Which format does the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) endorse for geographic data?

The endorsement by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for geographic data format focuses on GML, which stands for Geography Markup Language. GML is a comprehensive XML-based encoding standard used for representing geographical features and is designed to facilitate the sharing of geospatial information across different systems and platforms. It can describe not only geometry but also attributes, metadata, and topological relationships, making it highly suitable for a wide range of applications in spatial data management.

GML's structure allows for the integration of various types of geospatial information within a single framework. This capability is significant for interoperability among different spatial databases, services, and applications, aligning with the OGC’s goals of promoting open standards for geospatial data exchange.

While other formats like Shapefile, GeoJSON, and KML are widely used in the GIS community, they have their own limitations and specific use cases. Shapefiles, for example, lack the rich metadata and complex geometrical definitions that GML supports. GeoJSON is convenient for web applications and simpler data but does not offer the full capabilities of GML, especially in complex data structuring. KML is primarily designed for visualization in applications like Google Earth and does not serve as a comprehensive data management or sharing