OGC seeks public comment on revision to the OGC Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set and Tile Set Metadata Standard

The new revision adds a new data model to describe tilesets and how to encode in XML and in JSON. It also corrects inconsistencies discovered in the first version, introduces some minor changes to the TileMatrixSet conceptual model and encodings, and clarifies the identification and use of registered TileMatrixSet definitions. Comments are due by December 3, 2021.

The Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set and Tile Set Metadata Standard decouples the standardized definition of a “tile matrix set” from the OGC Web Map Tile Service Standard (WMTS), so that other Standards may use it to take advantage of the performance, storage, and processing benefits that tile matrix sets can bring.

A “tile” is a rectangular pictorial representation of contiguous geographic data (such as a portion of a digital map) that can be uniquely defined by a pair of indices for the column and row along with an identifier for its “tile matrix.” A “tile matrix” is a collection of tiles for a single scale, while a “tile matrix set” is a collection of tile matrices defined at different scales.

In 2007, OGC approved and released the Web Map Tile Service Standard (WMTS), which included a standardized definition of a “tile matrix set.” Over time, other OGC standards with requirements for “tiles” or tiled structures needed to use the same definition. Unfortunately, other OGC standards could not use the tile matrix set definition directly because the definition was formally linked to the WMTS tile service.