Open Geospatial Consortium
Submission Date: 2014-11-26
Approval Date: 2014-12-05
Publication Date: 2015-01-21
External identifier of this OGC® document: http://www.opengis.net/doc/WP/smart-cities-sif
Internal reference number of this OGC® document: 14-115
Category: OGC® White Paper
Editor: George Percivall

OGC Smart Cities Spatial Information Framework

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium
To obtain additional rights of use, visit http://www.opengeospatial.org/legal/.

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This document is not an OGC Standard. This document is an OGC White Paper and istherefore not an official position of the OGC membership. It is distributed for review andcomment. It is subject to change without notice and may not be referred to as an OGC
Standard. Further, an OGC White Paper should not be referenced as required or
mandatory technology in procurements.

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

	
  

	
  
Contents	
  1.	
   A Spatial Information Framework for Smart Cities? ................................................... 5	
  2.	
   Smart City Information Enterprise............................................................................... 6	
  2.1	
   What’s so smart about Smart Cities? ..................................................................... 6	
  2.2	
   Indicators for city services and quality of life ....................................................... 7	
  2.3	
   Smart City Applications......................................................................................... 9	
  2.4	
   Smart City Enterprise framework ........................................................................ 10	
  3.	
   Spatial Information and Smart Cities ......................................................................... 11	
  3.1	
   Spatial information is pervasive and primary ...................................................... 11	
  3.2	
   CityGML and IndoorGML .................................................................................. 12	
  3.3	
   LandXML and InfraGML .................................................................................... 15	
  3.4	
   Building Information Models .............................................................................. 16	
  4.	
   Interoperability Services for Smart Cities.................................................................. 17	
  4.1	
   Geospatial Services Architecture ......................................................................... 17	
  4.2	
   Sensor Web Enablement and SensorThings ........................................................ 17	
  4.3	
   Data Access Services ........................................................................................... 18	
  4.4	
   Processing Services.............................................................................................. 18	
  4.5	
   Catalogue Services ............................................................................................... 19	
  4.6	
   Workflow ............................................................................................................. 19	
  4.7	
   Context Document and GeoPackage ................................................................... 19	
  4.8	
   Visualization and Augmented Reality ................................................................. 20	
  5.	
   Development of Spatial Information Framework for Smart Cities ........................... 21	
  5.1	
   Spatial Information Architecture for Smart Cities ............................................... 21	
  5.2	
   OGC Smart City Interoperability Initiatives – Testbeds, Pilots etc. .................... 21	
  5.3	
   Deploying the Spatial Information Framework for Smart Cities ........................ 22	
  Annex A. Open Standards Coordination for Smart Cities ............................................... 27	
  A.1	
   OGC coordination with other Standards Developing Organizations ................... 27	
  A.2	
   International Standards activities on Smart Cities ............................................... 28	
  A.3	
   National Standards Activities .............................................................................. 30	
  A.4	
   Others organizations' standards activities ............................................................ 32	
  3

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial ConsortiumAbstract
This White Paper supports development of a Smart Cities Spatial Information Framework
based on these themes:
K Smart Cities are high-density generators of innovation and information.
K Location information is a major enabler of Smart City technology benefits.
K Benefits of smart technology must be judged by benefits to residents.
K Reuse and repurpose is vital to urban resilience
K Open standards are needed for interoperability, efficiency, application innovationand cost effectiveness.
Discussion of these themes and this white paper will occur at the OGC Smart Cities
Location Powers Summit in Tokyo on December 2, 2014,1 the co-located OGC TechnicalCommittee meeting, and in many other forums in the future. As described in this paper,
there are many standards initiatives that focus on Smart Cities. Most Smart Cities use
cases in some way involve indoor and/or outdoor location, and thus communication aboutlocation is an issue that cuts across the work programs most of the standards
organizations that are involved with Smart Cities.
This white paper builds on the OGC - Directions Magazine webinar: “Making Location
Work for Smart Cities – the Case for Location Standards”2.

Keywords
ogcdoc, OGC documents, smart cities, recreation, energy, renewable energy, citygml,
indoorgml, landinfra, infragml. bim, wfs, wcs, sos, sensorml, sensorthings, o&m, kml,
wms, sld, wmts, arml, iso, jtc1, din

Submitters of this document
All questions regarding this white paper should be directed to the editor or the submitters:
Name

Affiliation

George Percivall

OGC

Carsten Rönsdorf

Ordnance Survey

Steve Liang

University of Calgary

Denise McKenzie

OGC

Lance McKee

OGC

1

http://www.locationpowers.net/
http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/making-location-work-for-smart-cities-the-case-for-locationstandards/421359
2

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

1. A Spatial Information Framework for Smart Cities?
Today, urban population accounts for 54 percent of the total global population (World
Health Organization 2014) with a trend to more urbanization. Effective integration ofhuman, physical, and digital systems operating in the built environment holds the promiseof improving the quality of life of urban residents, improving the governance of cities andmaking cities prosperous, inclusive, sustainable and resilient. Location is a primarymethod for organizing Smart City services. Communicating anything about location
requires standards. This paper addresses the open information technology standards
framework that is critical to achieving the benefits of spatial communication for Smart
Cities.

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NO: 0.22 ppm!

Figure 1. A Smart City uses location as an organizing principal to benefit residents, visitors, andbusinesses of all types. (Graphic from Steve Liang, University of Calgary)"This White Paper provides a draft spatial information framework for Smart Cities. The
document is structured using an architectural approach for defining information systems
organized as a set of viewpoints. The set of viewpoints used here are based on ISO/IEC
10746, Information Technology — Open Distributed Processing — Reference Model.
Section 2 of the report provides an Enterprise Viewpoint, including a definition of
a Smart City, the Indicators for assessing the value of deploying the technology,
and an overall set of components for the information system of a Smart City.
Section 3 provides an Information Viewpoint, outlining the spatial informationand data that is needed in a Smart City.
Section 4 outlines the computational Services Viewpoint including interfaces andworkflows pertinent to a achieve interoperability using a service oriented
architecture for a Smart City.
Section 5 provides a Deployment Viewpoint, identifying approaches for
deploying the Spatial Information Framework in cities.
An Annex provides a summary of standardization activities regarding Smart Cities. The
architecture in the main body of the white paper aims to build on and contribute back to
the activities of those SDOs.
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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium2. Smart City Information Enterprise
2.1 What’s so smart about Smart Cities?
A Smart City provides effective integration of physical, digital and human systems in thebuilt environment to deliver a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future for its
citizens3.
While the focus in this white paper is on technology, implementing smart cities must
consider social policy and the benefits of technology to humans. Much of the Smart City
technology has focused on command and control approaches for emergency response andresource management. Command and control is a requirement but the smart city
technology and standards must also enable and enhance citizen access to the smart city
resources. This emphasis recalls Jane Jacobs’s revolution in urban planning4 somedecades ago, which focused on the value of community life and social networks.
In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs said, “Cities have thecapability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are
created by everybody.” Physical city architect Jan Gehl recalls that “fifty years ago
Jacobs said – go out there and see what works and what doesn’t work, and learn fromreality. Look out of your windows, spend time in the streets and squares and see how
people actually use spaces, learn from that, and use it.5” Applied to smart city
information development Jacob’s ideas point to “Open Information ” and “Iterative
Development.
Architects of Smart City information systems need to think of "openness" as a key
technology design principle that helps developers and users of technology see
what works and what doesn't work.
Low-cost, open-participation iterative experiments, testbeds and pilot projects
based on free and open interface and encoding standards encourage innovationand provide insight and guidance that can optimize for improvisation andresilience as well as prevent expensive IT failures.
To be successful, a Smart City must enable better choices by its citizens, organizations
and governments.

3

BSI PAS 180 - Smart Cities Vocabulary
See Douglas Martin's article in the New York Times, April 25, 2009:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/books/25cnd-jacobs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
5
http://assemblepapers.com.au/2013/06/13/cities-for-people-jan-gehl/
4

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

2.2 Indicators for city services and quality of life
2.2.1 Indicators for Sustainable development and resilience of communities
Cities need metrics to measure their performance. The ISO international standards
organization is developing a series of standards to support sustainable development andresilience in cities. A key standard is ISO/DIS 37120 Sustainable development andresilience of communities — Indicators for city services and quality of life
ISO 37120 defines methodologies for a set of indicators to steer and measure theperformance of city services and quality of life. The indicators in ISO 37120 areorganized in themes:
EconomyEducation
EnergyEnvironment
Recreation
SafetyShelter
Solid waste
Telecommunications and innovation
Finance
Fire and emergency response
Governance
HealthTransportation
Urban planning
Wastewater
Water and sanitation
Developing and communicating data needed for most of these ISO 37120 indicators
involves geospatial technologies and in many cases geolocated sensors. A few examples
are provided in the next sections. Spatial information technologies identified in thisframework will be supportive of these indicators, not just to calculate and communicate
measures for these indicators but to enable planning, development and public leadershipin achieving the indicators.
2.2.2 Recreation indicator: Outdoor recreation space“Square meters of public outdoor recreation space per capita” is indicator 13.2 in the
Recreation category of ISO 37120. ISO 37120 advises: The information for thisindicator can be obtained from a City Planning Department together with departments
knowledgeable about the city. Outdoor recreation spaces may also be delineated using
aerial photography and/or land use maps. Once the areas have been identified on a map,the area in square meters may be calculated using low cost Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) or, if not available, through use of hand-held measuring devices. Area
may be calculated in hectares or acres and converted to square meters.
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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

The value of outdoor recreation space has recently been highlight by work led by thearchitect Jan Gehl in Copenhagen6 and New York City.7
Spatial "flows" are important in understanding recreation space. Who goes to a
recreational space by what routes to do what in that space, and how can recreational
space be optimized to maximize citizen benefits? What are the flows of energy, water andwastes associated with the space? How do these flows connect with flows in adjacentnon-recreational spaces? Answering such questions requires collection andcommunication of diverse types of 2D, sometimes 3D, and often 4D spatial data.
2.2.3 Energy indicator: Renewable energy sources“The percentage of total energy derived from renewable sources, as a share of the city's
total energy consumption” is indicator 7.4 in the Energy category of ISO 37120.
ISO 37120 advises that data sources for this indicator are from local utility provider, city
energy or environment office, and from various international sources, such as theInternational Energy Agency (IEA), and the World Bank.
"Total energy" consumed by municipal buildings and services are more quantifiable andmanageable for renewable supply than total energy used throughout a city. Smart Cities
will develop many ways to calculate energy needs and renewable resources at a
"hyperlocal" scale.
The Solar Atlas of Berlin8 identifies that approximately 220,000 rooftops in Berlin aresuitable for the operation of photovoltaic systems – and many owners are unaware of thepotential. They could deliver roughly 3 million megawatts of electricity per year if solar
modules were installed on all theoretically suitable roofs.
Integrated Community Energy Systems (ICES)9 assess and match up energy needs andsources at an urban district and community level and provide means for negotiating local
owner-to-owner and owner-to-user transactions. Advances in energy storage, "coolingstorage", co-generation of heat and electric power, and open standards for developing andsharing information about buildings, pipes and wires, and indoor spaces all contribute to
the growing value and utilization of ICES.
2.2.4 Environment indicator: Noise pollution“Noise Pollution” is indicator 8.7 in the Environment category of ISO/DIS 37120.
ISO 37120 states that noise pollution shall be calculated by mapping the noise level Lden(day-evening-night) likely to cause annoyance as given in ISO 1996-2:1987, identifying
6

http://thecityfix.com/blog/urbanism-hall-fame-jan-gehl-integrates-humanity-urban-design-copenhangencities-for-people-dario-hidalgo/7
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2008/pr08_049.shtml
8
http://www.businesslocationcenter.de/wab
9
See Natural Resources Canada: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/communitiesinfrastructure/integrated-community-energy-solutions/4367

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortiumthe areas of the city where Lden is greater than 55 dB(A) and estimating the population of
those areas as a percentage of the total city population. The result shall be expressed as
the percentage of the population affected by noise pollution.
3D visualization of noise mapping based on regulations in Europe have been achieved
using the INSPIRE Building Model based on the OGC CityGML standard.10
Noise pollution is only one of many factors that can be used to describe a neighborhood.
There is no open, consensus-derived international standard encoding for describingneighborhoods. What other characteristics besides noise level should such a standard
describe? There is no open international standard encoding for communicating thecharacteristics of buildings in a neighborhood (though the INSPIRE Data Specification
on Buildings described in Section 3.2 provides a model). What would be the costs andvalue of creating such standards and ensuring that they work together along with otheropen spatial standards so that information about neighborhoods and buildings could be
easily shared and used in analyses of many kinds?
2.3 Smart City Applications
Smart City technologies enable a broad set of applications including:Utilities - Smart Grid, Smart Water, etc.
Sanitation
Intelligent BuildingsIntelligent Transportation
HealthPublic Safety and Security
Environmental Protection
Emergency Services
Education
Urban PlanningOpen Data
Each of the SDOs listed in Annex A has a variation of this list of Smart City
Applications. Also commercial companies, including OGC member companies, havemulti-faceted strategies for Smart Cities. For example, OGC members are developing
smart city strategies11 as well as Smart City application stores.12

10

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-41151-9_39
http://blog.hexagongeospatial.com/bringing-smart-cities-life-barcelona/12
http://www.geonovum.nl/onderwerp-artikel/smart-city-toepassingen
11

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

2.4 Smart City Enterprise framework
Smart Cities require deployment of interoperable information system components. The
high-level enterprise view of Smart City Components is shown in Figure 2. The
components are organized in layers typical of an information system deployment.

Figure 2. Enterprise Components

The Layers in this enterprise component diagram are based on the approach defined by
the ITU Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities (See Section A.1.1). The layers arealso consistent with the approach used in China’s Smart City Pilots13.
Subsequent sections 3 Information Viewpoint and 4 Services Viewpoint, define details
for implementing the enterprise components.

13

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6502629

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium3. Spatial Information and Smart Cities
3.1 Spatial information is pervasive and primary
When organized using the concepts of space and time, information about cities can be thebasis for many powerful services, analytics and decision-making. This section provides
the beginnings of an architecture for urban spatial "intelligence" based on open standards,
such as CityGML.

Figure 3. Visualization of a CityGML Model (Source: Thomas Kolbe)

The urban environment must address multiple scales of spatial information.

Figure 4. Scales of spatial information. Spatial scale from geographic to civil engineering tobuilding information models are the basis for accurate and comprehensive spatial modeling for
Smart Cities.

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial ConsortiumFigure 5 depicts some of the data model standards or encoding standards that make up theopen information technology standards framework. Members of the OGC are actively
involved in developing best practices for integrating these approaches. Such bestpractices will become part of the Smart Cities Spatial Information Framework.

Figure 5 Elements of a set of coordinated spatial information data standards and technology
standards for use by Smart City information system architects (Source Carsten Rönsdorf)

3.2 CityGML and IndoorGML
Smart cities require a framework of trusted/authoritative data; for example, core reference
data in 2D and 3D (i.e. topography), identifiers and addressing, smart infrastructure(BIM, smart grid), and sensor feeds. Also critical is a Smart City's openness to data types,
such as volunteered, unstructured14 and linked data15. Such a framework needs a robust
data integration platform, which is provided, in part, by OGC City Geography Markup
Language (CityGML).
With CityGML, spatial data become an “operating system” for a virtual version of a city.
Practical use cases include things such as optimization of transport and efficient energy
use. Berlin's city model enables a variety of improved city services including economic
development/investment, real estate, city marketing and event management. For decades,
cities have used GIS and geospatial data to improve various services and operations. A
good example is London’s use of geospatial data for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games to establish the route network and determine traffic impacts. Authorities in
London also used geographic data to manage security operations and help direct buildingof needed infrastructure.
1415

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_data
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial ConsortiumSmart cities require standards that enable data and apps to easily interoperate, but thisrequirement is often overlooked. A good way to begin is to develop a citywide 2D and
3D urban data model to integrate different sources of available geospatial data. The data
model becomes the city's open standard, a language that all actors, datasets andtechnologies use to interact.

Figure 6. CityGML as an integration platform (Source: Carsten Rönsdorf)

CityGML has been implemented in many cities including Berlin and Abu Dhabi, and it
has been implemented countrywide in the Netherlands, Bahrain and Germany. CityGML
enables semantic modeling, that is, each element in the model includes data about thatelement's meaning, structure and relationships.
The Berlin 3D City Model16 represents one of the world's largest municipal citymodels. It contains 560,000 fully textured building models in Level of Detail 2(LoD2) and more than 200 detailed models in LoD3/4. The city model is thebasis of the Berlin Economic Atlas and the Solar Atlas referenced earlier.
INSPIRE Data Specification on Buildings17 specifies a harmonized data
specification for the spatial data theme Buildings as defined in Annex III of the
INSPIRE Directive [Directive 2007/2/EC]. The 3D representations of buildings
are generally described using the well-defined levels of detail of the CityGML
OGC standard. This INSPIRE specification is the basis of the visualization ofnoise mapping described earlier.

16
17

http://www.3dcitydb.net/3dcitydb/3dcitydb-in-action/
http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm/pageid/2

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

The national 3D standard in The Netherlands has been established using
CityGML as described in OGC Best Practice: CityGML ADE - Dutch 3D
standard (OGC document 12-066)18
Additional developments are underway using CityGML
o Finland national initiative to build up a nationwide 3D modelo 3D National Data Model for Kingdom of Bahrain19
o Malaysian 3D SDI20
o 3D Singapore21
o CityGML and ARML applied to the I-35W Bridge Collapse22
o I-Scope Project23
o The City of Lyon, France is distributing city model in CityGML24
The OGC IndoorGML Encoding Standard specifies an open abstract data model andXML schema for indoor spatial information, specifically for modeling indoor spaces fornavigation purposes. IndoorGML is designed to work with CityGML.
IndoorGML provides an open standard that supports easy discovery, assessment, accessand use of data for applications that enable, for example, indoor location-based services,indoor route analysis, indoor geo-tagging services, and emergency control in indoor
space. Requirements for other types of applications including indoor facility management
may be addressed in the next version of IndoorGML.
IndoorGML provides a framework to represent contained spaces (such as rooms andcorridors) as cells. Connections between spaces and constraints on movement between
spaces (such as doors) are represented as relationships between cells. This OGC Standard
defines the following information about indoor space:
Navigation context and constraints
Space subdivisions and types of connectivity between spaces
Geometric and semantic properties of spaces and connectivity
Navigation networks (logical and metric) and their relationships

18

http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/bp
http://www.slideshare.net/DebbieWilson2/developing-3d-national-data-model-for-kingdom-of-bahrain
20
http://www.fig.net/pub/fig2014/ppt/ts11d/TS11D_alizadehashrafi_baig_6899_ppt.pdf
21
http://www.slideserve.com/elvin/the-case-for-3d-singapore
22
http://www.safe.com/webinars/bridge-collapses/23
http://www.iscopeproject.net/iscopeNew/index.php/project/objectives
1924

http://smartdata.grandlyon.com/localisation/maquette-3d-texturfe-du-3f-arrondissement-de-lyon/

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

3.3 LandXML and InfraGML25
LandXML is a non-proprietary XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) data file format
containing civil engineering and survey measurement data commonly used in the Land
Development and Transportation Industries. The LandXML user community consists of over
650 organizations with 750 members in over 40 countries and the standard is supported byover 70 registered software products.
The OGC Land and Infrastructure Domain Working Group is developing a new candidate
standard – the OGC InfraGML Encoding Standard. This candidate standard provides a use
case driven subset of LandXML26 functionality, but that is implemented with the OGC
Geography Markup Language (GML) and supported by a UML (Unified Modeling
Language) conceptual model. InfraGML. The LandInfraDWG was chartered in 2013 to“focus is being designed to make it easy to use CAD-based land information with other OGC
standards.” Both the land and infrastructure user domain and the geospatial technology user
domain would benefit from integrated access to the two types of information.
One of the initial goals of the LandInfraDWG was to gain a better understanding of exactly
what LandXML is and does. LandXML-1.2 contains almost 5000 lines of minimally
documented XML code covering some 16 subject areas. There is no formally publisheddocumentation, user guide, requirements definition, or underlying conceptual model.
The Land and Infrastructure Standards Working Group (LandInfraSWG) was therefore
chartered. Its first task was to develop a UML as-is conceptual model of LandXML-1.2 to:
Q Aid in the understanding of what LandXML 1.2 is and does
Q Provide the basis for a conceptual model of what a future Land standard should do,
based on an assessment of user requirements
Q Establish a single set of consistent concepts that could be implemented in any set of
potential implementation-specific standards, such as a LandXML 2.0, a LandGML, a
LandSQL, etc.
This reverse engineering of a LandXML conceptual model revealed a number of problems
with LandXML as well as broad disparity with the OGC standards baseline. These findings
are summarized in the working groups’ November 5, 2013 “InfraGML Proposal (OGC
Document 13-121r1)” plan of action.
Fixing LandXML and extending it to support new technologies would result in a nonbackwards compatible version. Consequently, the LandInfraSWG decided to embark upon
the development of the new InfraGML standard. Initial subject areas will includealignments, road, survey, terrain, and land parcels. Use cases have been documented forthese subject areas. A draft UML conceptual model is almost complete and is being readiedfor public comment by the end of 2014. GML encoding is scheduled to begin early next
year.
25

http://www.opengeospatial.org/blog/2098
LandXML is a non-proprietary XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) data file format containing civilengineering and survey measurement data commonly used in the Land Development and Transportation
Industries. LandXML data is of value to the larger geospatial data community, but currently the format is
not integrated with any of the OGC’s or ISO’s geospatial standards.
26

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3.4 Building Information Models
OGC is working with other standards development organizations (SDOs) to converge
Building Information Model (BIM), 3D and Geospatial standards27. ISO/TC 59
Buildings and civil engineering works28, buildingSMART29, and the OGC arecoordinating for the development of standards as a foundation for the convergence ofbuilding and civil engineering design and geospatial technology. Other relevant SDOs
include the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO)30, theNational Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS)31 and OSCRE International32.

Figure 7. Seamless spatial data modeling across multiple SDOs

27

http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/dailynews/2014/nov/03/news2.html
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_technical_committee?commid=49070
29
http://www.buildingsmart.org/
30
http://www.mismo.org
31
http://www.nibs.org
32
http://www.oscre.org
28

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4. Interoperability Services for Smart Cities
4.1 Geospatial Services Architecture
Access and processing of geospatial information for smart cities is achieved in a serviceoriented architecture using open standards as shown in Figure 8. The OGC services aregrouped in the figure and discussed in the following sections.

Figure 8. OGC Services Architecture for interoperable access and processing of geospatial
information for decision support.

4.2 Sensor Web Enablement and SensorThings
The OGC's Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) standards enable developers to make alltypes of sensors, transducers and sensor data repositories discoverable, accessible anduseable via the Web33.
The OGC SWE standards are:Observations & Measurements (O&M) –The general models and XML encodingsfor observations and measurements.
Sensor Model Language (SensorML) – Standard models and XML Schema fordescribing the processes within sensor and observation processing systems.
Sensor Observation Service (SOS) – Open interface for a web service to obtainobservations and sensor and platform descriptions from one or more sensors.
33

http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/groups/sensorwebdwg

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial ConsortiumSensor Planning Service (SPS) – An open interface for a web service by which aclient can 1) determine the feasibility of collecting data from one or more sensors
or models and 2) submit collection requests.
PUCK Protocol Standard – Defines a protocol to retrieve a SensorML description,
sensor "driver" code, and other information from the device itself, thus enabling
automatic sensor installation, configuration and operation.
SWE Common Data Model – Defines low-level data models for exchanging
sensor related data between nodes of the OGC® Sensor Web Enablement (SWE)
framework.
SWE Service Model – Defines data types for common use across OGC Sensor
Web Enablement (SWE) services. Five of these packages define operation request
and response types.
The OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) SensorThings API candidate standard, now indraft will be an important standard for IoT. It builds on the OGC's comprehensive SWE
standards suite, but it is designed to be lightweight and easily implemented. It
incorporates a REST-like API and JSON encoding, supports standards-based location
encodings (indoor/outdoor, mobile/stationary), is linked data ready (JSON-LD), and is
Pub-Sub ready (MQTT).
4.3 Data Access Services
The Access Services include the WFS and WCS Standards.
The OGC Web Feature Service (WFS)34 standard, also published as ISO 19142, allows aclient to retrieve and update geospatial data encoded in Geography Markup Language(GML) and other encoding formats. WFS define interfaces for data access andmanipulation operations on geographic features. Via these interfaces, a user client can
combine, use and manage geodata from different sources. Open standards for encoding
feature data include GML, JSON, and KML.
The OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS)35 standard supports electronic retrieval of
geospatial data as "coverages" – that is, digital geospatial information representing
space/time-varying phenomena. WCS provides access to coverage data in forms that are
useful for client-side rendering, as input into scientific models, and for other clients.
Open standards for encoding coverage data include NetCDF, HDF, GRIB, BUFR and
GeoTIFF.
4.4 Processing Services
The OGC Web Processing Service (WPS)36 Interface Standard provides rules forstandardizing how inputs and outputs (requests and responses) for geospatial processing
services, such as polygon overlay. The standard also defines how a client can request the34

http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wfs
http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcs
36
http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wps
35

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortiumexecution of a process, and how the output from the process is handled. It defines aninterface that facilitates the publishing of geospatial processes and clients’ discovery ofand binding to those processes. The data required by the WPS can be delivered across a
network or they can be available at the server.
The OGC Table Joining Service (TJS)37 offers a way to expose this corporate data toother computers, so that it can be found and accessed, and a way to merge that data withthe spatial data that describes the framework, in order to enable mapping or geospatial
analysis.
4.5 Catalogue Services
Catalogue services (also sometimes called registry services) provide interfaces todiscover, browse, and query metadata about data, services, and other potential resources.
The OGC Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) is a binding defined in the OpenGIS
Catalogue Services Implementation Standard (CAT)38. (An OGC OpenSearch Geostandard is nearing adoption as OGC standard and is applicable as well.)
4.6 Workflow
Several SDOs define workflow standards that have been used by OGC. Often spatial
processing will require several steps. The combination of workflows services and the
OGC WPS provide a robust architecture for geospatial information processing.
The OGC Geoprocessing Workflow Architecture Engineering Report39 provides asummary of Geoprocessing Workflow practices and methods that have been implemented
in a services architecture using OGC services.
4.7 Context Document and GeoPackage
An OGC Web Services Context Document (OWS Context)40 can be used to organize a
set of spatial information about a given topic and location. The Context document isshare with user clients that open the OWS Context, retrieve the information, e.g., maplayers and display the information.
This OGC GeoPackage Standard41 defines SQLite Extensions for direct use of vector
geospatial features and / or tile matrix sets of earth images and raster maps at various
scales. GeoPackages are interoperable across all enterprise and personal computing
environments, and are particularly useful on mobile devices like cell phones and tabletsin communications environments with limited connectivity and bandwidth.
Context and GeoPackage work well together to send geospatial info to mobile devices.
37

http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/tjs
http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/cat
39
http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=34968
40
http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/owc
41
http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/geopackage
38

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4.8 Visualization and Augmented Reality
The OGC has adopted standards that support visualization of geographic information. Thesestandards allow applications to separate portrayal functions from processing functions in asingle device or in distributed environments. For example:
The OGC Web Map Service (WMS) Interface Standard provides a simple HTTP
interface for requesting geo-registered map images from one or more distributed
geospatial databases. The images are returned in specified format such as TIF or
JPEG.
The OGC Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) standard provides for serving spatiallyreferenced tile images with predefined content, extent, and resolution. WMTS trades
the flexibility of custom map rendering – as provided by WMS – for the scalability
possible by serving a fixed set of tiles.
The OGC Symbology Encoding Standard is an XML language for stylinginformation and related symbology rules. OGC SLD allows Different cartographic
styles to be applied to the same data, enabling delivery of different map styles fordifferent user populations, such as assessors and first responders.
OGC KML is an XML language focused on geographic visualization, including
annotation of maps and images. Geographic visualization includes not only thepresentation of graphical data on the globe, but also the control of the user'snavigation in the sense of where to go and where to look.
The OGC ARML 2.0 candidate standard provides an interchange format for
Augmented Reality (AR) applications to describe and interact with objects in an AR
scene, with a focus on mobile, vision-based AR.

3D portrayal standards are being finalized by an OGC Standards Working Group42. The
group is to progress the Candidate Web 3D Service Interface Standard and the Web View
Service Discussion Paper to the state of an integrated, adopted OGC standard. The SWG
will achieve this objective by processing the comments submitted during the publiccomment period and ensuring that the candidate standard is consistent with the OGC
baseline and business plan.
The 3D Portrayal SWG builds on the success of the OGC 3D Portrayal Interoperability
Experiment (3DPIE)43 The 3DPIE report contains technical details on processing 3D
information in an OGC service environment as well as best practices on how to portraylarge data sets in urban planning scenarios, taking into account architectures andcapabilities of interactive 3D graphics. Especially Web 3D Service and Web View
Service, two draft standards (published as OGC discussions paper), have been in thefocus of 3DPIE.
A demonstration at Mobile World Congress 2014 of three major AR browsers showed
the vision of interoperable AR.44
42

http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/groups/3dpswg
https://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=49068
44
http://www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/pressreleases/1960
43

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium5. Development of Spatial Information Framework for Smart Cities
5.1 Spatial Information Architecture for Smart Cities
This white paper is one step in a process of applying open standards to the spatial
information vital to Smart Cities. This white paper will be considered by the OGC
membership with discussion of next steps. Possible next steps include for the OGC
Standards Program
Discussion of Spatial Information Framework for Smart Cities with several OGC
Working Groups including the Urban Planning DWG and the 3D Information
Management DWG.
Development of an OGC Best Practice for Smart Cities. This white paper serves
as input to such a best practice.
Identification and development of profiles of OGC standards needed for Smart
Cities.
Coordination with other SDOs about standards that work together to provide anoperational set of standards for Smart Cities. The SDOs identified in Annex A
are candidates for such coordination.
The Location Powers Smart City Summit was held on 2 December 2014 in Tokyo45. The
Summit focused on understanding the location and place needs of a Smart City.
Participants tested assumptions of what a Smart City is, explored the role of the citizen,
looked at the fundamental infrastructure, and looked at how we “see” a Smart City andunderstand a Smart City. This white paper benefited from the discussion at the Summit.
5.2 OGC Smart City Interoperability Initiatives – Testbeds, Pilots etc.
The OGC Interoperability Program provides an agile, rapid engineering environment toaccelerate development and testing of standards based on real world use cases. Candidate
information exchange standards are developed at the same time that OGC vendor
members are developing prototype software solutions. The OGC has conducted morethan 80 of these international multi-firm R&D experiments in the last 15 years, eachbased on user-supplied scenarios. OGC testbeds have repeatedly demonstrated success at
transitioning research into operations based on open standards.
The OGC Interoperability Program is carrying out a strategy for Smart Cities. Activities
relevant to Smart Cities are currently underway in OGC Testbed 11 and the CityGML
Quality Interoperability Experiment. Pilots for specific cities are in the planning stages.
The pilots will carryout the deployments described in the next section and additional
activities.

45

http://www.locationpowers.net/

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5.3 Deploying the Spatial Information Framework for Smart Cities
5.3.1 Building a City Model
Building a model of the urban environment using OGC CityGML is a first step for manyof the deployments described below. Having a CityGML representation of a city is themodern day equivalent of having a 2D map. Having a 3D, semantically enabled
information model of the city enables many functions.
Building a CityGML model has been done in many cities. OGC is currently preparing areport – “Rapid model-building for venue owners” – on the steps and costs associatedwith building a CityGML model from multiple information sources.
5.3.2 Common Operating Picture
Accurate, timely, and georeferenced information is vital to operational and strategic
decision-making. The incompatibility of proprietary databases and software used by thein previous emergencies has been a hindrance. Based on lessons learned, government
agencies are requiring the private sector to support open standards based approaches inparticular for creating a Common Operating Picture (COP) for emergency response.
Working with government and industry, OGC has led development of a COP
Architecture for emergencies. Figure 9 provides the recommended services architecture
for a COP based on Web Services. This COP architecture has been applied in multiple
OGC initiatives for emergencies located in urban areas. Figure 9 identifies services andinterfaces based on best practices and open standards. This architecture is based on
operational and development systems that deliver a COP for oil spill response using open
standards. Packaging the services into components is addressed in the Deployment
Viewpoint section of this document.
Common	  Operating	
  Picture	
  composed	  of	
  multiple	
  map	
  layers	  and	  context	
  documentation

Client	  ApplicationUser	
  Management

Disconnected	
  COP	
  Users

Public	  Web	
  sourcesUser	
  Management	
  Access	
  Privileges
Spatial	
  data	  from	  external	  sourcesWeb	
  servers:	
  WMS,	
  WFS,	
  etc.	
  Dynamic	
  Data	  Feeds

Geospatial	
  DatabaseBase	
  Map	
  and	
  Reference	
  information

Archive

Drill	
  and	  Incident	  Specific	
  information

R e s p o n s e 	
   C e n t e r

Figure 9. COP Service-Oriented Architecture

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5.3.3 Recreation indicator: Outdoor recreation space
Calculation of area for urban spaces is a mature GIS-based capability. Key to best use ofurban space is to have a richer semantic understanding of these spaces. Also it’s
important that both indoor and outdoor spaces are counted in the semantic bucket ofinterest.
“Square meters of public outdoor recreation space per capita” is indicator 13.2 in the
Recreation category of ISO 37120. Calculating this indicator and related spacecalculations is easy using a CityGML model. Additional studies can be accomplished,e.g., some indoor spaces would provide the same benefits as outdoor public spaces.
Calculation of the area can be done from any open-standards client requesting a query to
WFS-equipped database holding the CityGML model and/or could be calculated byrequest to a WPS that performs the algorithm.
Additionally studies of spatial "flows" are important in understanding recreation space.
Two additional OGC standards are relevant to spatial flows.
The OGC IndoorGML standard is for navigation and routing of indoor spaces.
Knowing the available spatial flows for indoor mobility in different modes is key
to such a study.
The OGC Moving Features standard captures the movement of pedestrian andvehicles through spaces. The advance of mobile computing and internetconnected sensors (including sensors and GPS transponders in cell phones andnotebook computers) brings with it a rapid rise in applications for moving feature
data.
Crowdsourcing of data about pedestrian and vehicle movement in urban environments isa great source for spatial flow studies to improve the quality and safety of urban living.
5.3.4 Energy indicator: Renewable energy sources“The percentage of total energy derived from renewable sources, as a share of the city's
total energy consumption” is indicator 7.4 in the Energy category of ISO 37120.
The Solar Atlas of Berlin46 is based on the Berlin CityGML model is an operational
system based on open standards so that the approach can be easily set up in any city
based on a CityGML model.
Open standards-based are the foundation for integrating BIM, geospatial and smart
meters for urban energy performance optimization conducted by the European
SUNSHINE project47

46

http://www.businesslocationcenter.de/wab
http://geospatial.blogs.com/geospatial/2014/07/standards-for-integrating-smart-meters-and-urbanmodels-for-building-energy-performance-optimization.html
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5.3.5 Environment indicator: Noise pollution“Noise Pollution” is indicator 8.7 in the Environment category of ISO/DIS 37120.
This indicator can be assessed using established methods based on OGC standards. 3Dvisualization of noise mapping based on regulations in Europe have been achieved using
the INSPIRE Building Model based on the OGC CityGML standard.48

Figure 10. Web 3D visualization of noise mapping using OGC standards

5.3.6 Urban Economic Analysis
Urban economic modeling and effective spatial planning are critical tools towards
achieving urban sustainability. However, in practice, many technical obstacles, such as
information islands, poor documentation of data and lack of software platforms tofacilitate virtual collaboration, are challenging the effectiveness of decision-making
processes. Li et.al. reports49 on their efforts to design and develop a geospatial
cyberinfrastructure (GCI) for urban economic analysis and simulation. The urban GCI
implements several OGC standards: WMS, WFS as well as WPS. The WPS is used in achained flow of geoprocessing services to support effective spatial policy analysis anddecision-making.
5.3.7 Analytics – Science of Cities
Analytics refers to the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data,
particularly "big data." Big data refers to massive volumes of data that typically include
both structured and unstructured data that are thus difficult to process using traditional
database and software methods. In Smart Cities, processing of sensor feeds using big
data analytics will be useful for many purposes.
48
49

http://www.isess2013.org/res/presentations/isess2013_paper74_herman.pdf
http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/2/2/413

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The new science of analytics is integral to a "New Science of Cities50," the title of a bookby Michael Batty. As stated on the publisher's web page for the book:"In The New Science of Cities, Michael Batty suggests that to understand cities wemust view them not simply as places in space but as systems of networks and flows.
To understand space, he argues, we must understand flows, and to understand flows,
we must understand networks—the relations between objects that comprise the systemof the city. Drawing on the complexity sciences, social physics, urban economics,
transportation theory, regional science, and urban geography, and building on his own
previous work, Batty introduces theories and methods that reveal the deep structure of
how cities function.
Use of WPS to “wrap” cloud computing has been successful for big data analytics and isdirectly applicable to the analytics considered in the new science of cities.
5.3.8 Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) can increase inaccessibility by making the data open with open standards. Many of the existing
crowdsourcing applications are “stovepipes” from the sensor to the browser. Applicationof OGC standards is key to making this truly open data.
The concept of using a Web Feature Service in combination with a Sensor Observation
Service (SOS) for handling human as sensors is has been accomplished in past OGC
initiatives51. A developed data model for VGI for Sensor Web was presented andillustrated with examples from Twitter, Flickr and from mobile devices directly.

Figure 11. OGC testbed example of integrating Flickr with OGC Services

50

The New Science of Cities, by Michael Batty, MIT Press, 2013, http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/newscience-cities.
51
https://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=58925

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Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial ConsortiumSensorThings extends the OGC Sensor Web Enablement standards to Internet of Things
environment. SensorThings brings the robust semantics to this new emerging world ofsensors truly everywhere.

Figure 12. Scope of SensorThings standards SWG

There are many great new projects providing deployed sensors in cities, e.g., AirCasting52
for noise and air quality and Array of Things53 for weather and air quality at a city blocklevel of resolution. One approach is to work with these projects to make their data
available through open interfaces and therefore accessible for the wider benefits of anOpen Smart Cities approach.
5.3.9 Open Data for Smart Cities
Open Data is a key enabler for informed public and for informed city officials. Public
ability to access and use data has grown with the growth of the Web. Spatial open dataand open data from many cities is bringing new opportunities for people to assess thesituation from their perspective and thereby provide better input to collective decision
making.
OGC works with the open source geospatial promoters, e.g., OS Geo, LocationTech,
Apache, etc. Open data from for example, Open Street Map and Location Tech provide
data that have been a boon to systems based on open standard services from OGC.

5253

http://aircasting.org/
http://arrayofthings.github.io/

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Annex A. Open Standards Coordination for Smart Cities54
A.1 OGC coordination with other Standards Developing Organizations
This section provides a brief review of recent Smart City Standards activities by otherStandards Development Organizations (SDOs).
Because the need for spatial communication arises in so many different IT contexts, thestandards development work of the OGC cannot happen in a geospatial technology silo
separated from the larger world of information technology (IT). Therefore, the OGC
makes significant efforts to liaise and collaborate with other SDOs. This kind ofcollaboration is critical in establishing a Smart Cities Spatial Information Framework.
Since 1994, the OGC has maintained a close relationship with ISO/TC 211 (Geographic
Information/Geomatics). Standards from the ISO 19100 series comprise significant topicsof the OGC Abstract Specification. Further, the OGC standards WMS, GML, WFS, FE,
O&M, and Simple Features. OGC's submission of its standards to ISO in a formal
process for ISO adoption helps many organizations meet policy requirements orpreference for de jure international standards.

Figure 13. Where the OGC fits in the standards world
In the years since then, the OGC has developed formal relationships with other standards
organizations, with the details of cooperation often codified in memoranda ofunderstanding. OGC works with other SDO’s to help standardize the representation,
processing and exchange of geospatial/location information in a consistent manner
throughout the standards community.
54

Portions of this section are excerpted from the OGC entry that OGC provided for The Wiley-AAG
International Encyclopedia of Geography.

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A.2 International Standards activities on Smart Cities
A.2.1

ITU Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities

The ITU established a Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities (FG-SSC),55 which
created a dozen documents.
The FG-SSC Roadmap for Smart Sustainable Cities (SSC) Implementation identified the
Key attributes of an SSC, most notably: a) Sustainability, b) Quality of Life, c)Intelligence or Smartness.
The FG-SSC TR on Standardization Activities and Gaps for SSC was the Source of the
Figure that is reused in JTC 1/SC 1 Report on standardization needs for Smart Cities56

Figure 14. The FG-SSC TR on Smart Sustainable Cities Infrastructure created this figure
describing the Technical Architecture of a SSC.

A.2.2

ISO/IEC JTC 1 Study Group 1 on Smart Cities

ISO/IEC JTC 1 created a Study Group to review Smart City topics. The Study Group
was a short-term group that has now completed its report. The report is posted for the55
56

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/ssc/Pages/default.aspx
isotctest.iso.org/.../Initial_ToC_for_SG_1_report_on_smart_cities-R1.doc

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JTC 1 Plenary that will occur in November 2014. One recommendation by the SG 1 is
to create a new JTC 1 Special Working Group to continue the work. Figure 15 from the
JTC 1 report shows potential relationships for SDO coordination on Smart City Standards
model. The JTC 1 SG 1 Smart Cities report includes these spatial items:
6.4.3 Facilitating Instrumentation, Analysis, Decision-Making, and Automation
Geospatial Information
7.5 GIS (Geographic Information System). Note the “GIS” database in the figure.
The JTC 1 report defines a Framework for Modeling Smart Cities based on RM-ODP.

Figure 15. Smart City Standards model. The figure was initially developed by ITU FG-SSC. The
ellipses were added by JTC 1 to approximately represent the core areas of ISO (red), ISO/IEC
JTC 1 (blue), ITU-T (purple) and the IEC (green).

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A.2.3

ISO Technical Management Board Task Force on Smart Cities

The ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) established a Task Force on Smart Cities.
A report was complete for the TMB meeting in February 2014. Based on the report, theTMB created an Advisory Group on Smart Cities - to be led by the British Standards
Institute (BSI).
The ISO TMB Advisory Group (TAG) on Smart Cities now underway was directed todeliver its final report to the TMB's September 2015 meeting. There was a TAG Smart
Cities meeting during the Barcelona Smart Cities Expo in November 2014.
A.2.4

ISO ISO/TC 268 - Sustainable development and resilience of communities

The ISO TC 268 has developed these standards relevant to Smart Cities
ISO 37120 Sustainable development and resilience of communities — Indicatorsfor city services and quality of life
ISO 37101 – Management Systems
ISO 37120 – Indicators for city services
ISO 37150 & ISO 37151 – smart infrastructure
Example indicators from ISO/DIS 37120 were provided in an earlier section.
A.3 National Standards Activities
A.3.1

British Standards Institute

The British Standards Institute (BSI)57 has published two Publicly Available
Specification (PAS) documents on Smart City Framework (SCF):-

PAS 180 - Smart Cities Vocabulary
PAS 181 – Smart city framework – Guide to establishing strategies for Smart
Cities and communities
PAS 182, Smart city concept model

BSI PAS 180 defines a Smart City as an effective integration of physical, digital andhuman systems in the built environment to deliver a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive
future for its citizens.
PAS 181 defines a dozen Guidance Notes. These three are particularly very relevant for
location:
57

Transforming the City’s Operating Model re Information
Empowering Stakeholder-led Service Transformation
Mapping the City’s Interoperability Needs

http://www.bsigroup.com/

30

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial ConsortiumPAS 181 also advocates using a SCF “pattern language” approach based on Christopher
Alexander’s approach.
PAS 182, Smart city concept model is a guide to establishing a model for datainteroperability, which will provide a framework that can normalize and classify
information from many sources so that data sets can be discovered and combined to gaina better picture of the needs and behaviors of a city’s citizens (residents and businesses).
A.3.2

DKE/DIN Smart City Standardization Roadmap

DKE/DIN58 published The German Standardization Roadmap Smart City, Version 1.
The document provides a general outline as shown in Figure __ below.

Figure 16. DKE/DIN Smart City Standardization Roadmap

58

German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies of DIN and VDE. (DIN is
the German Institute for Standardization. VDE is the German VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic
and Information Technologies e.V.

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A.4 Others organizations' standards activities
Multiple other Standards Developing Organizations have Smart City Activities:
IEC Systems Evaluation Group - Smart Cities

http://www.iec.ch/dyn/www/f?p=103:186:0::::FSP_ORG_ID,FSP_LANG_ID:10330,25

ANSI Network on Smart and Sustainable Cities (ANSSC)

http://www.ansi.org/standards_activities/standards_boards_panels/anssc/overview.aspx?menuid=3

CEN/CENELEC

http://www.cencenelec.eu/standards/Sectors/SmartLiving/smartcities/Pages/default.aspx

ETSI (ETSI - European Telecommunications Standards Institute)
IEEE has a Smart Cities website (http://smartcities.ieee.org/) providing
information and news about IEEE events in targeted cities that feature experts inspecific areas of focus.

Many other organizations that are not SDOs have programs that focus on Smart Cities,
such as the NIST Global Cities Challenge59, Brookings Institute60 and the Smart Cities
Council. The OGC is on the Advisory Board of the Smart Cities Council and contributed
to the Smart Cities Readiness Guide61.

59

http://www.nist.gov/cps/sagc.cfm
http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/04/23-smart-cities-puentes-tomer
61
https://www.google.com/webhp?source=search_app - q=smart+cities+readiness+guide60

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