BS EN ISO 19107:2019

What is ISO 19107 - spatial schema about?  

ISO 19107 provides conceptual schemas for describing, representing and manipulating the spatial characteristics of geographic entities, and a set of spatial operations consistent with these schemas. It defines standard spatial operations for use in access, query, management, processing and data exchange of geographic information for spatial (geometric and topological) objects.  

The goals of ISO 19107 are to: 

• Define spatial operators unambiguously, so that different implementations will yield comparable results within the limitations of accuracy and resolution 
• Use these definitions to define a set of standard operations that will form the basis of compliant systems and thus act as a test‑bed for implementers and a benchmark set for validation of compliance 
• Define an operator algebra that will allow combinations of the base operators to be used predictably in the query and manipulation of geographic feature data. 

Who is ISO 19107 - spatial schema for? 

ISO 19107  on spatial schema is useful for: 

• Spatial operators 
• Software developers and users of geographic information 
• Research and development team 
• Geospatial database management companies 
• GIS software industry 

Why should you use ISO 19107 - spatial schema?  

Spatial operators are functions and procedures that use, query, create, modify or delete spatial objects. ISO 19107 defines the taxonomy of some of the more important operators, their definitions and implementations.  

ISO 19107 provides you with standardized conceptual schemas for spatial characteristics which will increase the ability to share geographic information between applications. These schemas will be used by geographic information system and software developers and users of geographic information to provide consistently understandable spatial data structures and functions. 

Topology expressions conforming to ISO 19107 provides qualitative descriptions of the spatial relations between geometry objects. Topology deals with the characteristics of geometric figures that remain invariant if the space is deformed elastically. Topological properties in the domain of the coordinate system will be identical to those on the geographic surface but the metric properties may change significantly (e.g., distance, area, direction). 

What’s changed since the last update? 

BS EN ISO 19107:2019 supersedes BS ISO 19107:2003, which was technically revised. This document is 100 % backwardly compatible with its previous version, ISO 19107:2003, except in a few areas (in NURBS) where the previous version contained technical errors that are corrected in this revision.