The OGC® Discrete Global Grid System core standard: A framework for rapid geospatial integration

Abstract

There is explosive growth in both the variety and the volume of spatial data and processing resources, along with a growing understanding of the tremendous benefit that can be derived from enabling interoperability between them. On the other side of this deluge of spatial content is a growing demand by decision-makers for a participatory environment where content can be accessed directly from diverse contributors and used with other content without reliance on time-consuming and costly geographic transformation processes. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">®</sup> ) has released a new candidate standard for Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS) that defines a set of rules for defining highly efficient architectures for spatial data storage and analytics. The goal of a DGGS is to enable rapid integration of spatial data without the difficulties of working with legacy coordinate systems. This paper presents the new OGC standard and its application to the next generation of Geoscience Information Systems.