The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) invites comments on the proposed OGC API – Environmental Data Retrieval (EDR) – Part 3: Service Profiles.

The OGC API – Environmental Data Retrieval (EDR) – Part 1: Core Standard offers a flexible framework for geospatial data access. However, this flexibility can lead to implementation variability, making it difficult for clients to interact consistently with different services. To address this, communities of practice use API-EDR Service Profiles to formalize domain-specific constraints that ensure predictable service behavior and simplify client integration.

The proposed OGC API – EDR – Part 3: Service Profile Standard establishes a consistent approach for specifying these profiles. Each profile serves as a normative “contract” for a specific domain, consisting of an OGC ModSpec-compliant document containing:

  • Requirements: Mandatory rules subject to formal testing and conformance validation.
  • Recommendations and Permissions: Guidelines and best practices that are not subject to testing.

The primary purpose of a Service Profile is to eliminate the “validation gap” by providing a machine-readable set of rules for service discovery and interaction. By standardizing Collection structures and parameters, profiles allow clients to understand exactly what a specific implementation provides without manual intervention. To support this, each profile includes a dedicated OpenAPI definition that provides a precise, machine-readable description of the operations and responses required by that profile.

Service Profiles utilize a tiered architecture to maintain a clear distinction between standard rules and deployed instances:

  • Core OpenAPI Definition: The base framework provided by Part 1.
  • Service Profile OpenAPI Definition: A specialized subset describing only the requirements of the profile.
  • Implementation OpenAPI Definition: The full description of a deployed service, which may incorporate multiple profiles alongside vendor-specific capabilities.

A Service Profile is not required to constrain all aspects of the Core Standard; profiles may selectively address only those elements relevant to their specific domain requirements. Implementations shall advertise their supported service profiles through a conformance declaration. This enables clients to automatically discover available functionality while allowing services to evolve and extend beyond the scope of individual profiles without compromising conformance.

To Comment

The proposed OGC API – Environmental Data Retrieval (EDR) – Part 3: Service Profiles is available for review and comment for a period of 30 days. Comments are due by 21 October, 2026.

Comments can be submitted in the OGC GitHub repository for a period ending on the “Close request date” listed above. Comments received will be consolidated and reviewed by OGC members for potential incorporation into the document.

About OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a membership organization dedicated to using the power of geography and technology to solve problems faced by people and the planet. OGC unlocks value and opportunity for its members through Standards, Innovation, and Collaboration. Our membership represents a diverse and active global community drawn from government, industry, academia, international development agencies, research & scientific organizations, civil society, and advocates.