Geospatial Data

This section include some information on geospatial data, including terminology, formats and further resources.

The Open Geospatial Consortium are a body involved in many aspects of standardisation of geospatial data formats and sharing processes.

Commonly encountered geospatial data formats include:

• GPX

• GeoPackage

• Geography Markup Language - GML. OpenGIS Standard

• GeoTIFF: known for satellite imagery

• CF-NetCDF: Known for climate simulations

• GeoJSON

Relevant standards for geospatial metadata include:

• ISO 19101: geographic information reference model

• ISO 19115: geographic metadata standard.

• ISO 19139: geographic XML schema for ISO 19115

• ISO 19123: geographic information - coverage geometry and functions

PostGIS is a spatially enabled relational database. GeoSPARQL is a query language for geospatial RDF.

Some geospatial relevant metadata vocabularies and databases include:

• GeoDCAT-AP: DCAT-AP extension for geospatial information.

• GeoNames: Geographical database containing place names.

Data Services

Geospatial data services expose geospatial data on the internet, usually over HTTP.

• Catalogue Services for the Web: a standard for exposing a catalogue of geospatial records in XML on the Internet (over HTTP)

• OGC Catalogue Services

• Web Services Description Language

• Web Map Service (WMS): OGC Standard https://www.ogc.org/standard/wms/

• Web Feature Service (WFS): OGC Standard https://www.ogc.org/standard/wfs/

• ISO 19128: Geographic information - web map server interface

• ISO 19135: Geographic information - procedures for item registration

Further Reading

• Spatial Data on the Web Best Practices