This International Standard specifies Location Referencing Methods (LRM) that describe locations in the context of geographic databases and will be used to locate transport-related phenomena in an encoder system as well as in the decoder side. This International Standard defines what is meant by such objects, and describes the reference in detail, including whether or not components of the reference are mandatory or optional, and their characteristics.

This International Standard specifies two different LRMs:

This International Standard does not define a physical format for implementing the LRM. However, the requirements for physical formats are defined.

This International Standard does not define details of the Location Referencing System (LRS), i.e. how the LRMs are to be implemented in software, hardware, or processes.

This part of ISO 17572 specifies the dynamic location referencing method, comprising:

It is consistent with other International Standards developed by ISO/TC 204 such as ISO 14825, Intelligent transport systems — Geographic Data Files (GDF) — Overall data specification.