This is the root web page of the def.isotc211.org namespace reserved for
Semantic Web versions of TC-211 resources.
The types of Semantic Web resources published here are:
Currently, as of May 2025, the only Semantic Web resources published by TC-211 are some of the code set vocabularies which are hosted for the TC-211 by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) on their reference data platform known as the 'OGC Rainbow'.
See the entire catalogue of TC-211 resources at:
In July 2025, TC-211 plans to start testing the online delivery of ontologies.
See the section Published so far below for the complete list of published resources.
TC-211 Semantic Web resources all have persistent identifiers assigned to them in the form of IRIs - web page URL addresses.
You can go to the human-readable form of any TC-211 Semantic Web resource by just clicking on its IRI, for example, here is the IRI for ISO19115’s Role Code code set:
https://def.isotc211.org/codeset/RoleCode
TC-211 maintains the following patterns for its Semantic Web resources:
https://def.isotc211.org/codeset/{CODESET_ID} - Code Set vocabularies
{CODESET_ID} is a unique ID for the codeset based on its originating UML package location in the Harmonised Modelhttps://def.isotc211.org/ont/{ONTOLOGY_ID} - Ontologies (proposed)
{ONTOLOGY_ID} is a unique ID for the ontology based on the ISO code for the standard that defines it, e.g. "19115"This web page and the TC’s Semantic Web resources are managed by the TC’s Advisory Group 6: Group on Ontology Maintenance (GOM) and the OGC.
For any further information about these resources, please contact GOM whos contact details can be found at:
The TC-211 resources so far published as Semantic Web objects are as follows:
The Code Set vocabularies are all published online at their IRI identifier locations, for example, the ISO 19115-1 Role Codes code set is online at:
The complete listing of Code Set vocabularies published so far is given in the "codeset" catalogue listing:
No ontologies have yet been published in production. Previously TC-211 test published ontologies in XML only but these have been withdrawn.
A complete set of TC-211 Harmonised Model-based ontologies are expected by May 2026.
When published, they will be linked to from here.
We have implemented a new server to for redirections https://def.isotc211.org redirections.
This allows redirections to elements such as codes within code sets, e.g. https://def.isotc211.org/codeset/RoleCode/editor to the editor code, not just to the whole Code Set.
The collection of ontologies, auto-generated from TC-211 UML models, that were housed on this site have been removed.
Persistent identifiers for Codelists and Code Sets have been implemented using the
def.isotc211.org namespace.
The ISO/TC 211’s GOM has worked with the OGC to host many of the TC’s standards' code sets as Semantic Web vocabularies using the OGC’s reference data platform known as the 'OGC Rainbow'.