Imagine being in a new city, opening an app to book a ride and watching it arrive in real time. Or pulling up a navigation app to find the fastest way around traffic. Or tracking a hurricane as it makes its way toward the coast—right from your screen. Did you know that behind each of these actions is a powerful yet invisible framework that makes it all possible: the OGC Simple Features Standard. This foundational geospatial standard ensures that different systems, apps, and platforms speak the same spatial language – allowing them to store, share, and interpret location data with precision and consistency. It’s the quiet force making our digital maps smarter, faster, and more reliable.
What is the OGC Simple Features Standard?
The OGC Simple Features Standard is the foundation of modern geospatial data interoperability, supporting hundreds of millions of GIS applications worldwide. It provides a consistent framework for spatial feature data storage, exchange, and analysis, ensuring compatibility across platforms and preventing vendor lock-in.
Developed by OGC as its first Standard, Simple Features defines how spatial data – such as points, lines, and polygons – should be structured and processed. It ensures that different systems interpret spatial relationships the same way, allowing seamless data sharing across GIS applications.
Unlike proprietary formats that lock data into specific platforms, the Simple Features Standard works across:
- Relational databases (PostgreSQL/PostGIS, MySQL Spatial, SQL Server, Oracle)
- Geospatial file formats (GeoJSON, GeoPackage)
- Web services (OGC API – Features, Web Feature Service (WFS))
This cross-platform compatibility empowers organizations to store, query, and analyze spatial data efficiently – regardless of their technology stack. By underpinning modern standards such as OGC API – Features and container formats like GeoPackage, Simple Features streamlines data exchange and supports transactional workflows, reducing the need for costly format conversions and enhancing long-term usability.
These advancements wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of experts who have shaped the standard over time. One such expert is Keith Ryden, with Esri Software Development, who recalls, “In the mid-90’s, the time was right for the OGC Simple Feature Standard. The industry had a need to make data exchange as seamless as possible using relational and object datastores, and OGC provided an environment in which we could come together to make it happen. Major industry suppliers including Esri, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Informix, Intergraph, and MapInfo came together through OGC and produced a spatial data management standard that has become a core part of today’s spatial data infrastructure.”
The Simple Feature Standard also guides the design of the OGC GeoPackage Encoding Standard, edited by Jeff Yutzler and Paul Daisey, first released in 2014. The Simple Feature Standard recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, and work continues as the Simple Feature Standards Working Group modularizes the Standard to discreet parts (but more on that later).
To learn more about the GeoPackage Standard, visit OGC’s official documentation on GeoPackage.
Why Does It Matter?
Interoperability isn’t just a technical convenience – it’s a necessity in a world increasingly reliant on spatial data. Imagine if every mapping or navigation system used its own format for storing locations. Data wouldn’t flow between platforms, and critical decisions – whether in urban planning, disaster response, or climate monitoring – would be delayed or compromised.
The OGC Simple Features Standard solves this by providing a common language for spatial data, ensuring that it can be shared, analyzed, and acted upon consistently across systems and organizations. This has profound implications, including:
- Faster response in emergencies: When data from different agencies aligns instantly, responders can access accurate maps and coordinate better during crises like floods, wildfires, or earthquakes.
- Smarter cities: Urban planners can integrate transport data, utility networks, and demographic maps without worrying about compatibility issues.
- Environmental protection: Researchers tracking deforestation or pollution can seamlessly merge datasets from satellites, sensors, and field surveys.
By eliminating costly data conversions, avoiding vendor lock-in, and ensuring consistent analysis results, the Simple Features Standard not only improves operational efficiency but also enables better decision-making across sectors that depend on geospatial intelligence.
Real-World Use Cases
The true value of the OGC Simple Features Standard comes to life when we see how it enables systems across sectors to work together in real time. From ride-hailing apps to climate monitoring satellites, interoperability isn’t just a behind-the-scenes technicality, it’s what makes modern geospatial applications possible, reliable, and impactful. Here are just a few examples of how Simple Features powers the tools and services we depend on every day:
- Navigation Apps & Cab Rides
When you search for directions in a navigation app or book a cab online, the system relies on geospatial databases built on Simple Features to store and retrieve road networks, traffic data, and location coordinates. This ensures that users get accurate routes and real-time updates, regardless of the mapping service they use. - New York City’s Smart City Initiatives
NYC uses PostgreSQL/PostGIS, an implementation of Simple Features, to manage everything from subway routes to emergency response planning. The city overlays data from different agencies – such as traffic sensors, zoning laws, and real estate records – without needing expensive data conversions. - NASA & NOAA: Monitoring Our Planet with Smart Tech
Agencies like NASA and NOAA use geospatial data to track hurricanes, rising sea levels, and deforestation. By leveraging WFS (Web Feature Service) and GeoJSON, they can pull standardized spatial data from satellites, weather stations, and field sensors to analyze trends and improve forecasting. The Simple Features Standard has made significant contributions to geospatial interoperability, playing a key role in enabling these agencies to integrate and analyze diverse datasets efficiently. - Disaster Response in Earthquake-Prone Regions
During disasters, interoperability is critical. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and international aid organizations use the GeoPackage format, based on Simple Features, to share real-time updates on flood zones, damaged infrastructure, and emergency shelters. This ensures responders can access crucial data even without internet connectivity. Ongoing efforts around the Simple Features Standard have helped improve the adoption of standards like GeoPackage, ensuring that emergency responders can seamlessly share and access data in critical situations.
The ROI: Interoperability That Pays Off
The benefits of adopting the OGC Simple Features Standard go far beyond technical efficiency – they translate into real, measurable returns for organizations across industries. By building on a common geospatial language, organizations can:
- Eliminate costly format conversions and reduce IT overhead
- Future-proof their data and avoid vendor lock-in
- Maintain seamless interoperability across GIS platforms worldwide
Whether it’s the app that guides your morning commute or the climate model informing global policy, the Simple Features Standard is quietly powering the geospatial systems we rely on. It’s not just a framework, it’s the backbone of modern GIS, enabling smarter decisions, faster responses, and more connected data ecosystems.
To explore the standard in depth, visit OGC’s official page on the Simple Features Standard.
But it’s not over
One of the greatest strengths of the Simple Features Standard, aside from how easy it is to implement, is its long-standing stability, with its fundamentals remaining unchanged. However, the Standard was written quite some time ago in a format that is not easily accessible for software developers to quickly interpret and work with. As a result, OGC is now in the process of modernizing the Standard documentation. Each function of the original Standard is being published as a standalone part, allowing developers to implement only what they need. For example, if your use case only involves creating a Well Known Text instance of Simple Features, you can simply refer to the corresponding document, without having to go through everything else.
Stay tuned – as we will soon be sharing a request for comment on this repackaging of the OGC’s classic Standard.
About This Series
This article is the sixth in our “10 Ideas in 10 Weeks” series, highlighting bold ideas and real-world innovation across the OGC community.
Stay tuned for more stories about the people, projects, and standards shaping the future of geospatial.