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Technical guidance and standards provide the framework for professionals to work together, to share data and information and to ensure that approaches are interoperable.

Depending on the sector you work in then, different standards will be important to you. This list is not exhaustive, please let professional@rgs.org know if you would like to highlight other resources.

Geospatial Commission: 

The UK geospatial data standards register entries are agreed ways of sharing and accessing geographic information, adhering to the FAIR data principles. See also the GC's paper How FAIR are our national geospatial data assets?

Ordnance Survey: 

The Geospatial Standards Report published in 2021 sets out a UK set of standards and priorities for authoritive UK geospatial data.

Open Geospatial Consortium: 

The OGC publish research, guidance and advice on geospatial information and location services with the aim of making them findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). You can also find out more about FAIR Principles - on the GO FAIR site.

UNGGIM / United Nations: 

The Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) provides a basis and guide for developing, integrating, strengthening and maximizing geospatial information management and related resources in all countries. See also the UNStats Good Practice Database.

British Standards: 

BSI set out guidelines and standards, with a Standards Policy and Strategy Committee responsible for the preparation, revision and amendment of British Standards related to geographic information, inlcuding their BS7666 standard. See the AGI's BS 7666 Guidelines.

International Organization for Standardization: 

ISO have produced the ISO/TC 211 standard for geographic information/geomatics, with associated good practice guidance.

Inspire:

INSPIRE places legal obligations on public bodies to publish particular datasets. This requires most UK public bodies (central government, local authorities and all other public authorities as defined in the Environmental Information Regulations 2004) to publish certain datasets.

  UK Government data standards and resources include:

Office for National Statistics Data Standards  - Data Standards Authority Strategy 2020 to 2023  - Open standards for government - Metadata standards for sharing and publishing data - API design guidance - Access free address data using AddressBase.