INTER-ORGANISATIONAL ACTIVITIES

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANISATION - (ISO)

General Information

The ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies, comprising 118 members (85 Member Bodies, 24 Correspondent Members, 9 Subscribing Members), one from each country. ISO international standards are developed in agreement between Member Bodies. A committee draft is given to an ISO Technical Committee (TC) for discussion. After consensus in the TC, the central secretariat of ISO emits a Draft International Standard (DIS). The drafts include the voting results from all respective countries. Final voting by all ISO Members Bodies and the final version has to be agreed to by at least 75% of the voters.

International Organisations such as ISPRS may be granted liaison status (Category A or B) with an ISO TC, ISO Subcommittee or ISO Working Group. Category 'A' liaison gives right to full participation, whereas 'B' liaison is to be kept for information only.

ISPRS Liaison and Representatives

During 1996, ISPRS has had liaison status on the following ISO committees.

ISO/TC 20 'Aircraft and Space Vehicles'

ISO/TC/20/SC14 'Space Systems and Operations'

Category B liaison

ISPRS Representative - ISPRS Commission I

ISO/TC20/SC13 'Space Systems and Information Transfer Systems'

ISPRS Representative Dr H. Ziemann

ISO/TC 42 'Photography'

Category A Liaison

ISPRS Representative Commission I

ISO TC/172 'Optics and Optical Instruments'

ISO/TC172/SC1

Category B Liaison

ISPRS representative Dr Hartmutt Ziemann

ISO/TC172/SC9 'Electro optical systems'

Category B Liaison

ISPRS representative Dr Manfred Schroeder and Commission I

ISO TC/211 'Geographic Information/Geomatics'

Category A liaison

ISPRS representative Professor Dieter Fritsch (Germany), Commission IV President

Reports

ISO TC/211 Geographic Information Systems/Geomatics

ISO TC 211 is currently very active in the development of ISO standards for GIS/Geomatics Professor Dieter Fritsch represented ISPRS at a Plenary Meeting of the Technical Committee in Oxford UK, in October 1997.

The Technical Committee is managed by the Norwegian Technology Standards Institution. It is divided into 5 Working Groups as follows:

WG1 - Framework and reference model

Work items include: Reference Model, Overview, Conceptual Schema Language, Terminology, Conformance Testing.

WG2 - Geospatial data models and operators

Work items include: Spatial Subschema, Temporal subschema, Rules for Application Schema, Spatial Operators

WG3 - Geospatial data administration

Work items include: Cataloguing, Geodetic Reference Systems, Indirect Reference Systems, Quality, Quality Evaluation Procedures, Metadata.

WG4 - Geospatial services

Work items include: Positioning Services, Portrayal of Geographic Information, Encoding, Services

WG5 - Profiles and functional standards

Work items include: Profiles

All working groups are well advanced in their developments and a draft standard is expected to be available in 1998. Comprehensive documentation is available with both Professor Fritsch and Professor Trinder.