1. Standards for Geographic Information and Services
Status and Overview of Relevant Standards and their Implementation
Douglas Nebert, GSDI/FGDC

2. Why Geo Standards? Standardization lets peers communicate
Minimizes cost of uptake of new information
Maximizes utility and stability of information products
Permits more applications to operate under known conditions

3. Roles of Consensus Organizations
ISO provides general purpose standards and specifications as guidance to implementation
Industry Consortia provide technical implementation specifications
National/Community groups define common practices, content, and interaction within and outside the group

4. Introduction to Standardization Organizations
Many standardization activities exist with different roles and responsibilities that are relevant to implementing SDIs:
International Organisation of Standardization (ISO TC 211, TC 204, JTC-1)
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
OpenGIS Consortium (OGC)
National Standards Organizations

5. Geospatial Standardization
OpenGIS
Consortium, W3C
Software interfaces
(Implementation
Specifications)
GSDI
Regional
SDI Coordination
Endorsed practices and specifications
SDI
Other
NSDIs
ISO TC 211
Foundations for
implementation.
(Abstract standards)
National
Standards
Content standards,
Authority for data

6. Interactions ISO TC 211 TC 204 JTC-1 National Standards Organizations
Class A
liaison
XML Protocol (XMLP),
XML Signature, I18N
Class C Liaison:
XML, I18N
OpenGIS
Consortium
(OGC)
Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF)
ISO
W3C: HTTP, PNG, RDF, SOAP/XMLP (Web Services Activity), XML, Xlink, Xpath, Xpointer, XSL/XSLT, XML Schema
OGC: Web Map Server, Web Feature Server, GML, Web Coverage Server, Style Layer Descriptor, Catalog Service
ISO: Ref Model, Terminology, Conformance testing, Profiles, Spatial Schema, Temporal Schema, Feature Cataloguing Methodology, Spatial Ref by Coords and Ids, Quality, Metadata, WMS, GML, LBS, Registration of Geo-information Items
Metadata Profile, Data Content Standards, etc.
TC 211
TC 204
World Wide
Web Consortium
(W3C)
JTC-1
Provide
expertise &
candidate stds.
Review &
approve
stds.
Facilitation Bodies
Establish definition of and terms of engagement in *SDI
GSDI
ANZLIC
PCGIAP
FGDC
PC-IDEA
INSPIRE
GeoConnections
CODI/UNECA
AGI …
I18N is W3C Internationalization Activity
National
Standards
Organizations
Adopter/
Implementer Community

7. Community Coordination
Regional and State coordination groups provide a forum for selection and information on building a consistent network of solution
National coordination bodies provide a forum for agreement on the common adoption of a suite of standards and practices that as a whole will function as a Spatial Data Infrastructure
The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) initiative seeks to promote compatible SDIs worldwide

8. ISO Technical Committee 211...
... has the objective to develop a family of international standards that will:
support the understanding and usage of geographic information
increase the availability, access, integration, and sharing of geographic information, enable inter-operability of geospatially enabled computer systems
contribute to a unified approach to addressing global ecological and humanitarian problems
ease the establishment of geospatial infrastructures on local, regional and global level
contribute to sustainable development

9. TC-211 Primary Member List
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
China
Czech Rep.
Denmark
Finland
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Japan
Republic of Korea
Malaysia
Morocco
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States of America
Yugoslavia 3

10. ISO TC211 Work Items

11. Relevant ISO TC 211 standards
19109 Rules for Application Schema
19110 Methodology for Feature Cataloguing
19115 Metadata (Data)
19119 Services (Metadata)
19128 Web Map Services (WMS)
19138 Geography Markup Language (GML)

12. Problem: The ability to exchange software and data models between software development (CASE) systems and data in a system-and vendor-neutral manner
Solution: Unified Modeling Language (UML)
Evidence: Support by software design and CASE environment, ISO TC 211 endorsed conceptual schema language

13. What is UML? Unified Modeling Language
UML is an industry standard language for visualizing, specifying, constructing, and documenting artifacts of a software-intensive system
Platform-neutral environment for abstract modeling of data and processes
Adopted as the Conceptual Schema Language for ISO TC 211
Core message -- second bullet
UML can be used to communicate system and software design throughout the life cycle 9

14. UML Concepts
A community standard led by the Object Management Group (OMG)
The UML may be used to:
Model a system & its major functions using use cases and actors
Illustrate use case realizations with interaction diagrams
Represent a static structure of a system using class diagrams
Model the behavior of objects with state transition diagrams
The last set of slides briefly introduces most of the UML notations.
NOTE: Not all notations are covered due to time constraints 12

15. UML Diagrams Use Case Diagrams Scenario Collaboration State Component
Deployment
Object
Statechart
Sequence
Class
Activity
Models

16. UML Class Diagram

17. World Wide Web Consortium
Mission: “to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability.”
A Recommendation is work that represents consensus within W3C and has the Director's stamp of approval. W3C considers that the ideas or technology specified by a Recommendation are appropriate for widespread deployment and promote W3C's mission.
Such specifications developed within W3C must be formally approved by the Membership. Consensus is reached after a specification has proceeded through the review stages of Working Draft, Proposed Recommendation, and Recommendation.

18. W3C Contributions HTML HTTP PNG SOAP/XMLP SVG URI/URL XHTML XLink XML
XML Query
XML Schema
XPath
XPointer
XSL and XSLT
CSS
DOM
Hypertext Markup Language
HyperText Transport Protocol
Portable Network Graphics
Simple Object Access Protocol
XML Protocol
Scalable Vector Graphics
Uniform Resource Identifier/Uniform Resource Locator
XHTML
Xlink
eXtensible Markup Language
Xpath: system to navigate through XML documents and perform operations
Xpointer: allows elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources
XSL: XML Style Language
XSLT: XML Style Language Transformation
CSS: Cascading style sheets
DOM: Document Object Model

19. Problem: The inability to express a common format and support it with widely available software parsing tools
Solution: XML and XML-Schema provide the context and structure to support encoding of many types of information. XSLT permits the easy transformation of XML
Evidence: Implemented by hundreds of software products and solutions providers

20. XML 1.0
eXtensible Markup Language is a partial subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML: ISO 8879:1988)
Intended to store the structure and relationship of information in a readily parseable format
Expressed as characters, though element contents can also be numbers or links
Non-Latin character sets are also supported in XML

21. What is XML Schema ?
Another more powerful data description language to assist in validation of XML
It is more precise than (and replaces) a DTD. It is the workhorse of XML!
Supports data types and restrictions
Simple and complex structures
© Galdos Systems Inc. April 2002

22. SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol
“I can deliver your message over HTTP, HTTP/S or SMTP “
Your message
SOAP provides an XML envelope for your message

23. What is SOAP ?
A messaging protocol: an XML syntax for sending messages over the Internet via HTTP, SMTP, etc.
W3C work item to move SOAP to the XML Protocol (XMLP)
Fundamental part of message handling via Microsoft .NET
© Galdos Systems Inc. April 2002

24. SOAP Design SOAP Message <soap:envelope> HTTP Headers
<soap:header>
</soap:header>
<soap:body>
XML DATA GOES HERE
</soap:body>
</soap:envelope>
HTTP Headers
SOAP Envelope
SOAP Header
SOAP Body

25. Why SOAP ? Simple, extensible, platform-independent (cf. COM or CORBA)
Works across firewalls since it is transported over HTTP and HTTP/S.
Widely supported in commercial tools.
Many language bindings are available: Java, C++, Python, Perl, etc.

26. Vendor-specific Web Services
Built on SOAP or .net architectures
Microsoft Terraserver.net and MapPoint .NET solutions for web map interaction
ESRI ArcWeb SOAP-enabled map interaction and display
Anyone can implement Web Services, but unless the vocabulary and messages are well-known, interoperability is hindered

27. OpenGIS Consortium
OGC Vision
A world in which everyone benefits from geographic information and services made available across any network, application, or platform.
OGC Mission
Our core mission is to deliver spatial interface specifications that are openly available for global use.
Focus on interoperability of software at the interface level to promote plug-and- play components for geographic information interchange
Not-for-profit, international consortium
220+ industry, government, NGO and university members

28. OGC Specifications Simple Features Access (SQL, CORBA, OLE)
Catalog Services
Grid Coverages
Coordinate Transformation Services
Web Map Server Interfaces
Geography Markup Language
Web Feature Service
Filter Encoding Specification
Styled Layer Descriptor
Web Coverage Service

29. Problem: To make a request for a map from different map services regardless of vendor using the same request language
Solution: OGC Web Map Server interface
Evidence: Broad commercial implementation as an add-on to proprietary map services

30. OGC Web Map Server 1.1.1
Establishes a common vocabulary for the request and delivery of a raster graphic based on a number of parameters using GET/POST
Three operations:
Capabilities: returns service and layer information
Map: returns map based on request arguments
FeatureInfo: returns attribute information for the selected feature(s)
Now supports SLD reference to apply custom style to layer

31. Client Web Browser getMap Software A Data Software B Data
Request
Response with single or
Multiple maps as GIF/JPEG
Integrative
Web Server
getMap
WMS Interface
Software A
Data
Software B
Data

32. GetMap Request Example:
?WMTVER=
1.0.0
&REQUEST=map&
SRS=EPSG%3A4326&BBOX= ,24.913,78.794,36.358&
WIDTH=560&HEIGHT=350&LAYERS=BUILTUPA_1M%3ACubeWerx,
COASTL_1M%3ACubeWerx,POLBNDL_1M%3ACubeWerx
&STYLES=0XFF8080,0X101040,BLACK&FORMAT=PNG&BGCOLOR=0xFFFF
FF&
TRANSPARENT=FALSE&EXCEPTIONS=INIMAGE&QUALITY=MEDIUM

34. Problem: No vendor-independent way to format vector feature and attribute information for exchange over the Web
Solution: Geography Markup Language (GML)
Evidence: Commercial implementations and national service implementations (Ordnance Survey, UK)

35. Geography Markup Language (GML 2.1.2)
OGC “Adopted Specification” (GML currrent) for encoding spatial information.
A set of XML technologies (schema fragments) for expressing spatial data on the Internet.
Emerging international standard for spatial data—endorsed by companies and agencies around the world.
Propose GML Version 3.0 by early 2003
© Galdos Systems Inc. April 2002

36. GML: What is it? OGC Web Feature Service getFeature()
Geographic Data Server
GML/XML Data
Links to other geographic data

37. Feature : named list of properties
FeatureType (road)
name
description
geometry
length
direction

38. GML Feature GML Namespace <exp:Building fid = “st100”>
<exp:noFloors>100</exp:noFloors>
<exp:use>Residential</exp:use>
<exp: surfaceArea>100000</exp:surfaceArea>
<exp: frontsOn>Georgia Street</exp:frontsOn>
<exp:streetNumber>1150</exp:streetNumber>
<gml:locationOf>
<gml:Point srsName = “ … “>
<gml:coordinates> ,
</gml:coordinates>
</gml:Point>
</gml:locationOf>
</ exp: Building>
GML Namespace
© Galdos Systems Inc. April 2002

39. Problem: No consistent way to request and receive well-known packages of vector information as a Web service
Solution: OGC Web Feature Server provides for request and response of vector data
Evidence: OGC WFS recently approved but beta implementations available from main GIS vendors

40. OGC Web Feature Server 1.0
Provides discovery and request interfaces for selecting “vector” spatial data and their attributes
May use OGC Filter Expression or other query language
Returns “raw” data structures as ASCII, XML, GML
May support transactional locking

41. OGC Web Feature Server WFS OGC Web Feature Server
Specifications V 1.0.0)
REQUEST:
GetCapabilities
DescribeFeatureType
Query
Transaction (insert, modify, delete)
Lock Feature
Schema Synchronization
App. Server
Presentation/
Analysis Client
OPERATIONS:
Describe Capabilities
Describe Feature Schema
Get a Feature
Insert a Feature
Update a Feature
Delete a Feature
Modify Feature Schema
Lock Features
RETURN :
Capabilities (XML)
Feature Schema (XML/S)
Feature + Attribute (XML- GML)
Feature Transaction (XML- GML)
WFS
WFS
Feature access
/modification

42. Chaining/Stacking OGC Services
Client
Web Browser
Application
Application
WMS interface
Rendering
Map server
Map Server service
WFS interface
Feature Delivery
Feature Server
Feature Server service
SFA interface
Feature Access
Native DBMS
Simple Feature Access Server

43. Scope of National Solutions
Content Standards for Fundamental Data
Feature Type Catalogs
Standard Data Models for Exchange
Unique Identifiers on Features
Place names (Digital Gazetteer)
Geodetic Reference Systems
National Information Profiles of International Standards (ISO)
Data Policies and Laws

44. Calls for requirements
Conceptual process diagram
of Geospatial OneStop
Who?
To whom?
When?
How?
Call for business
requirements of
portal
Portal Team
Review
State and
E-Gov User
Requirements
Target 22+
e-gov initiatives
and other e-gov
Face-to-face
Town Hall
Discussions
Document
existing and
planned data
Service and
Data
Clearinghouse
register
Develop
consolidated
use cases
Initial Portal
Functional
Design
Establish
interface
to services
Prototype
specific
G2G functions
Augment
portal
functionality
refine
Prepare
Questions,
Organize
Extract data
requirements
Prototype
map/data
services
Finalize
map/data
services
refine
Requirements Team
e.g. transportation
Under ANSI
INCITS L1
Standards Teams
Compose/
convene
7 MATs
Write draft
std docs
Extract common
data
requirements
Construct
Draft Model
Construct
Draft
Standard
Vote at
ANSI INCITS L1
Vote at
ANSI
FGDC
Endorsement
revise
Calls for requirements
and participation
revise
Public
Review
Public
Review
time (not to scale)

45. Standardization approach
Convene subject matter experts with modelers in a facilitated environment to develop a content standard for common themes of data
Meet under the auspices of the ANSI/INCITS organization to maintain an open and inclusive process

46. The Framework Core Data Content Standards…
Define a well-known package of GIS data in UML with XML representation that can be exchanged without negotiation for immediate use for multiple common uses
More robust packages can be defined and exchanged by the same approach, but one must support Core at a minimum
Do not define the internal data models used in mission critical systems, only a package for import and export

47. Framework Standards Base Standard Source – INCITS/L1 Air Elevation
Rail
Air
Roads
Elevation
Transportation
Transit
Base Standard
Waterways
Cadastral
Geodetic Control
Thematic modules contribute to the Base Standard to establish common content, required elements, for the collection and exchange of NSDI framework themes. The goal is to decrease costs of acquiring and exchanging framework data for creators and users through the common description of the content of these seven critical themes.
Governmental
Units
Orthoimagery
Hydrography
Source – INCITS/L1

48. Participation and Requirements
Extract features, identifiers, attributes, and relationships required for each Framework theme from requirements analysis conducted through the participatory process
Request for participation in process teams:
Modeling Advisory Team
Contributor
Subscriber
Reviewer

49. Generalized Modeling Approach
Universe of Discourse
(each of 7 communities)
Conceptual
Model
Feature Model in UML
expert intervention
Application
Schema
Conceptual Model using
ISO 19118/19103 objects in UML
UML-XML encoding transform
Common Community Data
Transfer in XML-Schema (GML)
Data Transfer
Schema
XML validation
Encoded Feature Data in XML

50. Common Elements of Core
Feature types (classes) included
Unique feature identifier system
Basic attributes
Controlled vocabulary, codes, authorities
Valid at a range of scales and resolutions
Multiple representations of same features possible

51. Interoperability based on a common data model for data exchange
Content
Model
import
export
Mission
System 1
API
API
Mission
System 2
Core
Framework
Encoding
export
import
API
Mission
System 3

52. Navigating many choices
Standardization should be a least-cost means of establishing a common means of interaction between participants in a process
Community facilitators can play a critical role in building consensus on a requirements-based architecture and then specifying the context of relevant standards, specs, and practices to be adopted

53. The players NSDI ISO National Standards National Organizations
OpenGIS
Consortium
(OGC)
World Wide
Web Consortium
(W3C)
ISO
Adopter/
Implementer Community
National
Standards
National
Organizations
NSDI
blueprint
Users
Policies,
Agreements,
Technologies
Coordination

54. A blueprint for SDI Metadata for data and services
Data content standards (UML models) for exchange of individual data themes
Data formats for file archiving, download
Data encoding for the Web (XML/GML)
OGC Spatial Web Services Specifications:
Web Map Services
Web Feature Services
Draft Gazetteer Profile of WFS (Placename Service)
Catalog Services (Clearinghouse)

55. Activities and Standards in SDI
ISO 19115, 19119, 19139
OGC Catalog
Services
W3C
XML
OGC
GML
Metadata
Catalog
http,
Z39.50
Data
Production
GAZ
Web Services
WMS
Formats
http
Data
User
WFS
ftp, CD
Data Services
Formats
ISO Feature Catalog
SDTS,
VPF, …
National/Intl Content Standards
Internet

56. Needs and Opportunities
Informing potential adopters about relevant standards and their implementation
Promoting a logical architecture for the interaction of standards-based systems
Building and sharing common feature catalogs, data content, and data exchange standards for files and the Web

57. Questions? Douglas Nebert FGDC Secretariat ddnebert@fgdc.gov
(703)