OGC Draft Charter Targets Stronger Integration of AI and Geospatial Standards

4 September 2018 — The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has opened a public review period for the proposed charter of its Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) Domain Working Group (DWG). The initiative is designed to strengthen interoperability and improve how geospatial data is leveraged within Artificial Intelligence (AI), Deep Learning (DL), and Machine Learning (ML) environments.

As AI-driven technologies continue to converge with geoinformatics, geospatial intelligence is expanding into diverse sectors. Autonomous transportation systems, predictive healthcare analytics, and sustainable urban design are increasingly dependent on spatially—with high-volume data streams requiring structured standards to remain interoperable and reusable.

AI-enhanced volunteered geographic information, including datasets derived from OpenStreetMap, accelerates the creation and refinement of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) using satellite imagery. In epidemiology, deep learning models are generating fine-grained predictions of human mobility patterns and environmental exposure across varied geographic contexts. Meanwhile, autonomous vehicles collect and process extensive spatial datasets from GPS, imaging systems and roadway sensors, relying on deep learning models to interpret their surroundings with advanced perception capabilities. These examples illustrate the expanding relevance of combining AI methodologies with geospatial data frameworks.

The proposed GeoAI Domain Working Group will serve as a collaborative platform for identifying practical use cases and real-world implementations of AI in spatial domains such as healthcare systems, smart home environments and autonomous vehicle ecosystems. Its mandate includes fostering dialogue among geoscientists, software engineers, computer scientists, entrepreneurs and policymakers from academia, industry and government. Through this forum, participants will examine emerging trends, document technical successes, analyze challenges and explore innovation opportunities in AI-powered geospatial applications.

A core objective of the GeoAI DWG is to assess how existing OGC standards can support the ingestion, processing, publication and reuse of geospatial data within AI workflows. The group will also identify technical gaps and interoperability barriers that may necessitate new or refined geospatial standards tailored to the evolving GeoAI landscape.

The draft GeoAI Domain Working Group charter is available for public review via the OGC Portal. Stakeholders are invited to submit comments by 25 September 2018 following the instructions outlined on the draft charter request page.

In addition, a GeoAI ad-hoc session is scheduled during the September 2018 OGC Technical Committee meeting in Stuttgart, Germany. Taking place on Wednesday, 12 September from 14:45 to 16:30, the session will explore AI use cases in geospatial contexts and examine the contribution of OGC standards to machine learning and deep learning implementations. The meeting is open to both OGC members and non-members.

Complementing this initiative, OGC Testbed-14 includes a dedicated Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence task. This effort evaluates how OGC Web Services can facilitate the exchange of inputs and outputs within ML and AI pipelines. By positioning web services as an interoperability backbone, OGC aims to support scalable integration of geospatial standards into advanced AI systems.

The Open Geospatial Consortium is an international body comprising more than 525 companies, government agencies, research institutions and universities. Through a consensus-driven process, OGC develops publicly available geospatial standards that enable interoperable, geo-enabled solutions across web, wireless and location-based technologies. These standards provide a foundation for integrating spatial intelligence into mainstream information systems and emerging AI-driven platforms.