CEN/TR 15449-1:2012

Geographic information - Spatial data infrastructures - Part 1: Reference model

This part of the Technical Report provides a reference model for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). It covers framework standards and identifies the relevant standards, technical specifications, technical reports and guidelines.
This part of the Technical Report provides a context model for the other parts of this Technical Report applying general architecture standards.
The intended readership of this Technical Report are those people who are responsible for creating frameworks for SDIs, experts contributing to INSPIRE, experts in information and communication technologies and e-government that need to familiarise themselves with geographic information and SDI concepts, and standards developers and writers.

Geoinformation - Geodateninfrastrukturen - Teil 1: Referenzmodell

Der vorliegende Teil dieses Technischen Berichts stellt ein Referenzmodell für eine Geodateninfrastruktur (GDI) bereit. Er behandelt Rahmenstandards und nennt die relevanten Normen, Standards, technischen Spezifikationen, technischen Berichte und Leitlinien.
Dieser Teil bietet ein Kontextmodell für die übrigen Teile dieses Technischen Berichts, wobei für das Modell allgemeine Normen und Standards zur Architektur genutzt wurden.
Der vorliegende Technische Bericht wendet sich an die Entwickler von GDI Rahmenrichtlinien, an die an der Erarbeitung der INSPIRE Richtlinie beteiligten Fachleute, Experten auf dem Gebiet der Informations  und Kommunikationstechnologie und des E Governments, die sich mit Geoinformations  und GDI Konzepten vertraut machen müssen, sowie an die Entwickler und Autoren von Normen und Standards.

Information géographique - Infrastructures de données spatiales - Partie 1: Modèle de référence

Geografske informacije - Infrastrukture za prostorske podatke - 1. del: Referenčni model

Ta del tehničnega poročila zagotavlja referenčni model za infrastrukturo za prostorske podatke (SDI). Vključuje okvirne standarde ter določa ustrezne standarde, tehnične specifikacije, tehnična poročila in smernice. Ta del tehničnega poročila določa kontekstualni model za druge dele tega tehničnega poročila, ki uporabljajo splošne arhitekturne standarde. To tehnično poročilo je namenjeno ciljnim skupinam ljudi, ki so odgovorni za oblikovanje okvirov infrastruktur za prostorske podatke, strokovnjakom, ki prispevajo k direktivi INSPIRE, strokovnjakom na področju informacijskih in komunikacijskih tehnologij, e-upravi, ki se mora seznaniti s pojmoma geografskih informacij in infrastrukture za prostorske podatke, ter pripravljavcem in avtorjem standardov.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 23-Oct-2012
• ICS: 07.040 - Astronomy. Geodesy. Geography
• ICS: 35.240.70 - IT applications in science
• Technical Committee: CEN/TC 287 - Geographic Information
• Drafting Committee: CEN/TC 287/WG 5 - Spatial Data Infrastructure
• Current Stage: 6060 - Definitive text made available (DAV) - Publishing
• Start Date: 24-Oct-2012
• Due Date: 06-Feb-2013
• Completion Date: 24-Oct-2012
• Ref Project: SIST-TP CEN/TR 15449-1:2013 - Geographic information - Spatial data infrastructures - Part 1: Reference model

Relations

• Replaces: CEN/TR 15449:2011 - Geographic information - Standards, specifications, technical reports and guidelines, required to implement Spatial Data Infrastructures
• Effective Date: 08-Jun-2022

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST-TP CEN/TR 15449-1:2013
01-januar-2013
1DGRPHãþD
SIST-TP CEN/TR 15449:2011

*HRJUDIVNHLQIRUPDFLMH,QIUDVWUXNWXUH]DSURVWRUVNHSRGDWNHGHO5HIHUHQþQL

PRGHO
Geographic information - Spatial data infrastructures - Part 1: Reference model
Geoinformation - Geodateninfrastrukturen - Teil 1: Referenzmodell

Information géographique - Infrastructures de données spatiales - Partie 1: Modèle de

référence
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TR 15449-1:2012
ICS:
07.040 Astronomija. Geodezija. Astronomy. Geodesy.
Geografija Geography
35.240.70 Uporabniške rešitve IT v IT applications in science
znanosti
SIST-TP CEN/TR 15449-1:2013 en,fr,de

2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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SIST-TP CEN/TR 15449-1:2013
TECHNICAL REPORT
CEN/TR 15449-1
RAPPORT TECHNIQUE
TECHNISCHER BERICHT
October 2012
ICS 07.040; 35.240.70 Supersedes CEN/TR 15449:2011
English Version
Geographic information - Spatial data infrastructures - Part 1:
Reference model

Information géographique - Infrastructures de données Geoinformation - Geodateninfrastrukturen - Teil 1:

spatiales - Partie 1: Modèle de référence Referenzmodell

This Technical Report was approved by CEN on 27 May 2012. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee CEN/TC 287.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,

Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,

Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United

Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
Management Centre: Avenue Marnix 17, B-1000 Brussels

© 2012 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. CEN/TR 15449-1:2012: E

worldwide for CEN national Members.
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Contents Page

Foreword ..............................................................................................................................................................4

1 Scope ......................................................................................................................................................7

2 Normative references ............................................................................................................................7

3 Terms and definitions ...........................................................................................................................7

4 Abbreviated terms .................................................................................................................................8

5 SDI interoperability ................................................................................................................................9

5.1 Interoperability Standards ....................................................................................................................9

5.2 Challenges ........................................................................................................................................... 10

5.2.1 Costs .................................................................................................................................................... 10

5.2.2 Quality .................................................................................................................................................. 10

5.2.3 Impact and checkpoints ..................................................................................................................... 11

5.3 The European Interoperability Framework (EIF) ............................................................................. 11

5.4 The Architectural reference model ................................................................................................... 13

5.4.1 Data ...................................................................................................................................................... 13

5.4.2 Services ............................................................................................................................................... 14

5.5 Combining EIF and the Architectural service reference model ..................................................... 16

5.6 SDI as a dynamic framework ............................................................................................................. 17

6 Reference Model for a SDI ................................................................................................................. 19

7 SDI Components ................................................................................................................................. 21

7.1 SDI core component ........................................................................................................................... 21

7.2 Application and Geo-portal components ......................................................................................... 22

7.3 Relations among service components ............................................................................................. 23

8 Standards to implement the Core components ............................................................................... 24

8.1 Framework standards ........................................................................................................................ 24

8.2 Relevant standards ............................................................................................................................. 24

Annex A EU policy documents relevant to standardisation and interoperability ..................................... 26

A.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 26

A.2 Policy documents ............................................................................................................................... 26

A.3 Strategy and framework documents................................................................................................. 26

Annex B Directive 2007/2/EC Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community ........ 27

B.1 General ................................................................................................................................................. 27

B.2 Legal acts ............................................................................................................................................ 27

B.3 Metadata Implementing Rules ........................................................................................................... 27

B.3.1 Legal acts ............................................................................................................................................ 27

B.3.2 Guidance Documents ......................................................................................................................... 28

B.4 Data Specifications Implementing Rules ......................................................................................... 28

B.4.1 Legal acts ............................................................................................................................................ 28

B.4.2 Guidance Documents ......................................................................................................................... 28

B.4.2.1Framework documents ...................................................................................................................... 28

B.5 Network Services Implementing Rules ............................................................................................ 30

B.5.1 Legal acts ............................................................................................................................................ 30

B.5.2 Guidance Documents ......................................................................................................................... 30

B.6 Spatial Data Services Implementing Rules ...................................................................................... 30

B.7 Data and service sharing Implementing Rules ................................................................................ 30

B.7.1 Legal acts ............................................................................................................................................ 30

B.7.2 Guidelines and good practice documents ....................................................................................... 30

B.8 Monitoring and reporting Implementing Rules ................................................................................ 31

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B.8.1 Legal acts ............................................................................................................................................. 31

B.8.2 Guidelines, justification document and templates .......................................................................... 31

Annex C Description of referenced ISO standards ....................................................................................... 32

Annex D CEN/TC 287 and ISO/TC 211 standards .......................................................................................... 34

Annex E Open Geospatial Consortium specifications ................................................................................. 37

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Foreword

This document (CEN/TR 15449-1:2012) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 287

“Geographic information”, the secretariat of which is held by BSI.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent

rights. CEN [and/or CENELEC] shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes CEN/TR 15449:2011.
The present standard comprises the following parts:

 CEN/TR 15449-1, Geographic information — Spatial data infrastructures — Part 1: Reference model (the

present part);

 CEN/TR 15449-2, Geographic information — Spatial data infrastructures — Part 2: Best practices;

 CEN/TR 15449-3, Geographic information — Spatial data infrastructures — Part 3: Data centric view;

 CEN/TR 15449-4, Geographic information — Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) — Part 4: Service centric

view.
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Introduction

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is a general term for the computerised environment for handling data that

relates to a position on or near the surface of the earth. It may be defined in a range of ways, in different

circumstances, from the local up to the global level.

This Technical Report focuses on the technical aspects of SDIs, thereby limiting the term SDI to mean an

implementation neutral-technological infrastructure for geospatial data and services, based upon standards

and specifications. It does not consider an SDI as a carefully designed and dedicated information system;

rather, it is viewed as a collaborative framework of disparate information systems that contain resources that

stakeholders desire to share. The common denominator of SDI resources, which can be data or services, is

their spatial nature. It is understood that the framework is in constant evolution, and that therefore the

requirements for standards and specifications supporting SDI implementations evolve continuously.

SDIs are becoming more and more linked and integrated with systems developed in the context of e-

Government. Important drivers for this evolution are the Digital Agenda for Europe, and related policies (cf.

Annex A). This Technical Report takes these developments into account. By sharing emerging requirements

at an early stage with the standardization bodies, users of SDIs can help influence the revision of existing or

the conception of new standards.

The users of an SDI are considered to be those individuals or organisations that, in the context of their

business processes, need to share and access geo-resources in a meaningful and sustainable way. Based on

platform- and vendor-neutral standards and specifications, an SDI aims at assisting organisations and

individuals in publishing, finding, delivering, and eventually, using geographic information and services over

the internet across borders of information communities in a more cost-effective manner.

Existing material about SDIs abounds. The criteria used for determining if a given standard or specification is

referred to in this report are that the publication addresses an aspect of an SDI; and the publication is non-

proprietary in nature.

Based on these considerations, the following reports have been taken into account:

• legal texts and guidelines produced in the context of INSPIRE;
• documents produced by ISO/TC 211 (and co-published by CEN);

• documents produced by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), including the OpenGIS Reference

Model (ORM) (OGC, 2003);
• the European Interoperability Framework and related documents;
• deliverables from the European Union-funded projects (e.g. GIGAS, SANY).

Considering the complexity of the subject and the need to capture and formalise different conceptual and

modelling views, CEN/TR 15449 is comprised of multiple parts:

• Part 1: Reference model: this provides a general context model for the other Parts, applying general

IT architecture standards.

• Part 2: Best Practices: this provides best practices guidance for implementing SDI, through the

evaluation of the projects in the frame of the European Union funding programmes.

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• Part 3: Data centric view: this addresses concerns related to the data, which includes application

schemas and metadata.

• Part 4: Service centric view (in preparation): this includes the taxonomy of services, concepts of

interoperability, service architecture, service catalogue, and the underlying IT standards.

Further parts may be created in the future.
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1 Scope

This part of the Technical Report provides a reference model for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). It covers

framework standards and identifies the relevant standards, technical specifications, technical reports and

guidelines.

This part of the Technical Report provides a context model for the other parts of this Technical Report

applying general architecture standards.

The intended readership of this Technical Report are those people who are responsible for creating

frameworks for SDIs, experts contributing to INSPIRE, experts in information and communication technologies

and e-government that need to familiarise themselves with geographic information and SDI concepts, and

standards developers and writers.
2 Normative references
Not applicable.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
3.1
conceptual formalism
set of modelling concepts used to describe a conceptual model
EXAMPLE UML meta model, EXPRESS meta model.

Note 1 to entry: One conceptual formalism can be expressed in several conceptual schema languages.

[SOURCE: EN ISO 19101:2005]
3.2
conceptual model
model that defines concepts of a universe of discourse
[SOURCE: EN ISO 19101:2005]
3.3
conceptual schema
formal description of a conceptual model
[SOURCE: EN ISO 19101:2005]
3.4
conceptual schema language

formal language based on a conceptual formalism for the purpose of representing conceptual schemas

EXAMPLE UML, EXPRESS, IDEF1X.

Note 1 to entry: A conceptual schema language may be lexical or graphical. Several conceptual schema languages

can be based on the same conceptual formalism.
[SOURCE: EN ISO 19101:2005]
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3.5
conformance
fulfilment of specified requirements
[SOURCE: EN ISO 19113:2005]
3.6
identifier

linguistically independent sequence of characters capable of uniquely and permanently identifying that with

which it is associated
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003]
3.7
interoperability

capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that

requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units

[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 2382-1:1993]
3.8
reference frame
aggregation of the data needed by different components of an information system
3.9
resource
asset or means that fulfils a requirement
[SOURCE: EN ISO 19115:2005]
3.10
Spatial Data Infrastructure
SDI

metadata, spatial data sets and spatial data services; network services and technologies; agreements on

sharing, access and use; coordination and monitoring mechanisms, processes and procedures, established,

operated or made available in an interoperable manner
[SOURCE: INSPIRE]

Note 1 to entry: In the context of this report the term SDI is restricted to a platform- and implementation-neutral

technological infrastructure for geospatial data and services, based upon standards and specifications.

3.11
use case

specification of a sequence of actions, including variants, that a system (or other entity) can perform,

interacting with actors of the system
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 19501:2005]
4 Abbreviated terms
API application programming interface
CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture
EIF European Interoperability Framework
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EN European Standard (CEN deliverable)
INSPIRE Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe
GI geographic information
GML Geography Markup Language
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ICT information and communications technology
ODP Open Distributed Processing
OGC Open Geospatial Consortium
OLE/COM Object linking and embedding/ Component Object Model
OMG Object Management Group
OSE Open Systems Environment
RM-ODP Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing
SDI Spatial Data Infrastructure
SLD Styled Layer Descriptor
SOA Service Oriented Architecture
UML Unified Modelling Language
WAI Web Accessibility Initiative
WCS Web Coverage Service interface specification
WFS Web Feature Service interface specification
WMS Web Map Service interface specification
W3C World Wide Web Consortium
XML eXtensible Markup Language
XSL eXtensible Stylesheet Language
5 SDI interoperability
5.1 Interoperability Standards

A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) relies on standards and specifications in the field of geographic information

and information technology. This chapter systematically identifies standards that are of particular relevance to

SDI development and implementation. A necessary condition for the successful establishment of a SDI is that

the software industry supports relevant standards in commercial products. At the same time, public authorities

are to request the support of standards in public procurement processes.
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Many of the standards and specifications are already available. There is, however, a need to systematically

identify these standards and to determine whether or not they are sufficiently precise and unambiguous so

that their implementation provides interoperability and fulfils requirements of an SDI in Europe.

Standards should make interoperability as easy, simple and reliable as possible. The ISO 19100-series of

standards both individually and collectively are quite complex. The risk of different interpretations of the same

standard in different implementations exists and has to be minimised as much as possible. The aim must be

to establish implementations of the standards which are as unambiguous and precise as possible. Avoiding

variations of interpretation can be achieved through the use of suitable, standard based tools for data

modelling, interface description, data transfer and quality control.

Recent EU initiatives have brought ‘Interoperability’ to centre-stage of the European Union’s ICT governance

framework. A range of stakeholders (governments, industry, consumers, and other social partners) have

recognised the need for interoperability and recognise the benefits interoperability could bring. Interoperability

has supplemented earlier discussions focused exclusively on open group standards, different software

licensing models, or technical specifications under public procurement laws. Interoperability embraces the

wider policy perspective to enhance ICT-embedded industries and the information society at large, including

the geographic information communities.

Interoperability is the capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional

units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those

units. Standardization of geographic information can best be served by a set of standards that integrates a

detailed description of geographic information concepts with the concepts of information technology. A goal of

the GI standardization efforts is the facilitation of interoperability of geographic information systems, including

interoperability in distributed computing environments. Interoperability provides the freedom to mix and match

information system components without compromising overall success (OGC, 2003). It is the basis for the

successful implementation of a SDI in Europe, and will allow:

a) finding information and processing tools, when they are needed, independent of physical location;

b) understanding and use of the discovered information and tools, no matter what platform supports them;

whether local or remote;

c) easier and more cost-effective integration and combination of data originating from heterogeneous

sources;
d) support of policies in Europe;
e) control of the evolution of an SDI.

Lack of interoperability should be resolved by the support and implementation of international standards by

software providers. This will greatly increase the efficiency of the use of geographic information in the future.

5.2 Challenges
5.2.1 Costs

Costs of implementation and operation are an important consideration. Whilst it is possible to establish

individual interfaces for or between any systems or databases, the advantage of using standards should be to

provide an easier and cheaper implementation. Interoperability gets more difficult for more complex systems,

databases and interfaces. Therefore it is important to keep it as simple as possible at least at the level of

system and user interfaces.
5.2.2 Quality

Quality issues are also an important consideration. Completeness and consistency of content, e.g. structure,

and format of transfer data should be automatically checkable against reference and target data model. Once

more tools based on standards are the solution of choice.
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5.2.3 Impact and checkpoints

The full impact of standards on interoperability is reached when everything in the whole process from the

description of data models to the description of exchange format and quality control can be described and

derived unambiguously with a set of standard based tools following the model driven approach. This process

should be possible without any complex manual working steps to support straightforward and conformant

maintenance of the different system components.
There are several general considerations for achieving interoperability:
• Use the Modelling Driven Approach (MDA) based on standards;
• Be precise;
• Keep things simple;
• Use standard based tools;
• Automate the processes;
• Check the quality.
5.3 The European Interoperability Framework (EIF)

The generic architecture model for geographic information and services aligns with the general requirements

for European e-Government Services, as stated in the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) strategy.

This framework identifies the organisational, semantic and technical interoperability aspects.

Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public administrations, businesses and citizens

(IDABC) uses the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies to encourage and

support the delivery of cross-border public sector services to citizens and enterprises in Europe, to improve

efficiency and collaboration between European public administrations and to contribute to making Europe an

attractive place to live, work and invest.
The European Interoperability Framework comprises five interoperability levels:
• Political Context;
• Organisational Interoperability;
• Legal interoperability;
• Semantic Interoperability;
• Technical Interoperability.
These are illustrated in Figure 1.
1) See http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/.
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Figure 1  EIF version 2.0 Interoperability levels

The EIF version 2.0 extended the upper Interoperability levels with political context and legal interoperability in

addition to the EIF version 1.0 levels of organisational interoperability, semantic interoperability and technical

interoperability.

An Interoperability Framework can be defined as the set of policies, standards and guidelines that describes

the way in which organisations have agreed, or should agree, to do business with each other. Consequently,

an Interoperability Frameworks architecture model is not a static document and needs to be maintained over

time as technologies, standards and administrative requirements change.
This interoperability framework focuses on the following principles:

 accessibility – non-discriminating, open and publicly available data, including guidelines for WAI (Web

Access Initiative) from the World Wide Web Consortium;

 multilingualism – support of a range of languages that are used extensively in Europe today;

 security – identification, authentication, non-repudiation, confidential information;

 privacy - personal data protection;
 subsidiarity;
 use of open standards.
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To attain interoperability in the context of pan-European e-Government services, a focus on open standards is

required. The General Public Services Conceptual Model from EIF in Figure 2 shows main service areas

identified in the context of public services.
Figure 2  Public services conceptual model

This interoperability framework implements the recommendations provided by the European Interoperability

Framework (EIF). The following service types are recognised:
a) Basic Public Functions:

1) interoperability facilitating services - transformation, brokering and mediation functionalities, etc.;

2) base registration services - publication and discovery functionalities, etc.;

3) external services - business level services, payment services, connectivity services, etc.

b) Aggregate Services, grouping a number of basic public functions to appear as a single service:

1) composition services;
2) orchestration services;
3) workflow services.
5.4 The Architectural reference model
5.4.1 Data

Exchange of and access to spatial data is the principal objective of an SDI. The data are at the heart of an

SDI. The spatial data in an SDI are a model of the real world, developed according to well defined

methodologies described in different standards. The model is made explicit through a concise description of

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data specifications in data specification documents. These specifications can then be used to develop new

datasets or to transform existing datasets to the specifications by mapping the existing model to the model

described in the specifications. In this way, semantic interoperability can be achieved: i.e. different datasets

can be used together and be understood by different users in the same way. Metadata are part of the datasets

and should get proper attention during the data modelling. Metadata will play a crucial role in documenting

and understanding the content of the data model and data product specification, in achieving technical

interoperability.

On top of the data, and by making use of the metadata, services can be built to make the data accessible

through the web and to use them in
...