirely). The presentation will give a summary of the development steps made since the first drafting of the data model. During this fine tuning process, the data model has been enhanced and modified for better consistency within itself and to integrate aspects of other INSPIRE themes. Besides the themes LC and LU, the EAGLE model also refers to other INSPIRE themes, like Buildings, Hydrography, Agricultural Facilities, Biotopes and Habitats a.o. Also, issues were identified how the existing code lists of INSPIRE themes could be modified based on logical thematic considerations. Some of the code lists in the thematic INSPIRE specifications explicitely are mentioned to be open for extension/modification. In response to that, a summary will be presented about ideas how to modify those code lists. It is to be discussed, if and how the outcomes of the EAGLE group´s work can be integrated into the INSPIRE implementation and maintenance process through the thematic cluster for Land Cover & Land Use. Further, plans about future developments and testing as proof of concept will be presented.