Standard data models play a crucial role in the geospatial and location sector by providing a common framework for representing and organizing geospatial data. These models, such as the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards like the Geography Markup Language (GML) and the Keyhole Markup Language (KML), enable interoperability and seamless integration of data from diverse sources. They define standardized data structures, attributes, and relationships, allowing geospatial information to be shared, analyzed, and visualized across different applications and platforms. With standard data models, organizations can efficiently exchange geographic data, facilitate collaborative decision-making, enable accurate spatial analysis, and support the development of innovative location-based services and applications.
OGC Standards
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium that develops and promotes geospatial standards. A full list is available at https://www.ogc.org/standards/
Here are some of the standard data models, schemas, and data classification systems provided by OGC:
Geography Markup Language
Acronym: GML
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/gml/
Description: GML is an XML-based encoding standard for geographic data. It provides a framework for describing geospatial features, attributes, and relationships.
Current Version: 3.3
Schema location: http://schemas.opengis.net/gml/
Standard: ISO 19136:2007
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
Keyhole Markup Language
Acronym: KML
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/gml/
Description: KML is an XML-based format for describing and visualizing geographic data in three dimensions. It is commonly used for displaying maps and geospatial annotations in applications like Google Earth.
Current Version: 2.3
Schema location: http://schemas.opengis.net/kml/
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
CityGML
Acronym: CityGML
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/citygml/
Description: CityGML is an open data model and XML-based encoding standard for representing 3D city models. It enables the storage, exchange, and visualization of detailed urban infrastructure, buildings, and landscapes.
Current Version: 3.0
Schema location: http://schemas.opengis.net/citygml/
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
IndoorGML
Acronym: IndoorGML
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/indoorgml/
Description: IndoorGML standard specifies an open data model and XML schema for indoor spatial information
Current Version: 1.1
Schema location: http://schemas.opengis.net/indoorgml/1.0/
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
LandInfra / InfraGML
Acronym: LandInfra / InfraGML
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/infragml/
Description: The scope of the Land and Infrastructure Conceptual Model is land and civil engineering infrastructure facilities. Anticipated subject areas include facilities, projects, alignment, road, railway, survey, land features, land division, and “wet” infrastructure (storm drainage, wastewater, and water distribution systems).
Current Version: 1.0
Schema location: Not available
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
GeoSPARQL
Acronym: GeoSPARQL
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/geosparql/
Description: The OGC GeoSPARQL standard supports representing and querying geospatial data on the Semantic Web. GeoSPARQL defines a vocabulary for representing geospatial data in RDF, and it defines an extension to the SPARQL query language for processing geospatial data.
Current Version: 1.0
Schema location: Not available
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
GeoPackage Encoding Standard
Acronym: GeoPackage
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/geopackage/
Description: A GeoPackage is an open, standards-based, platform-independent, portable, self-describing, compact format for transferring geospatial information.
Current Version: 1.1.1
Schema location: https://www.geopackage.org/
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: Raster or vector files
Primary purpose : Structured document exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
PipelineML
Acronym: PipelineML
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/geosparql/
Description: The OGC PipelineML Conceptual and Encoding Model Standard defines concepts supporting the interoperable interchange of data pertaining to oil and gas pipeline systems. PipelineML supports the common exchange of oil and gas pipeline information.
Current Version: 1.0
Schema location: Not available
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
WaterML
Acronym: WaterML
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/geosparql/
Description: WaterML is a standard information model for the representation of water observations data, with the intent of allowing the exchange of such data sets across information systems.
Current Version: 2.0
Schema location: http://schemas.opengis.net/waterml/
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
GroundWaterML
Acronym: WaterML
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/geosparql/
Description: WaterML is a standard information model for the representation of water observations data, with the intent of allowing the exchange of such data sets across information systems.
Current Version: 2.0
Schema location: http://schemas.opengis.net/waterml/
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
Web Feature Service
Acronym: WFS
Organisation responsible: OGC
Official web page: https://www.ogc.org/standard/wfs/
Description: WFS is a standard for retrieving and manipulating geographic features over the web. It allows clients to request specific features from a server and supports operations like querying, filtering, and editing.
Current Version: 2.0.2
Schema location: https://docs.ogc.org/is/09-025r2/09-025r2.html
Standard: Not applicable
Type of data: XML
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
Non-OGC Formats
GeoJSON
Acronym: GeoJSON
Organisation responsible: the Geographic JSON working group
Official web page: https://geojson.org/
Description: GeoJSON is a format for encoding a variety of geographic data structures.
Current Version: RFC 7946
Schema location: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7946
Standard: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7946
Type of data: JSON
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Available on request
Shapefile
Acronym: Shapefile
Organisation responsible: esri
Official web page: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/reference/shapefiles.htm#:~:text=A%20shapefile%20is%20an%20Esri,and%20contains%20one%20feature%20class.
Description: A shapefile is an Esri vector data storage format for storing the location, shape, and attributes of geographic features. It is stored as a set of related files and contains one feature class
Current Version: RFC 7946
Schema location: https://www.esri.com/content/dam/esrisites/sitecore-archive/Files/Pdfs/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf
Standard: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7946
Type of data: Digital vector storage
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Not available
Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community
Acronym: Inspire
Organisation responsible: European Commission
Official web page: https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/
Description: It establishes a framework for the interoperability of European spatial data infrastructure.
Current Version: Not applicable
Schema location: https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/Themes/Data-Specifications/2892
Type of data: Metadata, spatial data sets and spatial data services
Primary purpose : Structured data exchange and Structured data storage
API available: Not available
License details: Open data
Data model (Power BI): Not available
UK GEMINI
Acronym: Gemini
Organisation responsible: The Association for Geographic Information
Official web page: https://www.agi.org.uk/uk-gemini/
Description: GEMINI is a geospatial metadata standard developed in the United Kingdom. It focuses on providing a concise and accessible description of geospatial datasets and services. GEMINI aims to promote metadata interoperability, simplify the creation and management of metadata, and enhance the discovery and use of geospatial resources.
Current Version: 2.3
Schema location: https://guidance.data.gov.uk/publish_and_manage_data/harvest_or_add_data/harvest_data/gemini/#iso-19139
Standard: https://www.iso.org/standard/32557.html
Type of data: GEMINI is the UK standard for spatial metadata. It’s based on ISO 19139 and takes into account the needs of INSPIRE too.
Primary purpose : Structured data storage
API available: Not available
License details: Open data / Licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
Data model (Power BI): Available on request