OGC is globally known for its proven widely implemented open standards. The OGC open consensus-based standards development process has evolved to move at the pace of innovation, with constant input from technology forecasting, practical prototyping, real-world testing, certification and compliance and community engagement. Today we are revolutionizing how geospatial/location information is shared, accessed, integrated, and analyzed via the OGC’s revolutionary APIs- the building blocks for location information.
OGC APIs are designed to make it easy for ANYONE to provide and use geospatial data on the web, and to integrate this data with ANY other type of information. These Standards build upon the legacy of the OGC Web Service Standards (WMS, WFS, WCS, WPS, etc.), but define resource-centric APIs that take advantage of modern web development practices. This web page provides information on these Standards in a consolidated location.
These Standards are being constructed as "building blocks" that can be used to assemble novel APIs for web access to geospatial content. The building blocks are defined not only by the requirements of the Standards specified in the OGC's Standards Program, but also through interoperability prototyping and testing in the OGC's Collaborative Solutions and Innovation Program.
To learn more about using the OGC APIs please view our guidelines here.
The OGC API Roadmap highlights the current and planned standards efforts as well as related extensions to those standards. The roadmap is available for the public to view. Request access here.
For more information on the OGC API standards, please contact us using the form below.
To find out more about the OGC please visit our public site.
The OGC API - Tiles Standard defines building blocks for creating Web APIs that support the retrieval of geospatial information as tiles. Different forms of geospatial information are supported, such as tiles of vector features (“vector tiles”), coverages, maps (or imagery) and other types of geospatial information. The OGC API - Tiles standard is an alternative to the OGC Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) Standard.
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The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) invites the general public to review the OGC API Roadmap. The roadmap has been moved to Productboard, a product management platform. Access to the roadmap can be requested here.
Approved Standard
OGC API - Features - Part 1: Core and Part 2: Coordinate Reference Systems by Reference are both publicly available.
OGC API - Common provides those elements shared by most or all of the OGC API standards to ensure consistency across the family. The candidate standard will soon be released for public review.
Approved Standard
Environmental Data Retrieval (EDR) API provides a family of lightweight interfaces to access Environmental Data resources. Each resource addressed by an EDR API maps to a defined query pattern.
Approved Standard
OGC API - Tiles provides extended functionality to other OGC API Standards to deliver vector tiles, map tiles, and other tiled data.
Approved Standard
OGC API - Processes allows for processing tools to be called and combined from many sources and applied to data in other OGC API resources though a simple API.
OGC API - Coverages allows discovery, visualization and query of complex raster stacks and data cubes.
OGC API - Records updates OGC’s Catalog Services for the Web by building on the simple access to content in OGC API - Features.
The OGC API - Styles defines a Web API that enables map servers, clients as well as visual style editors, to manage and fetch styles...
OGC API - Maps offers a modern approach to the OGC Web Map Service (WMS) standard for provision map and raster content.
Enables applications to organise and access data arranged according to a Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS).
Enables applications to request routes in a manner independent of the underlying routing data set, routing engine or algorithm.
OGC API - Joins supports the joining of data, from multiple sources, with feature collections or directly with other input files.
OGC API - Moving Features defines an API that provides access to data representing features that move as rigid bodies.
OGC API - 3D GeoVolumes facilitates efficient discovery of and access to 3D content in multiple formats based on a space-centric perspective.
The OGC SensorThings API provides an open, geospatial-enabled and unified way to interconnect Internet of Things (IoT) devices, data, and applications over the Web.
The executable test suite for Parts 1 and 2 of the OGC API - Features Standard 1.0 is now available.
The executable test suite for the OGC API - Environmental Data Retrieval Standard 1.0 is now available.
The executable test suite for the OGC API - Processes Standard 1.0 is now available in Beta.
More information about Compliance certification is on the OGC website.
OGC continues to use special events, hackathons, and sprints to validate the OGC API draft candidate standards as those standards evolve. By including the broadest possible selection of stakeholders, OGC can be confident that when the standards are published, those standards have already withstood testing and suitability evaluation.
This code sprint took place from 14th to 16th of September at the Geovation Hub in London, UK. The code sprint covered OGC API Records, ISO 19115, JSON-FG, and STAC. Hybrid event.
This code sprint will take place from 29th November to 1st December in Brussels, Belgium. The code sprint will cover OGC API Maps, OGC API Tiles, and OGC API Styles. Hybrid event.
Since their beginning, the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) specification and OGC API - Features have been evolving together and continually aligning. This post explains the relationship between STAC, OGC API - Features, and OGC itself.
Read blogTogether, the Open Portrayal Framework and the SymCore standard define a modern and modular approach to portrayal based on the intent to have many extensions from a common conceptual model and many encodings of those extensions.
Read blogHeld in Brussels (and online) on November 29 to December 1, 2022, the code sprint supported the development of OGC API Standards, the building blocks for location that standardize many of the new capabilities available to web mapping applications. The sprint covered OGC APIs for Maps, Tiles, and Styles, and SymCore.
Read blogHeld in London (and online) on September 14-16, 2022, the second OGC & ISO joint code sprint, nicknamed the The Metadata Code Sprint, served to accelerate the support of open geospatial standards that relate to geospatial metadata and catalogs. The code sprint covered OGC API - Records, JSON-FG, STAC, and ISO 19115 metadata.
Read blogThe goal of the Open Routing API Pilot was to develop an API that allowed requests for routes from different users in an interoperable and standardized way via Web protocols.
Read blogOGC, the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) held their second joint code sprint in March this year, which introduced several exciting changes not seen during the 2021 Joint Code Sprint. Over a period of 3 days, the sprint participants collaborated on a variety of coding and documentation tasks, and held discussions to facilitate coordination.
Read blogAnother step towards the creation of the OGC Environmental Data Retrieval (EDR) API Standard has been completed: the successful testing of some of the API’s capabilities during the OGC Environmental Data Retrieval API Sprint.
Read blogThe OGC API standards rely heavily upon fundamental concepts expressed in OGC White Papers and research and testing performed in OGC's Collaborative Solutions and Innovation Program activities and documented in Engineering Reports. OGC members are also specifying best practices for the use of web APIs and often share that guidance. The documents below provide some background to OGC API efforts.
The OGC Collaborative Solutions and Innovation Program provides a world-recognized process for users of geospatial technology to collaborate and share the advancement of technologies for future enterprise architectures.
If you have an idea for an initiative or simply have a question or comment, contact Ingo Simonis, Chief Technology Innovation Officer.
The following are frequently asked questions in relation to OGC API Standards.
While the OGC API standards are being developed in concert around common core elements, some older OGC web service standards have been described using OpenAPI. Examples of these legacy enhancements are found below.