A Standards Presentation to the ISO Joint Workshop on Data and Process Modelling, September 9-13, 1996, Bellevue, WA, U.S.A.
The goal of ISO/TC 211 is to establish a structured set of standards for acquiring, managing, analyzing, accessing, presenting and transferring geographic information in digital/electronic form between different users, systems, and locations. The purpose of the ISO/TC 211 reference model is to identify the major elements of geographic information that are subject to standardization and to describe the relationship between the standards to be developed. When complete, the ISO TC 211 family of standards will consist of over twenty separate specifications. The goal of the reference model is to help ensure that the correct set of standards is developed and that development takes place in an integrated and consistent manner. To meet this goal, the ISO/TC 211 Reference Model currently being developed consists of three major components:
The Domain Reference Model describes, at an abstract level, the major components of the geographic information domain including:
This model makes explicit the relationships between different classes of geographic information and between geographic information and associated processes. The model generalizes and relates the information models underlying the different parts of ISO/TC 211, allowing connections between these parts to be better understood.
The Architectural Reference Model, a specialization of the Open Systems Environment reference model for geographic information, describes the major Information Technology (IT) Services that are needed to support the processes identified in the Domain Reference Model. These services are termed Geographic Information System or GIS Services. The Architectural Reference Model also identifies the major classes of interfaces for which standards should be defined to enable GIS Services to interact and exchange information.
The Standards Reference Model identifies specific standards needed at the interfaces identified in the Architectural Reference Model. These standards will enable implementations of GIS Services to interact with external systems and to exchange the various classes of information identified in the Domain Reference Model. The standards needs identified in the Standards Reference Model can be related to the standards being developed by ISO/TC 211 to determine if these existing projects are complete or if new projects should be started. The identification of specific standards needs also allows identification of those parts of TC 211 that are common to multiple services. This in turn helps determine which parts of TC 211 may need to be integrated and made consistent.
The ISO TC211 Reference Model is not intended merely to provide a high-level description of the different standards under development by the TC but also to function as a tool for ensuring that this set of standards addresses all standards needs in the geographic information domain.
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