Overview
SIST ISO 19104:2017 (ISO 19104:2016) - Geographic information - Terminology - defines requirements for the collection, management and publication of terminology used in the field of geographic information (GI). It guides selection and harmonization of concepts, preparation of definitions, cultural and linguistic adaptation, layout and formatting of terminological entries, and establishment and management of terminology registers. ISO 19104:2016 is intended for use with International Standards and Technical Specifications in geographic information.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Selection and harmonization of concepts: requirements for choosing concepts, developing concept systems, and ensuring consistent concept relationships across GI standards.
- Terminological entries: structure and required content of entries, including preferred/admitted/deprecated terms, equivalent terms, abbreviations, symbols, definitions, non‑verbal representations, examples, notes and bibliographic sources.
- Drafting and conformance classes: conformance classes covering entry content, drafting, cultural/linguistic adaptation, layout, and terminology register schemas.
- Cultural and linguistic adaptation: guidance on reference environments, degree of correspondence between language variants and handling multilingual contexts.
- Layout and formatting: presentation rules for rendered documents to ensure consistent display of terminology in standards and glossaries.
- Terminology registers and schema: structure and lifecycle of terminology registers, stakeholder roles (owner, manager), information packages (core and supplementary), and register schema requirements for simple and hierarchical multilingual registers.
- Normative/supporting material: includes test suites, multilingual environment guidance, and example information packages for practical implementation.
Practical applications and users
Who uses ISO 19104:
- Standards developers and technical committees (ISO/TC 211) creating consistent GI terminology.
- GIS professionals, data stewards and metadata specialists who maintain controlled vocabularies and data dictionaries.
- Terminologists, translators and localization teams working on multilingual geospatial glossaries.
- Software architects and implementers building terminology registers, terminology services or APIs for geospatial interoperability.
- Organizations publishing GI standards, technical specifications, glossaries and educational materials.
Typical uses:
- Building interoperable, multilingual terminological registers and glossaries for geospatial data and metadata.
- Harmonizing concept definitions across multiple GI standards to reduce ambiguity.
- Ensuring consistent formatting and presentation of terminology in published standards and technical documentation.
- Supporting automated term management and quality assurance for GIS vocabularies.
Related standards
- Part of the ISO 19100 series for geographic information (ISO/TC 211). ISO 19104 is applicable to other International Standards and Technical Specifications in the GI domain and complements other terminology and metadata standards within the series.
Keywords: ISO 19104, geographic information, terminology, terminological entries, terminology register, multilingual glossary, ISO/TC 211, geospatial standards, harmonization, metadata.