ISO/TC 211 Geographic information/Geomatics explained

ISO/TC 211 is a standard technical committee formed within ISO, tasked with covering the areas of digital geographic information (such as used by geographic information systems) and geomatics. It is responsible for preparation of a series of International Standards and Technical Specifications numbered in the number range starting at ISO-19101. The Chair of the committee was 1994-2016: Olaf Østensen; during 2017-2018: Christina Wasström; and from 2019 Agneta Gren Engberg.

Scope

ISO/TC 211 is concerned with the standardization in the field of digital geographic information.^[1] This work aims to establish a structured set of standards for information concerning objects or phenomena that are directly or indirectly associated with a location relative to the Earth.

Project specification areas within the ISO/TC 211 technical committee include:

• Simple Features access
• Reference models
• Spatial and temporal schemas
• Location-based services
• Metadata
• Web feature and map services
• Classification systems

The ISO/TC 211 work is closely related to the efforts of the Open Geospatial Consortium. ISO/TC 211 have numerous liaisons with other organizations that often results in identical or nearly identical standards often being adopted by both organizations.^[2]

Working Groups

The work within ISO/TC211 is done in working groups, each with a specific focus. The currently active working groups are:

• Working Group 1 - Framework and reference model^[3]
• Working Group 4 - Geospatial services^[4]
• Working Group 6 - Imagery^[5]
• Working Group 7 - Information communities^[6]
• Working Group 9 - Information management^[7]
• Working Group10 - Ubiquitous public access^[8]

There are also a number of disbanded Working Groups:^[9]

• Working Group 2 - Geospatial data models and operators
• Working Group 3 - Geospatial data administration
• Working Group 5 - Profiles and functional standards
• Working Group 8 - Location based services

Revision of standards that were previously part of these working groups are now done directly under the TC since the disbandment of the groups.

Published standards

The list of standards by the ISO/TC 211 committee:^[10]

• ISO 6709:2008 Standard representation of geographic point location by coordinates
• ISO 19101:2002 Geographic information -- Reference model
• ^[11]
  • ISO/TS 19103:2005 Geographic information -- Conceptual schema language
• ISO/TS 19104:2016 Geographic information -- Terminology
• ISO 19105:2000 Geographic information -- Conformance and testing
• ISO 19106:2004 Geographic information -- Profiles
• ISO 19107:2003 Geographic information -- Spatial schema
• ISO 19108:2002 Geographic information -- Temporal schema
• ISO/CD 19109 Geographic information -- Rules for application schema
• ISO 19109:2005 Geographic information -- Rules for application schema
• ISO 19110:2005 Geographic information -- Methodology for feature cataloguing
• ISO 19111:2007 Geographic information -- Spatial referencing by coordinates
• ISO 19111-2:2009 Geographic information -- Spatial referencing by coordinates -- Part 2: Extension for parametric values
• ISO 19112:2003 Geographic information -- Spatial referencing by geographic identifiers
• ISO 19113:2002 Geographic information -- Quality principles
• ISO 19114:2003 Geographic information -- Quality evaluation procedures
• ISO 19115:2003 Geographic information -- Metadata
• ISO/DIS 19115-1 Geographic information -- Metadata -- Part 1: Fundamentals
• ISO 19115-2:2009 Geographic information -- Metadata -- Part 2: Extensions for imagery and gridded data
• ISO 19116:2004 Geographic information -- Positioning services
• ISO 19117:2005 Geographic information -- Portrayal
• ISO 19118:2011 Geographic information -- Encoding
• ISO 19119:2011 Geographic information -- Services
• ISO/TR 19120:2001 Geographic information -- Functional standards
• ISO/TR 19121:2000 Geographic information -- Imagery and gridded data
• ISO/TR 19122:2004 Geographic information/Geomatics -- Qualification and certification of personnel
• ISO 19123:2005 Geographic information -- Schema for coverage geometry and functions
• ISO 19125-1:2004 Geographic information -- Simple feature access -- Part 1: Common architecture
• ISO 19125-2:2004 Geographic information -- Simple feature access -- Part 2: SQL option
• ISO 19126:2009 Geographic information -- Feature concept dictionaries and registers
• ISO/TS 19127:2005 Geographic information -- Geodetic codes and parameters
• ISO 19128:2005 Geographic information -- Web map server interface
• ISO/TS 19129:2009 Geographic information -- Imagery, gridded and coverage data framework
• ISO/TS 19130:2010 Geographic information - Imagery sensor models for geopositioning
• ISO/DTS 19130-2 Geographic information -- Imagery sensor models for geopositioning -- Part 2: SAR, InSAR, Lidar and Sonar
• ISO 19131:2007 Geographic information -- Data product specifications
• ISO 19132:2007 Geographic information -- Location-based services -- Reference model
• ISO 19133:2005 Geographic information -- Location-based services -- Tracking and navigation
• ISO 19134:2007 Geographic information -- Location-based services -- Multimodal routing and navigation
• ISO 19135:2005 Geographic information -- Procedures for item registration
• ISO/TS 19135-2:2012 Geographic information - Procedures for item registration -- Part 2: XML schema implementation
  • ISO 19136:2007 Geographic information -- Geography Markup Language (GML) ISO 19137:2007 Geographic information -- Core profile of the spatial schema
• ISO/TS 19138:2006 Geographic information -- Data quality measures
• ISO/TS 19139:2007 Geographic information -- Metadata -- XML schema implementation
• ISO/DTS 19139-2 Geographic Information -- Metadata -- XML Schema Implementation -- Part 2: Extensions for imagery and gridded data
• ISO 19141:2008 Geographic information -- Schema for moving features
• ISO 19142:2010 Geographic information -- Web Feature Service
• ISO 19143:2010 Geographic information -- Filter encoding
• ISO 19144-1:2009 Geographic information -- Classification systems -- Part 1: Classification system structure
• ISO 19144-2:2012 Geographic information - Classification systems -- Part 2: Land Cover Meta Language (LCML)
• ISO/DIS 19145 Geographic information -- Registry of representations of geographic point location
• ISO 19146:2010 Geographic information -- Cross-domain vocabularies
• ISO/CD 19147 Geographic information -- Location based services -- Transfer Nodes
• ISO 19148:2012 Geographic information -- Linear referencing
• ISO 19149:2011 Geographic information -- Rights expression language for geographic information -- GeoREL
• ISO/PRF TS 19150-1 Geographic information -- Ontology -- Part 1: Framework
• ISO/CD 19150-2 Geographic information -- Ontology -- Part 2: Rules for developing ontologies in the Web Ontology Language (OWL)
• ISO/FDIS 19152 Geographic information -- Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)
• ISO/DIS 19153 Geospatial Digital Rights Management Reference Model (GeoDRM RM)
• ISO/WD 19154 Geographic information -- Ubiquitous public access -- Reference model
• ISO 19155:2012 Geographic information -- Place Identifier (PI) architecture
• ISO 19156:2011 Geographic information -- Observations and measurements
• ISO 19156:2023 Geographic information -- Observations, measurements and samples
• ISO/DIS 19157 Geographic information -- Data quality
• ISO/TS 19158:2012 Geographic information—Quality assurance of data supply
• ISO/DTS 19159-1 Geographic information -- Calibration and validation of remote sensing imagery sensors and data -- Part 1: Optical sensors
• ISO/WD 19160-1 Addressing -- Part 1: Conceptual model
• ISO ISO 19170-1:2021 Geographic information — Discrete Global Grid Systems Specifications — Part 1: Core Reference System and Operations, and Equal Area Earth Reference System

Further reading

• Book: Wolfgang Kresse. David M. Danko. Springer Handbook of Geographic Information. 2012. Springer. 978-3-540-72680-7. 411–422. §13.3.2 ISO/TC 211.
• ISO/TC 211 Multi-Lingual Glossary of Terms

External links

• ISO/TC 211 official website
• Resource site for ISO/TC 211
• ISO/TC 211 committee website
• TC211 wiki
• Standards tracker - bug reports
• GitHub home - standards in progress

Notes and References

1. Web site: ISO/TC 211 Geographic information/Geomatics Scope. ISO/TC211. 9 November 2012.
2. Web site: ISO/TC 211 External Liaisons. ISO/TC 211. 9 November 2012.
3. Web site: Working group 1 - Framework and reference model. ISO/TC 211. 9 November 2012.
4. Web site: Working group 4 - Geospatial services. ISO/TC 211. 9 November 2012.
5. Web site: Working group 6 - Imagery. ISO/TC 211. 9 November 2012.
6. Web site: Working group 7 - Information communities. ISO/TC 211. 9 November 2012.
7. Web site: Working group 9 - Information management. ISO/TC 211. 9 November 2012.
8. Web site: Working group 10 - Ubiquitous public access. ISO/TC 211. 9 November 2012.
9. Web site: Work concluded - Disbanded Groups. ISO/TC 211. 9 November 2012.
10. Web site: ISO/TC 211 Programme of work. ISO/TC 211. 22 November 2012.
11. Web site: ISO 19101-1:2014 Geographic information -- Reference model -- Part 1: Fundamentals. ISO. 27 August 2019.