What is ISO 19162-geographic well-known text representation of coordinate reference system about?
Well-known text representation of coordinate reference systems is a text markup language for representing spatial reference systems and transformations between spatial reference systems. ISO 19162 defines the structure and content of a text string implementation of the abstract model for coordinate reference systems. The string defines frequently needed types of coordinate reference systems and coordinate operations in a self-contained form that is easily readable by machines and by humans.
The text string conforming to ISO 19162 provides a means for humans and machines to correctly and unambiguously interpret and utilise a coordinate reference system definition with look-ups or cross references only to define coordinate operation mathematics.
NOTE: ISO 19162 excludes parameter grouping and pass-through coordinate operations to retain simplicity in the well-known text (WKT) description of coordinate reference systems and coordinate operations.
Who is ISO 19162- geographic well-known text for?
ISO 19162 on geographic well-known text is useful for:
- Geospatial industries
- Geographic data managements companies
- Research and development team
- Spatial reference systems
- Software developers and users of geographic information
Why should you use ISO 19162- geographic well-known text?
Well-known text (WKT) offers a compact machine- and human-readable representation of geometric objects. Well-known text is also used for clearly describing the critical elements of coordinate reference system (CRS) definitions.
ISO 19162 defines the structure and content of well-known text strings. A WKT format is defined to describe the operation methods and parameters used to convert or transform coordinates between two different coordinate reference systems.
ISO 19162 provides you with requirements for well-known text (WKT) representation of geodetic and geographic coordinate reference systems.
ISO 19162 describes several constraints and recommendations for coordinate systems used in engineering coordinate reference systems. These include the requirements for an engineering coordinate reference system to contain an affine, cartesian, cylindrical, linear, ordinal, polar or spherical coordinate system.
What’s changed since the last update?
BS ISO 19162:2019 supersedes BS ISO 19162:2015. BS ISO 19162:2019 includes some technical changes with respect to BS ISO 19162:2015. These include:
- Updates to reflect the changes made in ISO 19111:2019 from its previous edition ISO 19111:2007 to describe dynamic geodetic reference frames, three-dimensional projected coordinate reference systems, datum ensembles and coordinate metadata
- Remodelling of the descriptions of temporal coordinate reference systems, to reflect the changes made in ISO 19111:2019
- The correction of minor errors

