STAplus: Sensor Things API Extension

The OGC SensorThings API Extension: STAplus 1.0 Standard specifies a backwards-compatible extension to the OGC Standard SensorThings API Part 1: Sensing and Sensing 1.1 data model. The primary use for the OGC SensorThings API data model and API can summed up with the use case “single authority provides sensor readings to consumers.” In Citizen Science there are many contributors (citizens) who – together – create the big picture with their observations. The STAplus extension is designed to support a model in which observations are owned by different users. This results in requirements for the ownership concept. In addition to the ownership, users may express a license for ensuring proper re-use of their observations. The STAplus extension also supports expressing explicit relations between observations as well as between observations and external resources. Relations can enrich observations to enable future extensions supporting Linked Data, RDF and SPARQL. Observation group(s) allow the grouping of observations that belong together.