OGC seeks public comment on revision to the OGC Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set and Tile Set Metadata Standard

The OGC Standard provides a stand-alone definition of a Tile Matrix Set so that other Standards may take advantage of Tiles Matrix Sets’ performance benefits.

3 November 2021: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is requesting public comment on a revision to the candidate Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set and Tile Set Metadata Standard. The new revision adds a new data model to describe tilesets and how to encode in XML and in JSON. It also corrects inconsistencies discovered in the first version, introduces some minor changes to the TileMatrixSet conceptual model and encodings, and clarifies the identification and use of registered TileMatrixSet definitions. Comments are due by December 3, 2021.

The Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set and Tile Set Metadata Standard decouples the standardized definition of a “tile matrix set” from the OGC Web Map Tile Service Standard (WMTS), so that other Standards may use it to take advantage of the performance, storage, and processing benefits that tile matrix sets can bring. 

A “tile” is a rectangular pictorial representation of contiguous geographic data (such as a portion of a digital map) that can be uniquely defined by a pair of indices for the column and row along with an identifier for its “tile matrix.” A “tile matrix” is a collection of tiles for a single scale, while a “tile matrix set” is a collection of tile matrices defined at different scales.

In 2007, OGC approved and released the Web Map Tile Service Standard (WMTS), which included a standardized definition of a “tile matrix set.” Over time, other OGC standards with requirements for “tiles” or tiled structures needed to use the same definition. Unfortunately, other OGC standards could not use the tile matrix set definition directly because the definition was formally linked to the WMTS tile service. 

The “OGC Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set and Tile Set Metadata” Standard decouples the concept of a tile matrix set from the WMTS standard so that other standards may reference the concept directly. As such the standard has relevance to future revisions of other OGC Standards such as GeoPackage and CDB and will be used in future formats and services (such as the new OGC API - Tiles candidate standard) needing tiles for efficient data access, storage, or parallel processing.

OGC Members interested in staying up to date on the progress of this standard, or contributing to its development, are encouraged to join the OGC API - Tiles SWG via the OGC Portal and to follow the discussion on the OGC Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set GitHub Repository.

The candidate Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set and Tile Set Metadata Standard is available for review and comment on the OGC Portal, accompanied by Release Notes that highlight changes from the first version. Comments are due by December 3, 2021, and should be submitted via the method outlined on the Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set and Tile Set Metadata Standard’s public comment request page.

About OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a collective problem-solving community of experts from more than 500 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities driven to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

The global OGC Community engages in a mix of activities related to location-based technologies: developing consensus-based open standards and best-practice; collaborating on agile innovation initiatives; engaging in community meetings, events, and workshops; and more.

OGC's unique standards development process moves at the pace of innovation, with constant input from technology forecasting, practical prototyping, real-world testing, and community engagement.

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