The Office Of Spatial Data Management

What are Standards?

A Standard is a published document which sets specifications and procedures designed to ensure that a material, product, method or service is fit for its purpose and consistently performs the way it was intended to.  It helps to create common terms, definitions, language and structure and will ensure a uniform summary description (metadata) of a resource or dataset that is then “computer readable”. 

Early Standards were focused on physical products, design and installation and testing. Currently Standards are a vehicle for the sharing of knowledge, technology and good practices: an essential component of the world-wide industrial and post-industrial infrastructure supporting economic activities, societal needs and more equitable opportunities – in other words, sustainable development.

 

Why are Standards important?

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Geographic (or geospatial) information – that is, information associated with a location on the Earth’s surface – has traditionally been associated with cartography and surveying. Today, more and more people are gaining access to geographic information and using it in business processes and systems to assist decision-making within and between many organisations. In particular, Government Agencies are required to respond quickly to disaster situations and much of the information needed to make an efficient and accurate response is based on geography.

The widespread use of geographic information is creating a need for standards. Consistent and accessible information, and associated systems and services contribute to making life simpler and increase the reliability and effectiveness of the goods and services we use.

There are three types of geospatial-related standards:

• Content standards - including land use codes, surveyor codes, data dictionaries for cadastre, geographical place names, bathymetry;
• Access standards - including GDA94, ISO 19100 series (Geographic information), ISO 23950 (Information Retrieval - Z39.50), most OpenGIS® standards; and
• Exchange standards - including Geography Markup Language (GML), XML 3D (X3D), Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs aka URLs).

Further information

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• The ANZLIC Metadata Profile >>>>
• ANZMet Lite metadata collection tool and educational resources >>>>
• ANZLIC metadata resources >>>>
• The ANZLIC Website www.anzlic.org.au/metadata

Standards in Australia & New Zealand

• Standards Australia Limited (SA) has a close relationship with Standards New Zealand (SNZ) – part of a regional cooperation agreement – agreeing to prepare and publish joint standards where appropriate.
• The Joint Technical Committee IT-004, a group of experts from industry, governments, consumers and other sectors, is responsible for standards relating to Geographical information/Geomatics. Standards Australia also represents Australia on ISO/TC 211.
• The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) and New Zealand e-Government initiatives are promoting an interoperability framework which adopts many W3C standards for implementing on-line government web services.

International standards

• The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a world-wide federation of national standards bodies. It is responsible for promoting the development of standards to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services. Within ISO, Technical Committee 211 (ISO/TC 211) is dedicated to developing and deploying standards relating to Geographic information / Geomatics, also known as the ISO 19100 series. Whilst the core standards are conceptual, they provide a solid foundation for the development of technological implementations.
• The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) works closely with ISO/TC 211. OGC is an international consortium of businesses, governments and universities that develops publicly available geoprocessing specifications, or OpenGIS® Specifications. These support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the internet, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. They also empower technology developers to make spatial information and services more accessible to users. OpenGIS® Specifications often relate to technology implementations, including definition of interfaces; with some being formalised as ISO 19100 standards.
• The United States Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) actively provides international leadership in implementing spatial data standards through sponsorship of international bodies such as ISO and OGC.
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops standards for interoperable technologies that enable the delivery of geospatial information on-line.