A Proof of Concept for an Agrifood Data Space Based on Open Data and Interoperability

The creation of unified, open, secure, reliable, and agile data spaces is essential for collecting, storing, and sharing data in a standardized and accessible manner, promoting data reuse and addressing current interoperability limitations. In this context, this research presents a proof of concept for a unified agronomic data space based on the structured integration of heterogeneous open data sources. The central hypothesis is that the automated acquisition, preprocessing, and harmonization of publicly available agronomic data can significantly improve accessibility, usability, and interoperability for agricultural decision support applications. To this end, a comprehensive analysis of relevant open data sources was conducted, followed by the design and implementation of configurable algorithms for automated data downloading, cleaning, validation, and integration. The proposed approach explicitly addresses key challenges such as heterogeneous data formats, inconsistent spatial and temporal resolutions, missing values, and outlier detection. As a result, a unified access point was developed, providing reliable agronomic information, including (i) preprocessed climatological time series, (ii) crop and phytosanitary data, (iii) high-resolution aerial orthophotography, (iv) remote-sensing imagery, (v) pest-related information, and (vi) time series of major vegetation indices. The proof of concept was implemented for olive groves in the Andalusian region of Spain; however, the methodology is fully transferable to other crops, regions, and institutional contexts where comparable open data sources are available. The results demonstrate the potential of shared agronomic data spaces to enhance data reuse, support scalable analytics, and facilitate interoperable, data-driven agricultural management beyond the specific regional case study.