Geospatial Data Standards

Geospatial data standards also help ensure that the data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, adhering to the FAIR data principles.

Internationally, the ISO Technical Committee on Geographic Information is working to achieve standardisation in the field of digital geographic information. They aim to establish a structured set of standards for information concerning objects or phenomena that are directly or indirectly associated with a location relative to the Earth. These standards may specify methods, tools and services for data management. Where possible, the committee’s work will link to appropriate standards for information technology and data, and will provide a framework for the development of sector-specific applications using geographic data.

In the UK, the Government’s Geospatial Commission is an expert committee responsible for setting the UK’s geospatial strategy and coordinating public sector geospatial activity and is part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The Geospatial Commission has brought together best practice guidance and tools for managing geospatial data aimed at helping those involved in the management and sharing of geospatial data to ensure that they are doing so in accordance with FAIR data principles. Their Geospatial Glossary can help those new to geospatial data understand the common terms used, as well as providing everyone in the industry with a set of common definitions in one place. The Geospatial Commission also maintain the UK Geospatial Data Standards Register which is a list of agreed ways of sharing and accessing geographic information.

Geospatial Metadata Interoperability Initiative (GEMINI)

Geospatial data in the UK should be described using the Geo-spatial Metadata Interoperability Initiative (UK GEMINI) metadata standard, which is the UK profile of the international standard for geospatial metadata (ISO 19115), an internationally-adopted schema for describing geographic information and services. GEMINI was developed through a collaboration of the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) and the former Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, with additional representation from national and local government, and the academic community. GEMINI is now maintained by AGI’s GEMINI Working Group on GitHub. The latest version (v.2.3) was published in June 2018 and incorporates INSPIRE technical guidance and the latest updates to ISO 19115 metadata.

The UK GEMINI standard is applicable to all geospatial data curated, produced and shared by HERs.

INSPIRE

The EU’s INSPIRE directive places legal obligations on public bodies to publish spatial datasets that meet certain criteria. The Data.gov.uk portal is the UK’s INSPIRE-compliant metadata portal. The portal hosts data published by government departments, other national public-sector bodies and local government.

The approach to the application of the INSPIRE directive to HERs differs across the UK.

In England, discussions have been held about whether HER data should be published as part of the Annexe 3 theme, but it was determined that there should be no such requirement. Similarly, in Wales, where data is managed by Heneb, there is no requirement to publish HER data under the INSPIRE directive.

In Scotland, it was determined that historic environment data held by HERs falls within Annexe 1 (‘Protected Sites’) and, as such, it is a legal requirement for local authorities to supply HER data as part of the INSPIRE (Scotland) Directive 2009. These data are gathered quarterly by the Scottish Government Improvement Service, aggregated and published on the Scottish Spatial Hub. There they are accessible by all Scottish public-sector bodies and their contractors, and the academic community via EDINA, but are not yet available to the general public. The Scottish data are published as two national layers – ‘Historic Environment Records: Sites’ and ‘Historic Environment Records: Events’ – and the attribute information is detailed in the metadata published about each layer. In 2024 the HER data served via the Scottish Spatial Hub became available as two options, a basic version for free and a version with more attributes that is a commercial product, meaning that third party companies and individuals are able to buy licences to view this fuller data.

In Northern Ireland, the government publishes information about its Sites and Monuments Record data on the Spatial NI for INSPIRE discovery portal under the Annexe 1 ‘Protected Sites’ theme.

The INSPIRE directive is not applicable to the Crown Dependencies.

Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN)

For marine data in the UK, the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) discovery metadata standard  is a community standard, which is based on the UK GEMINI standard and also complies with other international conventions, such as the INSPIRE technical guidance and ISO 19115.

The MEDIN standard is applicable to all marine geospatial data curated, produced and shared by HERs and other heritage bodies that are responsible for the UK’s marine environment.