openEO specifies an open application programming interface (API) for connecting applications and other client software to large-scale Earth observation (EO) cloud backends in a simple and unified way.

The openEO specification aims to increase interoperability in the processing of large EO datasets, including satellite imagery, in the cloud. Implementations of openEO can be used to add an interoperability layer on top of existing services.

Its development has been driven by the need to overcome challenges associated with different tools, APIs, and data formats in geospatial technology. openEO has been developed from the bottom up, with each version of the specification supported by implementations.

The primary use case for openEO is to simplify and unify data processing through a common API and a specification for a set of predefined processes.

Users can continue working in their preferred programming language without needing to manage data organization and pre-processing. openEO also helps avoid vendor lock-in, as generated process descriptions can be executed across multiple provider endpoints, making it easier to compare and reproduce processing results.

openEO is already being used in major Earth observation initiatives. In the Copernicus Dataspace Ecosystem, openEO supports both interactive querying and large-scale FAIR-compliant processing of EO data. It has also been selected by ESA APEx and EarthCODE to expose on-demand services that support reproducible scientific workflows and near real-time processing.

“openEO has always focused on providing an accessible EO processing interface for researchers and other end users, as reflected in its broad ecosystem of user-friendly clients and datacube-centric predefined processes,” said Matthias Mohr, Managing Director of moreGeo. “The specification has evolved alongside OGC Standards and aligns closely with existing standards, making openEO processing results readily usable across a wide range of OGC and STAC client software.”

 

The specification consists of two parts:

• The openEO API (version 1.2.0), an HTTP API description specified as an OpenAPI document, approved as an OGC Community Standard; and
• The openEO Processes (version 1.2.0), a set of requirements for separately versioned predefined processes conforming to the openEO API specification, approved as an OGC Community Practice.

The openEO specification is openly licensed, governed, and maintained. It is released under the Apache 2.0 license and is publicly available via GitHub.

The project is governed by a Project Steering Committee.

About OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a membership organization dedicated to using the power of geography and technology to solve problems faced by people and the planet. OGC unlocks value and opportunity for its members through Standards, Innovation, and Collaboration. Our membership represents a diverse and active global community drawn from government, industry, academia, international development agencies, research & scientific organizations, civil society, and advocates.

Visit ogc.org for more information about our work.

One of the most common challenges I have encountered is the lack of knowledge about the data to be integrated. This makes it very difficult to plan timelines for developing an SDI. By “knowledge,” I mean knowing exactly which datasets will be integrated, along with their technical metadata, such as format, size, and frequency of updates.

In an ideal scenario, this information would be provided in a metadata record, preferably in a standardized format. However, in many cases, data comes without metadata, which brings me to the second challenge: the creation of standards-based metadata. As with building a data inventory, this is often less a technical issue and more a human one, as it requires collaboration with data owners.

Another major challenge I have encountered is the format of the data itself, which in many cases is neither standardized nor structured. One of the most common examples I have seen is CSV (Comma-Separated Value) files, which are text files that may contain anything within comma-enclosed fields. For instance, coordinates can be expressed in different formats within the same column. These integration challenges arise from the lack of a mechanism to enforce a schema. Despite these limitations, CSV and Excel files remain among the most commonly used formats for data exchange.

The image above depicts the ideal situation: a dataset is provided in a standards-based format, along with an accompanying metadata record. This allows the data to be more easily ingested into an SDI and published through various OGC API formats, such as tiles, features, or records.

In this post, I have highlighted some of the most common challenges. In the coming posts, I will explore each of these challenges in more detail and share some practical strategies that I have developed to address them.

My key takeaway is that while software tools can assist us with these tasks, education remains the most effective way to prevent these challenges in the first place.

The Testbed on Trusted Data and Systems is a collaborative innovation programme coordinated by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and anchored within the international geospatial community. Originally launched under the name Testbed Europe, the programme was renamed after organisations from outside Europe expressed interest in participating, reflecting its growing global scope. It is designed to help National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies (NMCAs) and other authoritative public data providers modernise, adapt, and thrive in a rapidly evolving data landscape.

It is not a research project. It is not a standards committee. The Testbed on Trusted Data and Systems is a practical, results-oriented initiative in which real engineering challenges are tackled by real organisations, producing open, reusable outputs that any NMCA can adopt.

The programme brings together two kinds of activity. Two of its work streams are delivered in direct partnership with EuroGeographics, reflecting shared priorities around modernising service delivery and establishing fair commercial models for authoritative data. These carry joint branding from both organisations. OGC leads the remaining work streams in response to needs raised by its own members and by individual NMCAs from Europe and beyond. EuroGeographics members are welcome to participate in these, but they are managed and branded by OGC independently.

The Testbed on Trusted Data and Systems exists because NMCAs around the world share common problems that no single agency can solve alone, and because solving them together, with the right expertise at the table, is faster, cheaper, and more durable than solving them in isolation.

The OGC Testbed Model

OGC has run innovation testbeds for over 25 years. The model is straightforward.

Sponsors, typically public agencies or industry organisations, identify concrete requirements and contribute funding. OGC assembles a curated team of technology providers, domain experts, and standardisation specialists best suited to address those requirements. The team works collaboratively and openly to produce engineering reports, prototype implementations, and reusable specifications. The budget contributed by sponsors is redistributed to the participating organisations doing the work, making sponsorship an investment in solutions rather than overhead.

OGC operates at the preproduction level. It does not build or operate production systems. Instead, it develops prototypes and engineering guidance that show how future production systems should be designed. The production itself is carried out by the agencies and companies that adopt the results.

The Testbed on Trusted Data and Systems adapts this proven model to the specific context of NMCAs: the regulatory environment, the INSPIRE legacy in Europe, the need for better integration, and the resource pressures that characterise public geospatial agencies today.

Who is the Testbed on Trusted Data and Systems for?

The Testbed on Trusted Data and Systems is primarily designed to serve National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies and other authoritative public data providers, who produce and maintain the foundational geographic data on which governments, businesses, and citizens depend.

At the same time, it is built to engage the private sector: technology companies, platform providers, and data integrators who rely on NMCA data and who have both the capacity and the incentive to contribute to its improvement. This engagement from both sides is central to the programme’s design.

Work Streams

The following nine topics represent the work streams for the Testbed on Trusted Data and Systems. They have been identified through dialogue with NMCAs, EuroGeographics, and OGC members, and reflect the most pressing shared challenges in the geospatial sector today. Each work stream will be scoped in detail in accordance with sponsor requirements. The descriptions below define the problem space and the intended direction, not a fixed specification.

Work streams 1 and 2 are delivered in partnership between OGC and EuroGeographics. They address the modernisation of data services and the establishment of fair commercial models for authoritative data. These two streams carry joint branding from both organisations.

Work streams 3 through 9 are led by OGC in response to needs identified by its members and by individual NMCAs. These streams are managed and branded by OGC. EuroGeographics members are welcome to participate, but these activities do not carry EuroGeographics branding or endorsement.

Partnership Work Streams: OGC and EuroGeographics

1. Renew the Engine: From Legacy Services to Modern Web APIs

OGC + EuroGeographics

Challenge: Many NMCAs still operate on legacy OGC service standards such as WFS and WMS that predate the modern web. These aging interfaces limit interoperability, scalability, and adoption by contemporary applications. As NMCAs look to modernise their backend systems, there is a clear and shared need for practical migration guidance and tested reference implementations.

Approach: The testbed will define and pilot migration pathways to OGC API standards, including OGC API Features, Tiles, Maps, and Coverages. This will enable NMCAs to modernise their data delivery infrastructure step by step and at manageable cost. The work stream will produce practical guidance, reference implementations, and reusable migration templates that any agency can adopt regardless of its current technical starting point.

2. Fair Exchange Between Authoritative Data Providers and Commercial Platforms

OGC + EuroGeographics

Challenge: Large commercial platforms derive significant value from authoritative public geodata, yet National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies receive little in return: no revenue, no quality feedback, and no technology transfer. The relationship is imbalanced, and there is no established model for correcting it.

Approach: The testbed will investigate governance and technical models inspired by Wikimedia Enterprise: tiered access, reciprocal data contribution, and structured commercial licensing that rewards public data providers while keeping open access intact for noncommercial use. The goal is to establish a practical framework in which the value of authoritative data is recognised and fairly shared between public providers and the commercial platforms that depend on it.

OGC Led Work Streams

3. Addressing Resource Shortages: Outsourcing Research and Enhancement to OGC

OGC

Challenge: NMCAs face growing demands for data modernisation but lack the internal research and development capacity to keep pace. Critical enhancement tasks go unaddressed not for lack of will, but for lack of available people and expertise. Some agencies have no difficulty recruiting additional staff, while others are severely constrained.

Approach: OGC can act as a trusted intermediary, commissioning targeted research and innovation tasks on behalf of NMCAs through its global network of member organisations. This brings the most capable and innovative companies to the table while shielding NMCAs from procurement complexity. The work stream responds to a clear need from agencies that want to move forward but cannot staff additional work internally.

4. Semantic Interoperability: Aligning Data Models Without Forcing Convergence

OGC

Challenge: Data produced by different agencies is often structurally compatible but semantically fragmented: the same real world feature is described differently across datasets, making it difficult and expensive to combine or compare data from multiple sources. This is a fundamental barrier to effective data use, including by AI systems that must understand what the data means in order to process it correctly.

Approach: OGC has developed a new approach to semantic interoperability that does not require all parties to agree on a single, rigid international schema. Instead, organisations agree on a small shared core model and then derive their own profiles in a standardised way. Because the derivation process is itself standardised, machines can reconcile different profiles automatically. This work stream will test and refine this approach, enabling agencies to keep their own data models while dramatically improving the ability to integrate data across organisational boundaries. The approach is attracting strong interest internationally and is directly relevant to the broader discussion about how future data frameworks, including any successor to INSPIRE, should balance rigidity with flexibility.

5. Protecting Sensitive Geospatial Data: Technical Approaches

OGC

Challenge: Several NMCAs are facing growing pressure from security and defence communities to reconsider what geospatial data is made publicly available. There are concerns that detailed data about critical infrastructure may be exploited. Once data has been released openly and downloaded by third parties, it cannot simply be retracted, and agencies are asking what technical measures can still be applied.

Approach: This work stream will explore technical methods for managing the release of sensitive geospatial data going forward. This includes techniques such as spatial obfuscation, selective resolution reduction, and controlled access mechanisms that can be applied to new data releases without breaking existing systems. The focus is on practical, implementable solutions rather than policy guidance. National decisions about what data to release and under what conditions remain with national authorities and their relevant ministries.

6. Common Identifiers: Bridging Different Systems for Geographic Features

OGC

Challenge: Multiple identifier systems exist for geographic features, each serving a different community and purpose. There is no single universal identifier, and imposing one is neither realistic nor desirable. The challenge is that organisations and users who work across these systems cannot easily link or reconcile records that refer to the same real world feature.

Approach: This work stream will investigate dynamic mapping environments that allow organisations to retain their own identifier systems while still being able to discover and link to equivalent features identified under other schemes. Rather than standardising a single identifier, the approach focuses on building bridges between existing systems, including those from INSPIRE, Wikidata, national registers, and commercial providers (e.g., GERS).

7. Data Aggregation and Assembly at the National Level

OGC

Challenge: In federal countries and other states where data responsibilities are distributed across multiple regional or local authorities, assembling a coherent national dataset is a significant operational challenge. The aggregation pipelines involved are often bespoke, brittle, and expensive to maintain.

Approach: This work stream will prototype standardised approaches for assembling national datasets from distributed subnational sources within a single country. It will define interfaces, quality checks, and assembly workflows that make this process more reliable, repeatable, and efficient. The focus is on national level aggregation to support domestic needs such as infrastructure planning, traffic simulation, and emergency response.

8. Integrity, Provenance, and Trust

OGC

Challenge: As data passes through multiple systems, transformations, and organisations, its lineage becomes difficult to trace. The geospatial data landscape is changing rapidly. Alongside established providers such as national space agencies, there is now a growing number of commercial satellite operators, and civil drone operators are expected to multiply significantly in the coming years. At the same time, AI makes it possible to synthesise realistic data efficiently. In this environment, users increasingly need ways to verify that the data they receive is authentic, unmodified, and fit for purpose.

Approach: This work stream will implement and evaluate provenance tracking mechanisms and integrity verification approaches, including cryptographic signatures, standardised lineage metadata, and trust frameworks. The goal is to enable data consumers to assess origin and quality with confidence. The work is relevant to both civil and defence communities and responds to growing concerns about data reliability in an environment with many new and diverse data providers.

9. Future Ready Geospatial Metadata for AI and Advanced Technologies

OGC

Challenge: Geospatial metadata standards in widespread use today were designed primarily for human consumption and catalogue based discovery. Standards such as ISO 19115 and its national profiles have provided long standing consistency, but their structure reflects an earlier era of file based workflows. With the rapid growth of AI, agentic systems, and cloud computing, metadata must increasingly be read, interpreted, and acted upon by machines rather than people. Current standards are not well suited to this shift, and there is no agreed path for evolving them.

Approach: This work stream will identify what geospatial metadata needs to look like in an AI driven future. It will evaluate the fitness of current international metadata standards, including ISO 19115, GeoDCAT, OGC API Records, STAC, and schema.org, against the requirements of advanced technologies. Based on this evaluation, it will develop recommendations for how existing standards should evolve and what new approaches may be needed. The work stream will also prototype and test modern metadata approaches, including demonstrations of how AI enabled metadata can support natural language discovery tools, automated dataset identification through APIs, and seamless consumption of multilingual metadata assets. Attention will be given to the ability of metadata frameworks to support multiple languages and to mechanisms for assessing metadata quality and completeness. The ultimate goal is a clear understanding of the limitations of existing standards, the changes required, and the practical steps needed to transition to a metadata environment that serves both machines and people.

Join the Conversation

Input and engagement from across the geospatial community are essential to ensuring Testbed Europe remains relevant, balanced, and practically useful. To contribute or learn more, please contact Muthu Kumar at mk****@*gc.org.

Geography and geology provide the foundation for this understanding. When location is added to data, its value increases significantly. Patterns become clearer, relationships emerge, and the potential of information technology is multiplied. Every object, activity, and process exists somewhere, whether fixed or in motion. Location is what makes these relationships observable and comparable.

In practice, that is often where the challenge begins.

Because the value of location has been understood for centuries, governments, businesses, and communities have developed their own spatial data and systems independently, often resulting in approaches that do not align across boundaries. Within cities, spatial data exists as multiple layers, from underground infrastructure to surface features and above-ground structures. These layers are often developed independently by different agencies. At larger scales, differences in standards and data models make integration even more complex.

The result is data that is difficult to combine, exchange, and use effectively.

MUDDI: A Shared Problem, Addressed Collectively

One area where these challenges are particularly noticeable is underground infrastructure. The decision to place utilities underground brings clear benefits, but it has the unfortunate consequence of making them invisible. Once buried and paved over, it becomes difficult to know exactly where they are located. Utility records from thousands of companies are often incomplete or poorly documented. Data may exist in different formats, stored in isolated silos, and referenced to different coordinate systems with varying levels of accuracy. Even within a single city, combining this data can be difficult. Across regions, it becomes even more complex. Without accurate and compatible utility data, the consequences are real: accidental strikes, construction delays, cost overruns, and challenges in emergency response.

Recognizing this as a shared problem, practitioners from cities, national agencies, and organizations from around the world came together through OGC to develop a common approach.

The result is the MUDDI Model (Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration), which treats utility networks as interconnected systems, capturing not only core infrastructure such as pipes and conduits, but also the surrounding context that supports and connects them.

Rather than starting from scratch, the group examined existing data models and standards already in use, including INSPIRE in Europe, subsurface engineering standards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Japan’s ROADIC model. By identifying common structures and relationships, they developed a shared conceptual model for underground data.

The model was made available for review and refinement and published as an OGC standard. However, even with this progress, the MUDDI Standards Working Group continues to work on additional use cases, profiles, and extensions.

From Model to Implementation

What makes this work significant is how it is being applied.

In the United Kingdom, the MUDDI model is informing the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), an initiative to map underground utilities across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

In New York City, it is supporting the development of a 3D utility data program combined with efforts to digitize and integrate tens of thousands of geological records.

Other countries, including New Zealand, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, have also begun applying the model in their own contexts.

At the same time, the work continues to evolve. OGC and ASCE are advancing integration between MUDDI and existing engineering standards, while the MUDDI Standards Working Group is exploring new applications, including flood risk and other environmental hazards, and digital twin environments.

What This Work Represents

Efforts like MUDDI show how geospatial standards are developed in practice and then evolve.

They emerge from real challenges faced in different parts of the world. They are shaped through collaboration, tested through implementation, and improved over time as new use cases emerge.

For those involved, this work offers more than technical outcomes. It provides an opportunity to engage with peers across organizations, understand how others approach similar problems, and contribute to solutions that extend beyond a single project or system.

Looking Ahead

As geospatial systems become more interconnected and are increasingly used to support infrastructure, climate resilience, urban planning, and many other public and private uses, the need for compatible, standardized data and shared approaches continues to grow.

Work like this depends on people who are willing to engage, contribute, and collaborate across borders and disciplines.

For those interested in being part of that process, OGC provides a space to participate and help shape how geospatial systems evolve.

Learn More

If you are interested in contributing to how geospatial systems evolve, you can learn more about OGC Individual Membership here: Explore OGC Individual Membership

Most people encounter standards only when they have to. What’s less visible is how they are shaped: through ongoing collaboration, where practitioners work through shared challenges and align how systems should operate. Moving from using standards to helping shape them changes your perspective. The field is no longer a set of isolated workflows, but an interconnected system, and you become part of how it evolves.

This is also where influence is built. Not through title or tenure, but through contribution. The people who become known across the field are the ones who show up where shared problems are being worked out. In that environment, recognition comes from helping move work forward, clarifying requirements, identifying limitations, and connecting different approaches.

Participation in this kind of work builds something deeper than technical knowledge. You see how decisions are made, how trade-offs are handled, and what holds up in practice. Over time, that perspective translates into roles focused on architecture, integration, and coordination because you understand how systems connect, not just how they function.

The relationships that develop are different as well. Conferences introduce people, but collaboration builds trust. Solving problems together creates a shared understanding that often leads to new opportunities.

At a certain point, the shift is clear. You are no longer just using systems; you are contributing to how they evolve. As geospatial becomes more embedded in critical infrastructure, that kind of participation becomes increasingly important.

For early and mid-career professionals, it is one of the most direct ways to grow, building context, credibility, and opportunity along the way.

Learn More

If you are interested in contributing to how geospatial systems evolve, you can learn more about OGC Individual Membership here: Explore OGC Individual Membership

When the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, the devastation above ground was visible to all, but an equally perilous crisis was unfolding beneath the surface. Fires raged deep underground, threatening critical utilities and transportation tunnels, and making it dangerous for firefighters and recovery crews to even approach. Hidden below the debris lay a 200,000-pound tank of liquified freon, part of the towers’ air conditioning system. If the heat reached it, the gas could have exploded or released deadly phosgene fumes. Yet no one had a complete, accurate picture of what lay beneath the site. Each agency and utility held fragments of incompatible data, and it took more than ten days to piece together a coherent underground map of the damaged infrastructure. When the freon tank was finally located, firefighters were able to douse the surrounding area, averting another catastrophe in a city already in crisis.

The experience also exposed a fundamental challenge that cities around the world continue to face: fragmented and incomplete information about the infrastructure hidden beneath their streets.

That harrowing crisis revealed a truth that still resonates: cities cannot plan, build, or recover effectively if they lack a clear understanding of their subsurface environment. For urban planners, the networks of pipes, cables, tunnels, and geological layers hidden below ground are as vital to resilience and sustainability as the infrastructure visible above it.

From crisis to collaboration

In the mid-1990s, New York City began developing a photogrammetric basemap that would serve as the foundation for all municipal geospatial data. The Department of Environmental Protection and other agencies used it to build compatible layers for water, sewer, and surface infrastructure. When 9/11 occurred, the city had a partially functioning enterprise GIS, but much of its underground infrastructure was still unmapped.

In the years that followed, planners, engineers, and geospatial experts worked intensively to close the data gaps that had hindered the city’s emergency response and complicated construction, excavation, and maintenance. While the city’s enterprise GIS expanded to include more than 1,000 layers, progress on underground utilities lagged. Private utilities digitized their networks independently, without adopting the city’s basemap or shared standards. When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, storm surges flooded coastal areas and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage—some of which might have been mitigated with better underground data and coordination.

Building the framework: MUDDI

More than two decades later, the lessons from New York have helped shape a new generation of geospatial data standards being applied worldwide, from U.S. cities to national initiatives including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) standards for underground infrastructure (ASCE 38 and 75); the European INSPIRE data models which serve as the basis for underground utility mapping systems in Flanders, Denmark, Scotland, and the Netherlands; and the development by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) of the Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration (MUDDI), which serves as the basis for the United Kingdom’s recently initiated National Underground Asset Register (NUAR).

Conceived by experts from New York City and the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, Belgium, Canada, and Denmark, MUDDI builds on best practices from established and proven geospatial utility data models, including ASCE 38 (Subsurface Utility Engineering – SUE), ASCE 75 (As-Built), the European Commission’s INSPIRE Utility and Government Services data specification, as well as the Network Utility Application Domain Extension for OGC’s CityGML standard. Together, these provide a foundation for accurate 3D underground mapping, enabling the geometry, attributes, and relationships between subsurface elements to be integrated across utility networks.

The goal of MUDDI is to create a common language and structure for underground data—making it possible to align utilities, geology, and surface infrastructure across jurisdictions. Over time, it has evolved into an overarching framework capable of improving compatibility among national and regional models and supporting a wide variety of use cases, from construction coordination to emergency management.

New York City’s next chapter

Even after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy, New York City hesitated to launch a city-wide integration program. Concerns over data security, costs, liability, and loss of control slowed collaboration between private utilities and city agencies. But global progress, including the launch of the UK’s NUAR, helped demonstrate what was possible.

In November 2025, New York City announced the 3D Underground (3DU) initiative—a $10 million program funded through U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development disaster recovery grants—to develop a secure, shared 3D model of the city’s underground utilities and geology. The project brings together city agencies, utilities, and the State Public Service Commission, with Columbia University digitizing more than 20,000 boring records to model the city’s geology, recognizing that underground utilities and geology are deeply intertwined.

This marks a significant shift for the city, moving from fragmented utility datasets toward a shared, interoperable framework inspired by global best practices.

Why underground data matters for planning

For planners, MUDDI opens new ways to manage the “city beneath the city.” Traditionally, each utility or public agency maintained its own underground records, often incomplete, outdated, and incompatible. This lack of coordination led to costly excavation strikes, construction delays, and dangerous uncertainty in emergencies.

By providing a shared framework, MUDDI allows underground data to be assembled and visualized in 2D as well as 3D across systems. For planners, this means they can:

• Coordinate development by understanding where existing infrastructure lies and where capacity exists for growth.
• Improve capital project design by identifying potential utility conflicts before construction begins.
• Reduce accidental utility strikes, especially those involving fuel or electric transmission lines that can cause fires or explosions.
• Support disaster planning and response by ensuring emergency managers have rapid access to accurate, consolidated underground data.
• Link with digital twins and Building Information Modelling (BIM) to create an integrated view of the built and natural environment.

For example, a city planning a new transit line or rezoning a densely built-up corridor can use MUDDI-based data to assess the entire subsurface before breaking ground—preventing a multimillion-dollar construction project from being halted by an unmapped fiber-optic cable.

More comprehensive digital maps also enable AI-powered analysis to identify maintenance needs and optimize construction coordination. Members of the OGC MUDDI Standards Working Group estimate that improved underground data could reduce capital and maintenance expenditures by at least five percent—saving billions across U.S. cities.

The MUDDI Environmental Subcommittee is exploring how surface flooding interacts with underground systems. By mapping how stormwater enters and damages basements, tunnels, and utility pipes and conduits, planners can better anticipate risks and design more resilient infrastructure—whether in New York, or in flood-prone regions like Asheville, North Carolina, and Kerr County, Texas.

New York and beyond

While the U.S. does not yet have a comprehensive underground utility mapping plan, the UK’s NUAR offers an important global case study. Led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and operated as a service for public and private sector users by Ordnance Survey (Great Britain), NUAR applies MUDDI’s principles at national scale, aggregating data from hundreds of Underground Asset Owners to create a secure, standardized digital map of the UK’s buried infrastructure. The UK estimates that NUAR will save $4.5 billion over a decade through reduced utility strikes and improved coordination, while also providing instant access to data and reducing the number of organizations that must be contacted for utility locates. NUAR is speeding up the average time it takes to get hold of Underground Asset records from six days to six seconds. It shows how standards like MUDDI can move from concept to operation, translating interoperability and transparency into measurable public value.

One standard, many benefits

MUDDI’s strength lies in its flexibility and in its ambition to harmonize underground data models into a family of compatible standards. It does not replace local or national systems—it connects them. A city like New York can build a detailed map of utilities within its borders, while a program like NUAR can operate at a national scale, with both able to exchange their required data seamlessly.

As compatible layers are built across jurisdictions, U.S. regions will eventually be able to link underground networks across shared city and state boundaries. The process may take time, but we’ll get there one city, one county, one state, and one tribal nation at a time.

The way forward

For urban planners, the ground beneath our feet represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Managing it well requires seeing the city in full, above and below the surface. The MUDDI model, and projects like NUAR that build on it, demonstrate the value of shared data standards in creating safer, more resilient, and more sustainable cities.

As underground mapping expands across the U.S., a broader vision comes into view. The same standards that connect pipes and cables below ground can also link to features above it—streets, trees, traffic systems, and buildings—offering planners a unified picture of how the built and natural environments interact. This integration, supported by advances in AI and digital twins, is opening new frontiers in planning analysis and decision-making.

As populations grow and infrastructure ages, cities that can understand and manage their underground assets will be better equipped to plan confidently for the future. MUDDI’s vision, born from the lessons of 9/11 and carried forward through global collaboration, shows that even the parts of a city we cannot see can be planned, managed, and protected.

About the authors

Alan Leidner is a geospatial consultant, NYC GISMO President Emeritus, and OGC Liaison. He holds an MS in Urban Planning from Pratt Institute and worked for the NYC Department of City Planning for ten years. He led New York City’s emergency mapping efforts following 9/11 and currently serves on the U.S. National Geospatial Advisory Committee.

Carsten Rönsdorf is the Product Manager for the National Underground Asset Register at Ordnance Survey, where he has led international collaborations on underground data management and serves as co-chair of OGC’s MUDDI Standards Working Group.

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the contributions of the OGC MUDDI Standard Working Group and the editors of the MUDDI Standard (OGC 23-024) including: Alan Leidner (NYC GISMO), Wendy Dorf (NYC GISMO), Andrew Hughes (British Geological Survey), Carsten Rönsdorf (Ordnance Survey Great Britain), Neil Brammall (UK Government Digital Services), Phil Meis (UMS), Dan Colby (UMS), Liesbeth Rombouts (Flemish Information Agency), Dean Hintz (Safe Software), and Joshua Lieberman (Open Geospatial Consortium). The development of MUDDI was supported by an international network of experts from New York City, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, and other participating nations. Special thanks to Mark Reichardt, former CEO of OGC, and George Percivall, former CTO of OGC, who were instrumental in initiating the MUDDI project. Also, thanks to Mary McCormick and the Fund for the City of New York for providing initial funding for the MUDDI initiative. Additionally, thanks to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for the development of the SUE and As-Built standards.

For more information

See the OGC MUDDI Standard (Document 23-024):
https://docs.ogc.org/is/23-024/23-024.html

Early in my career, I was focused mainly on the technologies and projects directly in front of me. But after working with different communities across regions and sectors, I began noticing a pattern: the most meaningful progress rarely came from isolated efforts. It happened when diverse groups came together to solve shared challenges. For many professionals, that moment marks the start of a new phase in their careers.

In my experience, there are a few signs that this shift is beginning to happen. If you recognize some of these in your own career, you may already be moving toward a broader role in the geospatial community:

1. You Start Looking Beyond Your Own Tools and Projects

Early in a geospatial career, mastering tools and workflows feels like the primary challenge. With experience, curiosity tends to expand. You start exploring how different technologies, datasets, APIs, and data models interact across systems.

Many of the most interesting challenges in geospatial systems do not sit within a single tool or application. They appear where data, infrastructure, and organizations intersect. And when that realization happens, technical skills remain important, but understanding how things connect across the ecosystem becomes just as valuable.

2. You Want to Learn from Peers Outside Your Immediate Circle

Many practitioners begin their work within a specific organization, project, or technology ecosystem. Over time, however, the value of exchanging ideas with peers from other domains becomes clearer.

Conversations with developers, engineers, researchers, public sector practitioners, and industry leaders often reveal perspectives that do not emerge within a single organizational context. Many professionals discover that some of their most valuable insights, and often their next opportunities, come through these interactions. Engaging with a wider network of peers helps expand how you see the field and how different communities approach shared challenges.

3. You Become More Skeptical of Technology Hype

Like much of the technology sector, the geospatial field regularly experiences waves of new tools, platforms, and terminology. Some developments prove transformative, while others fade over time.

With experience, many professionals begin to look beyond the excitement around the latest technology and focus on what will actually last. Conversations that explore how systems evolve over time, how data infrastructures are designed, how standards enable interoperability, and how solutions work in practice become more valuable than following the newest trend.

4. You Start Paying Closer Attention to Real-World Users

Geospatial technologies increasingly support decisions that affect society—from climate monitoring and environmental management to infrastructure planning and disaster response. As professionals gain experience, many begin to look beyond the technical design of systems and focus more on how these technologies are actually used in operational environments.

Questions about real-world needs start to matter more. Who is using the data? How reliable does the system need to be? How do tools perform under real constraints? Understanding these realities helps professionals design solutions that work not just in theory, but in practice.

5. You Want Your Ideas to Influence the Broader Ecosystem

At some point, contributing to individual projects may no longer feel sufficient. Many professionals begin looking for opportunities to participate in conversations that shape how the geospatial ecosystem evolves.

This often means engaging with communities where developers, researchers, companies, and public-sector organizations work together to solve shared challenges.

Organizations such as the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) help create neutral spaces for collaboration where professionals can exchange ideas, learn from peers across sectors, and collectively shape how geospatial technologies evolve.

For many professionals, engaging with such communities becomes a natural next step—from simply using geospatial technology to helping shape how it evolves.

This new pathway opens direct participation in OGC’s working groups, code sprints, meetings, and collaboration inside Agora — our exclusive member platform. It’s designed for engineers, developers, systems engineers, researchers, consultants, professionals, and students who want to engage personally in the work shaping interoperable systems worldwide.

To encourage early participation, we’re offering 25% off through April 30 with promo code OGC25.

Learn more about why we launched Individual Membership — and what it means for the community — in Richard Estephan’s blog.

Join here: https://www.ogc.org/membership/individual/

We look forward to welcoming new voices and perspectives into the work.

I’ve truly been looking forward to this moment.

OGC has always been powered by remarkable professionals — engineers, system architects, researchers, and developers from around the world who participate through our organizational members. The depth of expertise and global character of this community are among our greatest strengths.

Individual Membership builds on that foundation.

It creates a more direct pathway for practitioners — including independent developers, consultants, professionals and students — to participate directly in working groups, code sprints, testbeds and ongoing collaboration inside Agora, OGC’s exclusive member collaboration platform

For me, this is about connection as much as participation. Interoperability improves when more implementers share what they’re seeing, more builders surface edge cases, and more perspectives help shape the direction forward.

It also gives us an opportunity to strengthen our geographic reach.

OGC has long been global, but participation is stronger in some regions than others. For example, there is tremendous talent across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, and we want more of those voices shaping this community. Broader geographic participation makes the work more resilient and more relevant.

Alongside Individual Membership, we introduced the Industry Builders Sponsorship, providing organizations with a simple way to sponsor developers or university cohorts and help widen access even further.

This launch isn’t about changing who we are. It’s about widening the circle — technically and geographically. More practitioners. More perspectives. More places represented in the room.

If you’re ready to join as an Individual Member, you can learn more and sign up here.

To encourage early participation, we are offering 25% off Individual Membership through April 30 using promo code OGC25.

If your organization would like to sponsor developers or university cohorts through the Industry Builders Sponsorship, please contact me at re*******@*gc.org to discuss how to get involved

I’m excited to see who joins us next — and from where.