Overview
CEN ISO/TR 19174:2025 - Geographic information: Securing interoperability among heterogeneous city domain information models provides a technical analysis and guidance for achieving interoperability of the data component of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in smart city contexts. The report extends the Meta Model Framework for Interoperability (MFI) approach to accommodate interoperability elements across diverse city domain information models, reviews relevant standards and best practices, and presents a use case showing how a model registry can help secure interoperability.
Keywords: ISO/TR 19174:2025, CEN ISO/TR 19174:2025, interoperability, smart city, SDI, meta model framework, model registry, geospatial standards.
Key topics and technical requirements
- Interoperability challenges for city domain models
- Heterogeneity across public and private data models used by smart city services.
- Need to bridge system, semantic, and registry interoperability.
- Standards and best-practice review
- Examination of geospatial, IoT, data-management and smart-city standardization activities that relate to model alignment and reuse.
- References to metadata and metamodel concepts (e.g., ISO/IEC 19763, ISO 19115 series).
- Registers and registries for SDI
- Role of model registries, model repositories, registry summaries (RS) and registry-of-registries (RoR) in cataloguing and discovering models and metadata.
- Emphasis on using registries to support findability and consistent model mappings.
- Use case and mapping example
- A practical registration and mapping use case demonstrates how model registry processes can secure interoperability among domain information models.
- Technical requirements
- Specifies requirements for applying MFI interoperability elements to support smart city services (system/semantic/registry-focused).
- Identifies items for further standardization to fully secure interoperability.
Practical applications and users
Who benefits:
- Local governments and urban planners implementing smart city services and digital twins.
- GIS and SDI architects integrating heterogeneous datasets across transport, utilities, land administration, and building information modeling (BIM).
- Software vendors, integrators and platform providers building model registries, catalogues or metadata registries.
- Standards bodies and SDOs aligning domain models for cross-domain services.
Typical uses:
- Registering and mapping city domain information models to enable cross-departmental data sharing.
- Applying MFI-based requirements to design interoperable APIs and data services (e.g., NGSI-LD, OGC services).
- Informing standardization roadmaps for smart city data interoperability.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 19763 (metamodels / MFI concepts)
- ISO 19115 (metadata)
- INSPIRE, OGC and other smart-city related frameworks and APIs referenced in the report
This technical report is a practical guide for organizations seeking a structured, standards-aligned approach to reduce model heterogeneity and enable interoperable smart city services.