Partner Perspective

OGC call for pilot participation: Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure

WGIC Partner OGC (the Open Geospatial Consortium) continues its quest for in-depth data requirements, architecture, and standards needs for a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure.

WGIC Secretariat November 26, 2021
OGC Calling For Participation in the Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot

The OGC released a Call For Participation (CFP) in early November. This to solicit proposals for funded participation in the OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot (FMSDI). Its deadline to respond is December 10, 2021. The pilot consists of three segments of focus. Firstly, developing a federation of S-122 Standard Marine Protected Area (MPA) data sets. Secondly, exploring the data fidelity, mobility, and versatility of S-100 Product Specification as well as other marine standards and data. Thirdly, and lastly, designing a UNGGIM-IGIF derived Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (IGIF-MSDI) maturity model that provides a roadmap for MSDI development.

Previous initiatives in this field

The FMSDI initiative builds on the accomplishments of several previous OGC Initiatives:

Three phases

The FMSDI initiative consists of three (3) phases.

  1. A Request for Information (RFI), which is already completed. This RFI focused on resource collection with a primary focus on Marine Protected Area (MPA). Examples: who has that data, how can we preferably store it, where can users access it, etc.
  2. The second phase extends the MPA-focus of the first phase by digging into all the various data services and begins building out an S-122 demonstration model. This includes the exploration of the S-100 data specifications and how other data (terrestrial, meteorological, Earth observation, etc.) can mingle to create a more holistic view of the region of focus. In addition, phase two designs a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) maturity model. This provides a roadmap for MSDI development. The maturity model derives from the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UNGGIM-IGIF).
  3. The third phase is expected to start later in 2022. This will primarily extend the use cases developed in the second phase. It adds the Arctic region as a new location to the demonstration scenarios. An additional CFP will be developed and released in 2022 to initiate the third phase.

OGC Innovation Program

The OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot falls under OGC’s Innovation Program. It’s a prototyping and engineering environment where sponsors and OGC members come together. They address location interoperability challenges while validating international open standards. To learn about the benefits of sponsoring an OGC Innovation Program Initiative such as this, visit the OGC Innovation Program webpage, or watch this short video on how OGC’s Innovation Program can benefit organizations.

OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot (FMSDI)