Overview of National Standards

1
Overview of National Standards

• CGSB Standards Seminar
• C D O'Brien, Chair CGSB - COG
• 24 January 2008

2
Why Standards?

• Geographic information is a valuable commodity,
  and as such there is a market for this
  information. But the market can only survive if
  the recipient can use the geographic data.
• Incompatibility can result from market forces
  that lock users to particular manufacturers
  systems, legacy systems and other causes.

3
Spatial Data Infrastructure Standards

• A Spatial Data Infrastructure endeavours to
  bridge across application areas.
• A high level of interoperability is required for
  both
• data and
• services
• An SDI requires mature broadly scoped standards.

4
Explosion of growth

• The field of Geographic Information Systems is
  poised for an explosion of growth.
• Almost everything is in some way geospatial.
• Conventional databases are including spatial
  referencing, and everything from accounting
  systems to word processors are including "Map"
  type data.

5
Too many incompatible domain specific Standards

• There are only two standard voltages globally
  (100-120) and (220 to 240) so there is only a
  need for two electrical plugs.
• However many countries have different plug
  designs. This was originally intended to protect
  markets, but it ended up limiting trade.
• Geospatial standards need to be flexibleto
  accommodate diversity and generalenough to
  promote interoperability.

6
Underlying incompatibility

• The difficulty is that very little mapping data
  is actually compatible at its core.
• This stems from the different approaches taken to
  model the earth.
• Data fusion from multiple sources only works in
  constrained situations.
• This is a fundamental problem for a Spatial Data
  Infrastructure.
• When an SDI goes beyond discovery,data
  compatibility is a major issue.

7
Data and Services

• There are two broad areas of standardization
• Standards for Services
• Standards for Data
• Both are equally important, but the data
  standards are more long term in nature than the
  service standards.
• Services evolve more quickly than data.

8
Data Standards

• Data standards describe the method by which we
  represent the earth.
• The decisions we make in collecting data,
  establishing feature catalogues, geometry and
  metadata define the content.
• The same data can be exchanged using different
  encapsulations into bits and bytes.

9
Representing the earth

• There are three basic methods by which we
  describe the earth.
• Imagery
• Boundary (vector data) and
• Sets of measurements (e.g. a grid coverage)
• All three approaches share many aspects such as
  spatial referencing, metadata and a feature
  model.

10
The Last Generation of Standards

• The CGSB-COG has been developing geospatial
  standards for over 15 years.
• The initial standards were
• a unique Canadian metadata standard
• a map library standard
• endorsement of the DIGEST military mapping
  standard and
• endorsement of the BC SAIF geospatial modelling
  standard
• These are all now obsolete and have evolved or
  been replaced

11
International Standards through ISO

• Canada has been a participant in the ISO TC/211
  geographic information committee since its
  beginning.
• ISO is developing a standards framework that can
  be used throughout the world.
• But it is very general and needs to be adapted
  through profiles.
• ISO standards are being endorsed and national
  (bi-national) profiles developed.

12
Geospatial Standards Development in Canada

• The public standardization process in Canada is
  managed by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC).
• The Standards Council of Canada is a federal
  Crown corporation operating under act of
  parliament, reporting through the Minister of
  Industry.
• Actual standards are prepared by standards
  writing organizations such as the Canadian
  General Standards Board (CGSB) or the Canadian
  Standards Association (CSA) who are independent
  bodies accredited by the SCC for the development
  of standards in particular disciplines.
• The area of Geographic Information is assigned to
  the CGSB.

13
National Standards

• Accredited standards-development organizations
  may submit standards to the SCC for approval as
  National Standards of Canada.
• A National Standard must be developed by
  consensus of a balanced committee representing
  producers, consumers and other relevant
  interests.
• It must undergo a public review process and be
  available in both official languages.
• It must also be consistent with or incorporate
  appropriate international standards and other
  relevant national standards.
• The national standards committee for Geographic
  Information is the CGSB-COG (CGSB 171/1)

14
Geographic Information Standards Activities in
Canada/GeoConnections CGDI
Is P-member of
ISO
Is a Technical Committee of
ISO Technical Committee (TC) 211
OGC/TC 211 Joint Advisory Group (JAG)
Accredits CAC ISO/TC211 as Canada TWG to
CGDI Development Network
Standards Council of Canada
Is accredited by
Canadian Advisory Committee to ISO/TC 211 (CAC
ISO/TC 211)
CGDI Architecture Advisory Committee
Consortia and Academia
Is Harmonized with
Recommends Standards For
Canadian General Standards Board Committee on
Geomatics (CGSB CoG)
Participate in CGDI development
Open Geospatial Consortium
OMG W3C OASIS etc.
GeoConnections
Is a voting member of
Federal/Territorial Provinces Municipalities Priva
te Academia NGOs
Is strategic member of
Federal Standards
Other Standards Development Organizations
ANSI Accredited Standards Development
Organization
15
Areas of Interest for International Geospatial
standards

• There are six areas of international interest
  with respect to the standardization of geographic
  information of concern to the CGDI. These are
• ISO TC211 - Geographic Information/Geomatics,
  represented by the Canadian Advisory Committee
  (CAC) on TC211 through the Canadian General
  Standards Board - Committee 171/3
• ISO TC204 - Transportation Information and
  Control Systems --- represented by the Canadian
  Advisory Committee (CAC) on TC204 through the
  Canadian Standards Association.
• ISO JTC1/SC24 - Computer Graphics and Image
  Processing --- represented by the Canadian
  Advisory Committee (CAC) on TCJTC1/SC24 through
  the Canadian Standards Association.

16
Areas of Interest for International Geospatial
standards

• Continued
• ISO JTC1/SC32 - Data Management and Interchange
  --- represented by the Canadian Advisory
  Committee (CAC) on TCJTC1/SC32 through the
  Canadian Standards Association.
• DGIWG - The NATO affiliated Digital Geographic
  Information Working Group (DGIWG) operating
  through the international Military Agency for
  Standardization (MAS) represented by the
  Department of National Defence,
• IHO - The International Hydrographic Organization
  represented through the Canadian Hydrographic
  Service of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans

17
International Standards Status

• ISO TC/211 suite of standards consists of a
  series of base standards. 24 standards, 3
  technical specifications and 3 reports have been
  completed.
• ISO TC204 has developed the Geographic Data Files
  (GDF) for Transportation Information Control
  Systems in 2004, and 51 other standards.
• ISO JTC1/SC24 has developed the Basic Image
  Interchange Format (BIIF) (ISO/IEC IS 12087-5).
  BIFF is based on the US work on the Imagery
  Transmission Format Standard (NITFS). SC24 is
  also involved in Simulation and Modeling that
  uses geographic information.
• ISO JTC1/SC32 has developed the SQL/MM Spatial
  standard for handling of geospatial information
  in SQL databases.
• DGIWG - DIGEST has been available since June
  1991. DGIWG has revised its suite of standards to
  align with ISO TC/211.
• IHO S-57 has been available since 1992. It is
  referenced by the IMO for safe navigation at sea.
  S-100 will align with TC/211.

18
Canadian General Standards Board - Committee on
Geomatics (CGSB-COG)

• Canadian Standards in the field of geomatics are
  developed through the Canadian General Standards
  Board - Committee on Geomatics .
• Three associated committees
• CGSB 171/1 which deals with National standards,
• CGSB 171/1.2 which deals with Map Library
  Cataloguing (sub-committee to 171/1),
• CGSB 171/3 which is a Canadian Advisory Committee
  on ISO TC211, and which advises the Standards
  Council of Canada on Canadian positions with
  respect to ISO TC211 standards developments.
• The next joint meeting is planned for the fall of
  2008.

19
Types of TC211 standards

• There are too many ISO standards to go through in
  detail. They have been organized by type
• Guidance - Intended for the standards writer on
  how to produce a standard in line with the ISO
  TC211 concepts
• Rules - Intended for the developer to build or
  customise information components (schema,
  registers)
• Information Components - Description of
  information components and schema for use in
  systems or data products.
• Services - Intended for service developers to
  build compatible services.
• Reports

20
ISO TC211 Standards
Guidance 19101 Reference model 19101-2 Reference
model- Imagery 19103 Conceptual schema
language 19104 Terminology 19105 Conformance and
testing 19106 Profiles 19132 Location based
services - Reference model
Information Components 6709 Standard
representation of latitude, longitude 19107
Spatial schema 19108 Temporal schema 19111
Spatial referencing by coordinates 19112 Spatial
referencing by geographic identifiers 19115
Metadata 19115-2 Metadata- Imagery 19123 Schema
for coverage geometry functions 19127 Geodetic
Codes and Parameters 19129 Imagery, Gridded and
Coverage framework 19130 Sensor Models 19133
Location based services Tracking
navigation 19134 Multimodal location based
services 19136 Generally used profiles of the
spatial schema 19137 Geography Markup
Language 19138 Data quality measures 19139
Metadata - Implementation specification 19141
Schema for moving features 19144 Classification
Systems LCCS 19145 Registry geographic point
location
Rules 19109 Rules for application schema 19110
Methodology for feature cataloguing 19113 Quality
principles 19114 Quality evaluation
procedures 19126 Profile - Data Dictionary 19131
Product Specifications 19135 Procedures for
registration
Services 19116 Positioning services 19117
Portrayal 19118 Encoding 19119 Services 19125
Simple Feature Access - SQL 19128 Web Map server
interface 19142 Web Feature Service 19143 Filter
encoding
Reports 19120 Functional standards 19121 Imagery
and gridded data 19122 Qualifications/certificatio
n of personnel 19124 Imagery gridded
data components
21
Guidance
19101 Reference model 19101-2 Reference model-
Imagery 19103 Conceptual schema language 19104
Terminology 19105 Conformance and testing 19106
Profiles 19132 Location based services -
Reference model

• The Reference Model gives the overall concept of
  the ISO suite of standards, including a new part
  on imagery, and a separate reference model for
  location based services.
• The Conceptual Schema Language indicated that
  most of the TC211 standards are written in UML.
  It also defines some basic data types.
• Terminology, Conformance and Testing (conformance
  clauses) and Profiles describe the form of
  standards.

22
Rules
19109 Rules for application schema 19110
Methodology for feature cataloguing 19113 Quality
principles 19114 Quality evaluation
procedures 19126 Profile - Data Dictionary 19131
Product Specifications 19135 Procedures for
registration

• The rules standards describe how the TC211 suite
  of standards are to be used
• The most important is 19109 Rules for
  Application Schema which defines the general
  feature model upon which all the TC211 standards
  are based.
• The 19110 Methodology for Feature Cataloguing and
  the 19126 Data Dictionary standard define how to
  handle features.
• 19135 describes how to build Registers.
• 19131 describes how to build Product
  Specifications.
• These are important to data producers within the
  CGDI. National registers will be needed.

23
Information Components
6709 Standard representation of latitude,
longitude 19107 Spatial schema 19108 Temporal
schema 19111 Spatial referencing by
coordinates 19112 Spatial referencing by
geographic identifiers 19115 Metadata 19115-2
Metadata- Imagery 19123 Schema for coverage
geometry functions 19127 Geodetic Codes and
Parameters 19129 Imagery, Gridded and Coverage
framework 19130 Sensor Models 19133 Location
based services Tracking navigation 19134
Multimodal location based services 19136
Generally used profiles of the spatial schema
19137 Geography Markup Language 19138 Data
quality measures 19139 Metadata - Implementation
specification 19141 Schema for moving
features 19144 Classification Systems
LCCS 19145 Registry geographic point location

• Description of information components and schema
  for use in systems or data products.
• Most elements will exist in schema or in
  registers

• There will need to be national registers as part
  of the CGDI for elements such as metadata in the
  North American Profile (NAP) of Metadata.
• There will also need to be cross
  registerauthoritative referencing.

24
Services
19116 Positioning services 19117 Portrayal 19118
Encoding 19119 Services 19125 Simple Feature
Access - SQL 19128 Web Map server
interface 19142 Web Feature Service 19143 Filter
encoding

• Since the CGDI is an infrastructure it is largely
  service based, so at one level the ISO service
  standards are the most important for the CGDI.
• However, the Open Geospatial Consortia (OGC) acts
  as the primary interface to ISO on services.
• Services evolve much more quickly than do data
  standards. ISO defines some overall principles on
  Services, Portrayal and Encoding, and
  organizations such as OGC define specific
  services.
• The OGC specifications, when they are mature, are
  processed as ISO standards.

25
Reports

• Most of the reports that have been developed in
  ISO have been used as part of the standards
  development process to gather information on the
  initial status of an industry before a standard
  was written. In general they are of little
  interest to implementers or users of standards.
• One report is of a very different kind. It
  addresses how qualifications and certification of
  geospatial professionals is addressed in
  different jurisdictions.

26
Industrial Consortia

• The Open GIS Consortia (OGC) is a broadly based
  organization dedicated to open systems
  geoprocessing, primarily from an application
  point of view.
• Produces Implementation Specifications based on
  an RFP proposal process.
• OGC is currently introducing several of its
  Implementation Specifications to ISO TC211 to be
  processed as standards.
• OGC has also adopted several ISO TC211 standards
  as abstract specifications.

27
Industrial Consortia

• There are other industrial consortia in other
  related application areas
• Transportation. Association of Canada which
  addresses the Intelligent Transportation System
  (ITS).
• Synthetic Environment Data Representation
  Interchange Specification (SEDRIS) which
  addresses Simulation and Modelling.

28
Approach to National Standards

• Endorse relevant ISO TC/211 standards.
• The information component, and service standards
  are of the highest priority.
• The rules standards are of secondary priority
• The general guidance and reports are not directly
  needed except for standards writers.
• (Endorsed standards can be obtained through the
  Standards Council of Canada or from ISO.)
• Develop national profiles of important content
  elements
• Develop national application schema and service
  specifications.

29
Implementation through Profiles

• A profile is a subset of one or more standards
  that narrows the choice of options. The narrower
  the choice of options the more focused the
  profile is to a particular application.
• A simple profile is a selection of options from
  just one base standard.

30
Complex profile

• A more complex profile is a selection of elements
  from several base standards. For example an IHO
  S-101 ENC data set specification might select
  elements of metadata, cataloguing, spatial
  referencing, and a common spatial schema from the
  options allowed in the base standards.

31
International Profiles and National Profiles

• The hierarchy of profiles is illustrated below.
  Internationally Standardized Profiles are the
  responsibility of ISO TC211. National Profiles
  are the responsibility of individual national
  bodies, who may establish their own national
  registration authorities. Private or industrial
  sub-sub-domains are the responsibility of
  individual nations.

• Many profiles will consist of registers of
  information elements tailored to a national or
  industrial need.

32
Canadian Geospatial Standards

• The CGSB-COG has recommended that Canada endorse
  the entire suite of TC211 standards, and develop
  its own profiles and implementation
  specifications.
• The proposed set of national base profiles are
• Metadata Profile
• A national feature catalogue taxonomy
• A set of predefined spatial schema
• Quality measures specifications
• Several predefined sets of Portrayal Symbology
  for specific application areas such as public
  safety.

33
North American Profiles

• The CGSB-COG has engaged in discussions with its
  US equivalent organization ANSI INCITS L1 to
  develop common Canada/US standards.
• This is allowed under an SCC/ANSI agreement under
  NAFTA.
• Standards are parallel - identical text adopted
  in both countries.
• The first topic for joint work is a Metadata
  profile of ISO 19115 (NAP).

34
Relation to the CGDI priorities

• The four priorities of the CGDI are
• Public Health,
• Public Safety,
• Environment and Sustainable Development
• Relationship to Aboriginal Peoples
• Standards issues exist in all of these domains.
• Service standards should be general and cover all
  application areas, which means that capabilities
  such as Cultural and Linguistic Adaptability
  needs to be built-in.
• Registers are need of information components that
  can be tailored to include information specific
  to application areas.

35
Standardized Data Products

• Compatibility is greatly increased by the
  establishment of application schema for a set of
  base data products.
• The schema for the Geobase data sets can be
  defined as a national standard.
• In addition, other provincial, municipal or other
  common data schema can be established.

36
Standardized Registers

• Registration provides an alternate, more
  flexible,manner of standardisation.
• ISO TC/211 provides a registration mechanism and
  defines the approach to register many instances
  of information elements.
• National registers are needed for
• metadata
• spatial referencing
• feature definitions, and catalogues
• portrayal symbols and rules
• application schema (including neutral encoding
  such as GML schema)

37

• Additional -
• The Information Elements

38
The Feature Catalogue

• The most fundamental element in a geospatial data
  standard is the feature catalogue.
• Data that share common feature types can
  interoperate.
• Often there is a dictionary of feature types used
  to build compatible feature catalogues.
• An ontology describes relationships between
  features and makes it possible to bridge
  definitions

39
Spatial Referencing

• The next most fundamental geographic standards
  element is Spatial Referencing.
• This includes information about
• ellipsoids,
• datums,
• projections, and
• grids.
• Tables of parameters for predefined reference
  systems are a common approach.
• Alternately positions can be given by reference
  such as postal code.

40
Geometry

• Geometry defines the structure of a set of
  geospatial data including the relationship
  between features.
• This makes up the spatial schema.
• The geometry of an image is a grid or other
  coverage type.

41
Metadata

• Metadata is information about information.
• It is needed to be able to discover and interpret
  data.
• Metadata also drives services and is a shared
  element between most service interfaces and the
  data that is served.

42
Service Standards

• Service standards address how data is
• encoded and exchanged,
• discovered,
• accessed,
• portrayed, and
• utilised in applications

43
Encoding

• A basic principle is the separation of "carrier"
  and "content".
• The same data may be carried as different streams
  of bits and bytes over different media.
• Certain encoding standards are appropriate for
  different applications, such as bit efficient
  binary, or self describing archive formats.
• Some are more efficient, others are easier to
  process.
• GML is becoming the "neutral" exchange format
  not too efficient, but flexible, easy to process
  and widely implemented.

44
Discovery

• The first service that is demanded by users is
  data discovery, in order to be able to find
  available data.
• This service is driven by metadata.
• In Canada we have the need for multilingual data
  discovery, which means we need linguistically
  adaptable metadata.
• Cultural and Linguistic adaptability is required
  to support French, English and aboriginal
  languages.

45
Interconnectivity of Discovery Services

• Metcalfe's law says that the "value" of a
  networked service increases by the square of the
  number of connections on a network and this is
  driven by the amount of information available on
  the network.
• This means that discovery services will continue
  to grow and interconnect.
• The higher the level of interconnectivity the
  more that common metadata standards are required.
• This is a driving factor for NAP.

46
Access to data

• There are a number of different web based
  services that provide access to data.
• The simplest is web mapping.
• All that is needed for web mapping is a
  transformation service so that images and SVG
  renderings of maps are co-located.
• The user integrates multiple sources of data
  with their eyes.

47
Other Web Services

• The OGC has and is developing a number of other
  more sophisticated web services.
• These are feature based.
• The more sophisticated the service the greater
  the need for compatible data at both the format
  level and semantic level.

48
Portrayal

• Common portrayal of data is one of the most
  complex services.
• The ISO standard for portrayal is Feature
  Centred and Rule Based
• Features are portrayed from a symbol set based on
  a set of portrayal rules driven by the feature's
  attributes.