This repository contains the point-of-truth source data of the International Standards Organization's Technical Committee 211 (Geographic information/Geomatics)'s ontologies. These ontologies are Semantic Web implementations of TC-211's Harmonized Model's models.
The ontology content here is stored here in RDF data files in the Turtle format as Semantic Web ontologies according to the Ontology Publication Profile of OWL, with OWL being the OWL 2 Web Ontology Language
These ontologies will be published online at IRI persistent identifier locations resolved via the Open Geospatial Consortium's "Rainbow" reference data publication system by May 2026.
Until then, the ontologies are in draft form and may be test published only.
These ontologies are maintained via procedures aligning with ISO 19135:2026 Geographic information — Procedures for item registration with the TC-211's Advisory Group 6 Group for Ontology Maintenance (GOM) acting as the Control Body organising expert reviews of proposed content changes.
If you want to propose changes, please create Pull Requests on this repository at https://github.com/iso-TC211/ontologies/pulls.
Governance procedures for this content are still in development as of March 2026. The Control Body will communicate with anyone proposing changes (Submitters) to determine appropriate reviews until the procedures and finalised, at which point they will be documented here and at the def.isotc211.org namespace's home.
The RDF resources in this repository within the resources/ folder that constitute the catalogue of ontologies are organised according to a structured manifest allowing for automated validation and absorption by the OGC Rainbow system. The following table of manifest resources is auto-generated by the PrezManifest tool from the manifest.ttl file:
| Resource | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
Catalogue Definition:catalogue.ttl |
Catalogue Data | The definition of, and metadata for, the code sets container object - catalogue |
Resource Data:codesets/*.ttl |
Resource Data | Code sets as catalogued resources |
Labels Files:background/*.ttl |
Complete Catalogue and Resource Labels | Labels for resource data elements and reference data such as Agents |
Note
As of March 2026, the resources here are empty placeholding shells only with catalogues, labels and ontologies expected to be added in MArch and April 2026.
These vocabularies are available for reuse under the conditions of the Creative Commons BY 4.0 License, a copy of the deed of which is contained in this repository in the LICENSE file.
These vocabularies and the software in this repository is copyright as follows:
© International Organization for Standardization, 2026
These ontologies are managed by the TC-211's Advisory Group 6 Group for Ontology Maintenance (GOM). Please contact that group using the details at: