A user-driven process for INSPIRE-compliant land use database: example from Wallonia, Belgium

ABSTRACT Regional land use monitoring at high spatial, temporal, and thematic resolution is an important expectation of Walloon stakeholders. Over the last decade, increased data-processing capacities and the annual acquisition of remotely sensed data have resulted in the production of a large amount of relevant geodata. The INSPIRE directive and its obligations for 2020 serve as a path for the development of a new user-driven and open-source hierarchical land use classification system mapping scheme, as presented in this paper. The process includes intensive user consultation, the development of an entire automatic processing chain, and efforts to address challenges such as big data handling, the variability of input data properties, and reproducibility. The thematically detailed land use map, with its 69 classes, is already widely used by Walloon stakeholders, and new demands for updating have already emerged. Based on a European classification system that is compulsory for all member states, INSPIRE-compliant land use maps will make it possible to carry out cross-border studies and compare spatial planning strategies between states.