Overview
ISO 19155:2012 - Geographic information - Place Identifier (PI) architecture defines a reference model and encoding approach for identifying “places” across real and virtual spaces. A Place Identifier (PI) links a place to a reference system (RS), a value, and a valid temporal period. The standard enables multiple, community-managed identifiers (coordinate, geographic code, or virtual-world URIs) to be matched and used together without forcing a single global identifier scheme.
Keywords: ISO 19155, Place Identifier, PI architecture, geographic information, PI matching, GML encoding, URI, spatial data infrastructure
Key topics and technical requirements
- Scope: Covers place identifiers for real-world positions (coordinates), locations (geographic identifiers), and virtual places (URIs). Not about producing canonical place descriptions (e.g., address coding).
- Reference model: Defines PI components and relationships, including a mechanism to match multiple PIs to the same place.
- PI structure: A PI contains a reference system, a value, and its valid temporal interval - the content/format of the value is determined by the originating community.
- Services and data structures: Specifies data structures (e.g., PI matching table, matched PI sets) and service interfaces (PI matching service, PI reference system service) to support discovery and resolution.
- Encoding: Normative encoding is provided using GML (ISO 19136:2007). Informative encodings (e.g., tag URI, WKT) are shown in annexes.
- Conformance: Four conformance classes cover semantics, data, services, and PI encoding; an abstract test suite is included (normative annexes).
- Interoperability focus: Emphasizes distributed community maintenance of PIs to avoid forced harmonization while enabling cross-domain discovery.
Applications
- Location-based services (LBS): Unify references to places represented by coordinates, named locations, or web resources.
- Emergency management: Match and resolve place identifiers from different authorities during incident response.
- Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) and registries: Integrate PI architecture as part of data catalogs, gazetteers, and discovery services.
- Web/GIS integration: Link virtual resources (URIs) to geographic entities for richer web mapping and linked-data use cases.
Who should use this standard
- GIS architects and data modelers designing place registries and matching services
- Developers of LBS, geocoding, and emergency-response systems
- SDI managers, gazetteer maintainers, and metadata/catalog implementers
- Organizations needing cross-domain place discovery without centralizing identifier governance
Related standards
- ISO 19136:2007 (GML) - normative encoding reference
- ISO 19111, ISO 19112 - coordinate and geographic referencing foundations
- Annexes in ISO 19155 provide test suites and alternative encodings (tag URI, WKT) for implementation guidance
Adopting ISO 19155 helps organizations implement a flexible, interoperable PI architecture that preserves community-managed identifiers while enabling robust matching and discovery across real and virtual spaces.