Best practices

A Community standard is an official position of the OGC endorsing a specification or standard developed external to the OGC. A Community standard is considered to be a normative standard by OGC membership and part of the OGC Standards Baseline. OGC Best Practices highlight the practical use of one or more OGC standards within a specific domain or to address particular use cases. Best Practices can describe how the standards are applied against scenarios or define a profile of a standard to tailor that standard to the requirements of a specific community. Prior to 2019, OGC Best Practices also included reference to the use of standards and specifications originating outside the OGC. Schemas for some of these documents can be at the Best Practices Schema Repository

Document Title (click to view/download) OGC Doc.# Editor Publication Date
OGC Best Practice for using SensorThings API with Citizen Science21-068Andreas Matheus2022-09-29
This document introduces an extension to the OGC SensorThings data model and discusses the best practices for using such an extension in the ...Click to continue reading
OGC Integrated Methane Sensor Web for Emissions Management Best Practice - Part I - Fugitive Emissions Management based on AE21-070Steve Liang2022-07-13
Methane (CH4) is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, and the comparative impact of methane is 25 times greater than CO2 over a 10...Click to continue reading
OGC Best Practice for Earth Observation Application Package20-089r1Pedro Gonçalves2021-12-14
Platforms for the exploitation of Earth Observation (EO) data have been developed by public and private companies in order to foster the us...Click to continue reading
Defence Geospatial Information Working Group (DGIWG) GMLJP2/JP2 Profile for Imagery & Gridded Data 2.1.221-007DGIWG2021-11-16
This document provides a profile for JPEG 2000 for use as a compression format for raster imagery. JPEG 2000 uses discrete wavelet tr...Click to continue reading
EO Collection GeoJSON(-LD) Encoding17-084r1Y. Coene, U. Voges, O. Barois2021-04-21
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) [NR1] has been gaining in popularity for encoding data in Web-based applications. JSON consists ...Click to continue reading
Volume 14 OGC CDB Guidance on Conversion of CDB Shapefiles into CDB GeoPackages (Best Practice)19-066Michala Hill2021-02-26
This OGC Best Practice (BP) document describes the conversion process for converting a CDB structured Shapefile into a CDB structured GeoPack...Click to continue reading
Volume 12: OGC CDB Navaids Attribution and Navaids Attribution Enumeration Values16-003r4Carl Reed2021-02-26
This OGC Best Practice, a volume of the CDB document set, provides a list and description of the instance-level attribution fields held in ...Click to continue reading
Volume 10: OGC CDB Implementation Guidance16-006r5Carl Reed2021-02-26
This document provides detailed implementation guidance for developing and maintaining a CDB compliant data store.
Volume 8: CDB Spatial and Coordinate Reference Systems Guidance16-011r5Carl Reed2021-02-26
Volume 8 of the CDB standard defines the conceptual model and the methodologies that allow the description, and transformation or conversio...Click to continue reading
Volume 7: OGC CDB Data Model Guidance (Best Practice)16-010r5Carl Reed2021-02-26
This CDB Volume provides Guidelines, Clarifications, Rationales, Primers, and additional information for the definition and use of various models that can be stored in a CDB compliant data store.
Volume 6: OGC CDB Rules for Encoding Data using OpenFlight16-009r5Carl Reed2021-02-26
This volume defines the OpenFlight implementation requirements for a CDB conformant data store. Please also see Volume 1 OGC CDB Core Stand...Click to continue reading
Volume 5: OGC CDB Radar Cross Section (RCS) Models (Best Practice)16-004r5Carl Reed2021-02-26
This CDB volume provides all of the information required to store Radar Cross Section (RCS) data within a conformant CDB data store.
Volume 4: OGC CDB Rules for Encoding CDB Vector Data using Shapefiles (Best Practice)16-070r4Carl Reed2021-02-26
This CDB volume provides the information and guidance required to store vector data and attributes using the Esri Shapefile specification in a CDB data store. All shape types are supported to represent point, line, and polygon features.
Volume 2: OGC CDB Core Model and Physical Structure Annexes (Best Practice)16-005r4Carl Reed2021-02-26
This document provides the Annexes for the CDB Core: Model and Physical Structure Standard. The only exception is Annex A, Abstract Test Suite (ATS). The CDB ATS Annex is in Volume 1: Core document.
Volume 0: OGC CDB Companion Primer for the CDB standard (Best Practice)15-120r6Carl Reed2021-02-26
The CDB standard defines a standardized model and structure for a single, “versionable,” virtual representation of the earth. A CDB structu...Click to continue reading
Defence Profile of OGC Web Feature Service 2.015-005r2DGIWG2021-02-26
This document defines the DGIWG profile for the ISO 19142:2010 - Web Feature Service (WFS) including changes made in the OpenGIS Web Feature...Click to continue reading
Defence Geospatial Information Working Group (DGIWG) GeoTIFF/TIFF Profile for Imagery & Gridded Data 2.3.120-095DGIWG2021-02-25
This OGC Best Practice was developed by the Defence Geospatial Information Working Group to address defense and intelligence user community re...Click to continue reading
Defence Profile of OGC Web Map Service 1.3 Revision09-102r3DGIWG2021-02-25
This document defines specific DGIWG requirements, recommendations and guidelines for implementations of the ISO and OGC Web Map Service sta...Click to continue reading
Volume 12: OGC CDB Navaids Attribution and Navaids Attribution Enumeration Values16-003r3Carl Reed2018-12-19
This OGC Best Practice, a volume of the CDB document set, provides a list and description of the instance-level attribution fields held in ...Click to continue reading
Volume 10: OGC CDB Implementation Guidance16-006r4Carl Reed2018-12-19
This document provides detailed implementation guidance for developing and maintaining a CDB compliant data store.
Volume 8: CDB Spatial and Coordinate Reference Systems Guidance16-011r4Carl Reed2018-12-19
Volume 8 of the CDB standard defines the conceptual model and the methodologies that allow the description, and transformation or conversio...Click to continue reading
Volume 7: OGC CDB Data Model Guidance Formerly Annex A Volume Part 216-010r4Carl Reed2018-12-19
This CDB Volume provides Guidelines, Clarifications, Rationales, Primers, and additional information for the definition and use of various ...Click to continue reading
Volume 6: OGC CDB Rules for Encoding Data using OpenFlight16-009r4Carl Reed2018-12-19
This volume defines the OpenFlight implementation requirements for a CDB conformant data store. Please also see Volume 1 OGC CDB Core Stand...Click to continue reading
Volume 5: OGC CDB Radar Cross Section (RCS) Models16-004r4Carl Reed2018-12-19
This CDB volume provides all of the information required to store Radar Cross Section (RCS) data within a conformant CDB data store. Ple...Click to continue reading
Volume 4: OGC CDB Best Practice use of Shapefiles for Vector Data Storage16-070r3Carl Reed2018-12-19
This CDB volume provides the information and guidance required to store vector data and attributes using the Esri Shapefile specification in a CDB data store. All shape types are supported to represent point, line, and polygon features.
Volume 2: OGC CDB Core: Model and Physical Structure: Informative Annexes16-005r3Carl Reed2018-12-19
This document provides the Annexes for the CDB Core: Model and Physical Structure standard. The only exception is Annex A, Abstract Test Suite. The CDB ATS Annex is in Volume 1: Core document.
Volume 0: Primer for the OGC CDB Standard: Model and Physical Data Store Structure15-120r5Carl Reed2018-12-19
The CDB standard defines a standardized model and structure for a single, “versionable,” virtual representation of the earth. A C...Click to continue reading
OGC Moving Features Encoding Extension: netCDF16-114r3Martin Desruisseaux2018-12-18
The netCDF Moving Features encoding extension is a summary of conventions that supports efficient exchange of simple moving featur...Click to continue reading
OGC Best Practice for using Web Map Services (WMS) with Ensembles of Forecast Data16-086r3Jürgen Seib, Marie-Françoise Voidrot-Martinez, Chris Little2018-04-05
This document proposes a set of best practices and guidelines for implementing and using the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web ...Click to continue reading
JSON Encoding Rules SWE Common / SensorML17-011r2Alex Robin2018-01-18
This document describes new JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) encodings for the Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) Common Data Model and ...Click to continue reading
Spatial Data on the Web Best Practices15-107Jeremy Tandy, Linda van den Brink, Payam Barnaghi2017-09-28
This document advises on best practices related to the publication of spatial data on the Web; the use of Web technologies as they may be applied t...Click to continue reading
OGC Moving Features Encoding Extension - JSON16-140r1Kyoung-Sook KIM, Hirotaka OGAWA2017-06-28
This document proposes a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) encoding representation of movement of geographic features as an encodi...Click to continue reading
Volume 12: OGC CDB Navaids Attribution and Navaids Attribution Enumeration Values16-003r2Carl Reed2017-02-23
This OGC Best Practice, a volume of the CDB document set, provides a list and description of the instance-level attribution field...Click to continue reading
Volume 10: OGC CDB Implementation Guidance16-006r3Carl Reed2017-02-23
This document provides detailed implementation guidance for developing and maintaining a CDB compliant data store.
Volume 8: CDB Spatial and Coordinate Reference Systems Guidance16-011r3Carl Reed2017-02-23
Volume 8 of the CDB standard defines the conceptual model and the methodologies that allow the description, and transformation or...Click to continue reading
Volume 7: OGC CDB Data Model Guidance Formerly Annex A Volume Part 216-010r3Carl Reed2017-02-23
This CDB Volume provides Guidelines, Clarifications, Rationales, Primers, and additional information for the definition and use o...Click to continue reading
Volume 6: OGC CDB Rules for Encoding Data using OpenFlight16-009r3Carl Reed2017-02-23
This volume defines the OpenFlight implementation requirements for a CDB conformant data store. Please also see Volume 1 OGC CDB ...Click to continue reading
Volume 5: OGC CDB Radar Cross Section (RCS) Models16-004r3Carl Reed2017-02-23
(RCS) data within a conformant CDB data store. Please note that the current CDB standard only provides encoding rules for usin...Click to continue reading
Volume 4: OGC CDB Best Practice use of Shapefiles for Vector Data Storage16-070r2Carl Reed2017-02-23
This CDB volume provides the information and guidance required to store vector data and attributes using the Esri Shapefile specification in a CDB data store. All shape types are supported to represent point, line, and polygon features.
Volume 2: OGC CDB Core: Model and Physical Structure: Informative Annexes16-005r2Carl Reed2017-02-23
This document provides the Annexes for the CDB Core: Model and Physical Structure standard. The only exception is Annex A, Abstract Test Suite. The CDB ATS Annex is in Volume 1: Core document.
Volume 0: Primer for the OGC CDB Standard: Model and Physical Data Store Structure15-120r4Carl Reed2017-02-23
The CDB standard defines a standardized model and structure for a single, “versionable”, virtual representation of the earth. A C...Click to continue reading
OGC® GML Application Schema - Coverages JPEG2000/JPIP Coverage Encoding Extension14-110r2Dimitri Sarafinof2016-11-02
Coverages represent space/time-varying phenomena, such as satellite imagery, digital elevation models, or digital aerial imagery. ...Click to continue reading
DGIWG - Web Feature Service 2.0 Profile15-005r1Stefan Strobel, Dimitri Sarafinof, David Wesloh, Paul Lacey2016-02-01
This document defines the DGIWG profile for the ISO 19142:2010 - Web Feature Service (WFS) including changes made in the OpenGI...Click to continue reading
DGIWG - Web Map Service 1.3 Profile - Revision09-102r3Stefan Strobel, Dimitri Sarafinof, David Wesloh, Paul Lacey2016-01-29
This document defines specific DGIWG requirements, recommendations and guidelines for implementations of the ISO and OGC Web Ma...Click to continue reading
OGC IOGP/IPIECA Recommended Practice for a Common Operating Picture for Oil Spill Response15-037George Percivall 2015-10-01
Responding to an oil spill requires access to and understanding of many types of information. Effective, coordinated operations f...Click to continue reading
OGC Common DataBase Volume 1 Main Body15-003David Graham2015-07-22
The Common DataBase (CDB) Specification provides the means for a single, versionable, simulation-rich, synthetic representation o...Click to continue reading
OGC Common DataBase Volume 2 Appendices15-004David Graham2015-07-22
The Common DataBase (CDB) Specification provides the means for a single, versionable, simulation-rich, synthetic representation o...Click to continue reading
Unified Geo-data Reference Model for Law Enforcement and Public Safety14-106Carl Reed, Jennifer Harne2015-01-30
This document provides an overview of the Unified Geo-data Reference Model for Law Enforcement and Public Safety (Unified Model). The ...Click to continue reading
OGC® OpenSearch Extension for Earth Observation Satellite Tasking: Best Practice13-039Nicolas Fanjeau, Sebastian Ulrich2014-12-29
This document provides a specification of an OpenSearch extension for Earth Observation Satellites Tasking. This OGC Best Practice ...Click to continue reading
WaterML-WQ – an O&M and WaterML 2.0 profile for water quality data14-003Simon J D Cox, Bruce A Simons2014-12-02
This Best Practice describes how to configure XML documents for single and time series water quality measurements. In addition to sta...Click to continue reading
OGC® Sensor Observation Service 2.0 Hydrology Profile14-004r1Volker Andres, Simon Jirka , Michael Utech2014-10-20
This OGC document defines an OGC Sensor Observation Service (SOS) 2.0 hydrology profile for SOS 2.0 implementations serving OGC Wa...Click to continue reading
OGC RESTful encoding of OGC Sensor Planning Service for Earth Observation satellite Tasking14-012r1Nicolas FANJEAU, Sebastian ULRICH2014-07-17
This OGC® Best Practices document specifies the interfaces, bindings, requirements and conformance classes that enable complete w...Click to continue reading
OGC User Management Interfaces for Earth Observation Services07-118r9P. Denis, P. Jacques2014-04-28
This OGC Best Practice describes how user and identity management information may be included in the protocol specifications for ...Click to continue reading
OGC RESTful Encoding of Ordering Services Framework For Earth Observation Products13-042Daniele Marchionni2014-04-28
This OGC Best Practices document specifies the interfaces, bindings, requirements, conformance classes that enable complete workf...Click to continue reading
OGC Best Practice for using Web Map Services (WMS) with Time-Dependent or Elevation-Dependent Data12-111r1Marie-Françoise Voidrot-Martinez, Chris Little, Jürgen Seib, Roy Ladner, Adrian Custer, Jeff de La B2014-04-14
This document proposes a set of best practices and guidelines for implementing and using the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web...Click to continue reading
OGC Best Practice for Sensor Web Enablement: Provision of Observations through an OGC Sensor Observation Service (SOS)13-015EO2HEAVEN Consortium2014-02-25
This document comprises experiences and recommendations when using Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) concepts. This document focuses o...Click to continue reading
OGC® Best Practice for Sensor Web Enablement Lightweight SOS Profile for Stationary In-Situ Sensors11-169r1Simon Jirka, Christoph Stasch, Arne Bröring2014-02-25
This Best Practice document describes a lightweight SOS 2.0 profile for stationary in-situ sensors. Besides the SOS itself this ...Click to continue reading
Modeling an application domain extension of CityGML in UML12-066Linda van den Brink, Jantien Stoter, Sisi Zlatanova2014-01-31
This paper presents key aspects of the development of a Dutch 3D standard IMGeo as a CityGML ADE. The new ADE is modeled using UM...Click to continue reading
OGC Download Service for Earth Observation Products Best Practice13-043Daniele Marchionni, Raul Cafini2014-01-31
This OGC® Best Practices document specifies the interfaces, bindings, requirements, conformance classes for online download of E...Click to continue reading
OGC® Name Type Specification for Coordinate Reference Systems11-135r2Peter Baumann2013-06-18
This document specifies a Name Type Specification (NTS) for predefined, combined, and parameterized Coordinate Reference System (...Click to continue reading
EO Product Collection, Service and Sensor Discovery using the CS-W ebRIM Catalogue11-035r1Frédéric Houbie, Steven Smolders2013-03-26
This is an OGC Best Practice document describing the relations that exist between several metadata conceptual models (EO Product,...Click to continue reading
WAMI Services: Dissemination Services for Wide Area Motion Imagery - Best Practice12-032r2Rahul Thakkar, Michael Maraist2012-12-05
This OGC Best Practice (BP) describes web interface specifications for the access and dissemination of Wide Area Motion Imagery (...Click to continue reading
Semantic annotations in OGC standards08-167r2Frédéric Houbie, Philippe Duchesne, Patrick Maué2012-10-10
In this OGC Best Practice, the concept of semantic annotations is introduced. Annotation of Web Services or data compliant to OGC...Click to continue reading
Cataloguing Earth Observation Products for ebXML Registry Information Model 3.0 based Catalogues10-189r2Frédéric Houbie; Fabian Skivee2012-06-12
This OGC® document specifies the Earth Observation Products Extension Package for ebXML Registry Information Model 3.0, based on ...Click to continue reading
Gazetteer Service - Application Profile of the Web Feature Service Best Practice11-122r1Panagiotis (Peter) A. Vretanos, Jeff Harrison2012-02-17
This document defines a Gazetteer Service profile of the OGC Web Feature Service Standard. The OGC Gazetteer Service allows a cli...Click to continue reading
OGC® Web Coverage Service 2.0 Primer: Core and Extensions Overview09-153r1Peter Baumann2012-01-25
This document provides an overview on the OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS) 2.0 suite by describing WCS core and extensions. Inten...Click to continue reading
User Management for Earth Observation Services07-118r8P Denis2010-09-08
This document describes how user and identity management information may be included in the protocol specifications for OGC Servi...Click to continue reading
Summary of the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner Operator Phase 1 (AECOO-1) Joint Testbed10-003r1Louis Hecht, Jr., Raj Singh2010-06-04
The Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner Operator, Phase 1 (AECOO-1) Testbed developed and implemented methods to strea...Click to continue reading
GIGAS Methodology for comparative analysis of information and data management systems10-028r1Andrea Biancalana, Pier Giorgio Marchetti, Paul Smits2010-06-04
This document has been written on the basis of a methodology developed within the GIGAS Support Action financed by the European C...Click to continue reading
Web Map Services - Application Profile for EO Products07-063r1Thomas H.G. Lankester2009-11-05
This OGC document specifies a constrained, consistent interpretation of the WMS specification that is applicable to government, academic and commercial providers of EO products.
DGIWG WMS 1.3 Profile and systems requirements for interoperability for use within a military environment09-102Cyril Minoux2009-09-02
This document specifies requirements for systems providing maps using OGC Web Map Service. The document defines a profile of OGC ...Click to continue reading
Compliance Test Language (CTL) Best Practice06-126r2Chuck Morris2009-07-21
This document establishes Compliance Test Language, an XML grammar for documenting and scripting suites of tests for verifying that an implementation of a specification complies with the specification.
PDF Geo-registration Encoding Best Practice Version 2.208-139r3George Demmy, Carl Reed2011-01-17
The intended audience of this document is a developer of software for creating and consuming geo=registered PDF documents that co...Click to continue reading
OGC® KML Standard Development Best Practices08-125r1Tim Wilson, David Burggraf2009-02-04
This OGC® Best Practices Document provides guidelines for developing the OGC KML standard in a manner that best serves and suppor...Click to continue reading
Definition identifier URNs in OGC namespace07-092r3Arliss Whiteside2009-01-15
This document specifies Universal Resource Names (URNs) in the “ogc” URN namespace to be used for identifying definitions. These ...Click to continue reading
Sensor Web Enablement Architecture06-021r4Ingo Simonis2008-08-20
This document describes the architecture implemented by Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement Initiative (SWE). In contrast to other OGC SWE stan-dards, this document is not an implementation standard.
A URN namespace for the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)07-107r3Carl Reed2008-05-02
This document describes a URN (Uniform Resource Name) namespace that is engineered by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for naming persistent resources published by the OGC. The formal Namespace identifier (NID) is ogc.
OpenGIS Sensor Planning Service Application Profile for EO Sensors07-018r2Philippe M2008-01-21
The SPS configuration proposed in this profile is intended to support the programming process of Earth Observation (EO) sensors s...Click to continue reading
Reference Model for the ORCHESTRA Architecture07-097Thomas Uslander (Ed.)2007-10-05
This document specifies the Reference Model for the ORCHESTRA Architecture (RM-OA). It is an extension of the OGC Reference Model...Click to continue reading
GML Encoding of Discrete Coverages (interleaved pattern)06-188r1Simon Cox2007-05-17
This specification describes a GML encoding for discrete coverages. The encoding pattern is a variation from the standard GML Cov...Click to continue reading
Sensor Alert Service06-028r3Ingo Simonis2007-05-16
The Sensor Alert Service (SAS) can be compared with an event notification system. The sensor node is the object of interest. Each node has to advertise its publications at a SAS (advertise).
Web Notification Service06-095Ingo Simonis, Johannes Echterhoff2007-01-25
A service by which a client may conduct asynchronous dialogues (message interchanges) with one or more other services. This serv...Click to continue reading
GML PIDF-LO Geometry Shape Application Schema for use in the IETF06-142r1Carl Reed, PhD. and Martin Thomson2007-05-17
This document defines an application schema of the Geography Markup Language (GML) version 3.1.1 for XML encoding of various geom...Click to continue reading
FGDC CSDGM Application Profile for CSW 2.006-129r1Patrick Neal, John Davidson, Bruce Westcott2006-12-26
The OpenGIS® Catalogue Service Interface Standard 2.0.1 - FGDC CSDGM Application Profile for CSW 2.0 explains how Catalogue Servi...Click to continue reading
Gazetteer Service - Application Profile of the Web Feature Service Implementation Specification05-035r2Jens Fitzke, Rob Atkinson2006-07-27
This document defines a Gazetteer Service profile of the OGC Web Feature Service Specification. The OGC Gazetteer Service allows a client to search and retrieve elements of a georeferenced vocabulary of well-known place-names.
Binary Extensible Markup Language (BXML) Encoding Specification03-002r9Craig Bruce2006-01-18
This OGC Best Practices document specifies a binary encoding format for the efficient representation of XML data, especially scie...Click to continue reading
OpenGIS Web services architecture description05-042r2Arliss Whiteside2005-11-21
This document summarizes the most significant aspects of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services architecture, which th...Click to continue reading
Units of Measure Recommendation02-007r4John Bobbitt2002-08-19
Common semantic for units of measurement to be used across all OGC specifications.

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