Compendium

Geo-Spatial / GPS / Cartography DSLs Family Index

15 min read

Geo-Spatial / GPS / Cartography DSLs Family Index

type: language-family-index family: geospatial languages_catalogued: 31 tags: [language-reference, family-index, geospatial, geojson, kml, wkt, ogc, gps, nmea, vector-tiles, citygml, opendrive]

Geo-Spatial / GPS / Cartography — Family Index

Family overview

Geo-spatial languages are the class of formal data and query DSLs whose core problem is encoding where things are: latitudes, longitudes, projections, coordinate reference systems, geometries (points, lines, polygons, surfaces, solids), and the topology and metadata that connect them. The family is dominated by two standards bodies — the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for civilian GIS and the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) for GPS-receiver wire protocols — alongside a long tail of vendor formats that became de-facto standards (Esri Shapefile since 1998, Google’s KML since 2004, Mapbox’s MVT since 2014). The OGC ecosystem alone is decades deep: an XML stack (GML, WFS, WMS, WMTS, WCS) anchored in early-2000s SOAP/XML enterprise GIS is being slowly replaced by a JSON+REST stack (GeoJSON RFC 7946 from 2016, OGC API – Features 1.0.1, OGC API – Maps 1.0.0 published 2024, OGC API – Tiles).

The GPS / navigation lineage is older and simpler. NMEA 0183 has been the universal text protocol on consumer GPS receivers since 1983 — comma-separated $GPGGA, $GPRMC, $GPGSV sentences with a checksum — and despite being chatty and limited, it survived 40 years and is at version 4.30 (December 2023). NMEA 2000 (binary, CAN-bus-based) succeeded it for marine integration but never displaced the text protocol on consumer GPS hardware. Differential-correction message formats like RTCM SC-104 and SBAS sit alongside NMEA for cm-level accuracy. The consumer wave that followed — KML/Google Earth (2004–2014 peak), then GeoJSON + Leaflet/Mapbox/MapLibre (2013+) — moved geo-data out of enterprise GIS shops and onto the open web.

Spatial SQL is its own world: PostGIS (2001, Refractions Research) leads with 4000+ ST_functions; MySQL, SQL Server, BigQuery, Snowflake, DuckDB, and SQLite (via SpatiaLite/GeoPackage) all expose ST_ prefixed functions. ISO/IEC 13249-3 (SQL/MM Part 3: Spatial) standardises a core subset that all dialects nominally implement. The 2020s have seen vector tiles (Mapbox Vector Tiles spec 2.1, January 2016) replace raster tiles as the dominant web-map data format — every modern web map (Mapbox GL, MapLibre GL, MapTiler, OpenStreetMap’s own vector tiles since 2024) ships MVT over the wire. The styling-language layer split in the 2020–2024 era when Mapbox went proprietary in late 2020 with the Mapbox v2 license; the open-source community forked the style spec into MapLibre Style Specification (currently v8) which has diverged since.

The 3D and AV-simulation extensions sit at the edge of the family but are unambiguously geo-spatial: CityGML 3.0 (OGC, conceptual model September 2021, GML encoding 2023) for urban 3D models; 3D Tiles 1.1 (Cesium → OGC Community Standard December 2022) for streaming massive heterogeneous geospatial 3D content with glTF 2.0 tile content; and ASAM’s OpenDRIVE (1.8.1, 2024-11-21) and OpenSCENARIO (DSL 2.2.0, 2026-03-19) for autonomous-vehicle road networks and traffic scenarios respectively.

In our deep library

None catalogued. Geo-spatial DSLs do not have standalone deep-library notes; they are typically embedded in or layered over host languages and standards.

Cross-reference:

  • api-description — OGC API – Features / Maps / Tiles are all OpenAPI-described; GeoJSON is the canonical JSON-Schema-typed payload for them.
  • robotics-control — OpenDRIVE and OpenSCENARIO are catalogued there as AV simulation DSLs; they are dual-classified.
  • query — Overpass QL is a real procedural query language for OSM data; spatial-SQL extensions overlap with the query-DSL territory.
  • notation-spec — formal-spec-adjacent: WKT/WKT2 are formal grammars for CRS descriptions.
  • visual-dataflow — many GIS authoring tools (QGIS Graphical Modeler, Esri ModelBuilder, FME Workbench) are visual dataflow editors over these formats.
  • sql — spatial-SQL extensions (ST_* functions, GEOGRAPHY/GEOMETRY types) belong on top of the SQL note; ISO/IEC 13249-3 SQL/MM Part 3 is the standardising layer.
  • api-description — KML, GML, WFS/WMS/WMTS payloads, GPX, and CityGML are all XML schemas; the OGC XML stack is the largest single family of production XML in the world, and the schema-description infrastructure they ride on lives in api-description.

Tier 3 family table — File / data formats

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
GeoJSON2008 (informal), RFC 7946 in August 2016Sean Gillies + community → IETFJSON-encoded geographic features (Point, LineString, Polygon, Multi*, GeometryCollection); WGS84 onlyVery active; still the IETF Standards Track standard, no successor RFChttps://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7946
GeoJSON-LD~2014W3C Spatial Data on the Web WG / communityJSON-LD context layered over GeoJSON for Linked DataNiche but active; used in semantic-web GIS and INSPIREhttps://geojson.org/geojson-ld/
TopoJSON2012Mike Bostock (D3.js author)Topology-preserving extension of GeoJSON; encodes shared boundaries as arcs (smaller files)Active; widely used in D3/Observable visualisationshttps://github.com/topojson/topojson-specification
KML2004 (Keyhole/Google) → OGC KML 2.3 published 2015-08-04Google → OGCXML for placemarks, paths, polygons, ground overlays, network links + KML stylingLegacy / maintenance; KML 2.3 still the current OGC version, no 3.0 in sighthttps://www.ogc.org/standards/kml/
KMZ2005GoogleZIP-compressed KML + assets (icons, models, imagery); the deliverable formLegacy, ships alongside KMLhttps://developers.google.com/kml/documentation/kmzarchives
GPX (GPS Exchange Format)2002 (1.0); 1.1 since 2004TopografixXML for waypoints, routes, tracks; the lingua franca of GPS-track exchangeActive; 1.1 unchanged for 20+ years and still universal in handheld GPS / Strava / Garmin / OSMhttps://www.topografix.com/gpx.asp
GML (Geography Markup Language)1999 (GML 1.0); GML 3.2.1 = ISO 19136:2007OGC + ISO/TC 211XML grammar for geographic features; the predecessor to GeoJSON for OGC web servicesLegacy, slowly being replaced by GeoJSON in OGC API stack but huge installed base in INSPIRE / European SDIhttps://www.ogc.org/standards/gml/
Well-Known Text (WKT)OGC Simple Features 1.0 (1999)OGCText grammar for geometries: POINT(x y), LINESTRING(...), POLYGON((...)), MULTIPOLYGON, etc.Universal; every spatial DB and every GIS speaks ithttps://www.ogc.org/standards/sfa/
Well-Known Binary (WKB)OGC Simple Features 1.0 (1999)OGCBinary sibling of WKT — endianness byte + type code + coordinate doublesUniversal; on-the-wire form between PostGIS, JTS, GEOS, GDAL, etc.https://www.ogc.org/standards/sfa/
Esri Shapefile (.shp/.shx/.dbf)1993 (white paper); de-facto standard since the 1990sEsri (proprietary, openly published)Triple-file binary: geometry (.shp), index (.shx), dBASE attributes (.dbf)Legacy but inescapable; still the default exchange format for many government / surveying users despite Esri’s own deprecation pushhttps://www.esri.com/content/dam/esrisites/sitecore-archive/Files/Pdfs/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf
GeoPackage1.0 in 2014; 1.4.0 current (2024)OGCSQLite-based open container for vector + raster + tiles + attributes; OGC’s modern Shapefile replacementActive; GDAL 3.11+ defaults to writing GeoPackage 1.4https://www.geopackage.org/
OpenStreetMap PBF2010OpenStreetMap communityProtocol-buffer-encoded binary OSM data; used for full-planet exportsUniversal in OSM toolchainhttps://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/PBF_Format
OpenStreetMap .osm XML2004OpenStreetMap communityXML form of OSM data (nodes, ways, relations, tags)Active for small extracts; PBF preferred for bulkhttps://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_XML
GeoTIFF1995NASA JPL / Niles Ritter et al.Geo-metadata tags embedded in TIFF (model tiepoint, pixel scale, GeoKeys, projected CRS)Universal; the standard satellite/raster format. OGC GeoTIFF 1.1 (OGC 19-008r4, 2019)https://www.ogc.org/standards/geotiff/
NetCDF + CF ConventionsNetCDF 1989 (Unidata); CF Conventions 2003+NSF Unidata + NOAA/NASA climate communityBinary array container + CF metadata convention for X/Y/Z/T axes; Earth-system science workhorseVery active; CF 1.11 current (2024+)https://cfconventions.org/
HDF-EOS1996NASA EOSDISEarth Observing System extension to HDF4/HDF5; geolocation conventions on top of HDFActive; MODIS, AIRS, OMI, etc. all ship as HDF-EOShttps://hdfeos.org/
Mapbox Vector Tiles (MVT)MVT spec 2.1 published 2016-01-19MapboxProtobuf-encoded tile of vector geometry + properties + layers; the dominant web-map tile formatUniversal in 2026; OSM publishes MVT vector tiles since 2024, every modern web map ships MVThttps://github.com/mapbox/vector-tile-spec
Cesium 3D Tiles1.0 in 2019; 1.1 OGC Community Standard 2022-12-17Cesium GS → OGCJSON tileset.json + binary content (b3dm/i3dm/pnts → glTF 2.0 in 1.1); streaming massive 3D geo-contentActive; the standard for streaming 3D city models, photogrammetry, point cloudshttps://www.ogc.org/standards/3DTiles/
CityGML1.0 in 2008 (OGC); 3.0 Conceptual Model adopted 2021-09-13, GML encoding 2023 (OGC 21-006r2)OGCXML/GML grammar for urban 3D models with semantic LoDs (LoD0–LoD3); CityJSON is the JSON siblingActive; 3.0 is the current standardhttps://www.ogc.org/standards/citygml/

Tier 3 family table — GPS / navigation protocols

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
NMEA 01831983; v4.30 December 2023 (replacing 4.11 from 2018)National Marine Electronics AssociationASCII text protocol; $GPGGA,...,*hh<CRLF> sentences over RS-232/422; talker IDs (GP/GN/GL/GA/etc.) for each constellationUniversal, no real successor on consumer GPS hardware in 2026 despite NMEA 2000’s existencehttps://www.nmea.org/nmea-0183.html
NMEA 2000 (NMEA-2K)2001National Marine Electronics AssociationBinary Parameter Group Numbers (PGNs) over a CAN-bus physical layer; marine-electronics integrationActive in marine but did not displace 0183 on consumer GPS receivershttps://www.nmea.org/nmea-2000.html
RTCM SC-104RTCM 2.x in the 1990s; RTCM 3.x in 2004; current 3.4 / 10403.4Radio Technical Commission for Maritime ServicesBinary differential-GNSS correction messages (MSM4/5/6/7, ephemeris, biases) over serial / NTRIPActive; the universal RTK / DGPS correction format; powers every commercial RTK base/roverhttps://www.rtcm.org/publications
SBAS message format1990s (WAAS deployment 2003)FAA / ICAO Annex 10Satellite-based augmentation messages (WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS, GAGAN) broadcast on the L1 frequencyActive; ICAO standardhttps://www.icao.int/safety/airnavigation/Pages/SBAS.aspx

Tier 3 family table — Standards / OGC services / query DSLs

StandardFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
OGC API – Features1.0 in 2019; 1.0.1 current for Parts 1, 2, 3; Parts 4–10 in draftOGCOpenAPI 3 + GeoJSON REST API for vector features; the WFS replacementActive, fast-moving in WGhttps://ogcapi.ogc.org/features/
OGC API – Maps1.0.0 published 2024OGCOpenAPI-driven REST API for rendered map images; the WMS replacementActive, recently publishedhttps://ogcapi.ogc.org/maps/
OGC API – Tiles1.0 published 2022OGCOpenAPI-driven REST API for map and vector tiles; the WMTS replacementActivehttps://ogcapi.ogc.org/tiles/
WFS (Web Feature Service)1.0 in 2002; 2.0 = ISO 19142:2010OGCXML-over-HTTP request/response for vector features; GET KVP + POST XML; GML payloadsLegacy, being replaced by OGC API – Features but immense installed base in government/INSPIREhttps://www.ogc.org/standards/wfs/
WMS (Web Map Service)1.0 in 2000; 1.3.0 = ISO 19128:2005OGCXML-over-HTTP for rendered map images; the original web-map standardLegacy / inescapable; every government SDI still serves WMShttps://www.ogc.org/standards/wms/
WMTS (Web Map Tile Service)1.0 in 2010OGCTiled WMS variant for cached raster tile pyramidsLegacy, OGC API – Tiles is the modern replacementhttps://www.ogc.org/standards/wmts/
WCS (Web Coverage Service)1.0 in 2003; 2.1 in 2018OGCXML-over-HTTP for raster/coverage data (subsetting, format conversion)Active in research / climate / EO, niche outsidehttps://www.ogc.org/standards/wcs/
ISO/IEC 13249-3 SQL/MM Part 3 (Spatial)1999; current 5th edition 2024ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32Standardises a core ST_* function set on top of SQL; nominally implemented by every spatial DBActive; the umbrella standard, though dialect divergence is realhttps://www.iso.org/standard/82812.html
OGC Simple Features (SQL + Common Architecture)1999OGCDefines the geometry type hierarchy and WKT/WKB encodings consumed by SQL/MMUniversal; basis of every spatial-SQL implementationhttps://www.ogc.org/standards/sfs/
Spatial SQL extensions (PostGIS / SQL Server / MySQL / BigQuery / Snowflake / DuckDB)PostGIS 2001; others 2008+Refractions Research / vendorsST_* function namespace + GEOMETRY/GEOGRAPHY types layered onto host SQL dialectsVery active; PostGIS leads with 4000+ functions; cloud DWHs all shipping spatial in 2024–2026https://postgis.net/docs/
Overpass QL2009+ (Overpass API)Roland OlbrichtProcedural / imperative query DSL with C-style syntax over the OSM data model (nodes / ways / relations / areas / sets)Active; the only practical query language for ad-hoc OSM querieshttps://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Overpass_API/Overpass_QL
WKT2 / CRS WKT (OGC 18-010 / ISO 19162:2019)WKT1 in 1999; WKT2 v2.0.6 = ISO 19162:2019 = OGC 18-010r7OGC + ISO/TC 211Formal text grammar for coordinate reference systems (geographic/projected/compound/dynamic CRSs, datums, ellipsoids, parameters)Active; PROJ 7+ uses WKT2 internally; WKT1 deprecation in OGC public comment 2022https://docs.ogc.org/is/18-010r7/18-010r7.html
EPSG codes1985 (POSC → EPSG); curated by IOGP since 2005International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) Geomatics CommitteeNumeric registry of CRSs, datums, ellipsoids, transformations; 7000+ entries (EPSG:4326, EPSG:3857, etc.)Universal; every spatial application speaks EPSG codes, the registry is the lingua francahttps://epsg.org/
PROJ string syntax1980s (USGS GCTPC → PROJ.4)Gerald Evenden / Frank WarmerdamCompact text syntax for CRS transformations: +proj=utm +zone=33 +datum=WGS84Legacy; PROJ 6+ moved to WKT2 + database, PROJ strings still supported but no longer canonicalhttps://proj.org/

Tier 3 family table — Styling / rendering / 3D / AV

LanguageFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
Mapbox Style Specification2014 (gl-style)MapboxJSON DSL for vector-tile rendering (sources, layers, paint/layout properties, expressions, filters)Proprietary since v2 license change late 2020; the original line of evolutionhttps://docs.mapbox.com/style-spec/reference/root/
MapLibre Style Specification2020 fork; v8 current (2026)MapLibre community fork after Mapbox v2 license changeOpen fork of Mapbox Style Spec; has diverged with new features (3D terrain, globe projection, etc.)Very active; the open-source canonical style spec in 2026https://maplibre.org/maplibre-style-spec/
ASAM OpenDRIVE1.0 in 2006 (VIRES); 1.8.1 published 2024-11-21; 1.9.0 in 2026-03-11VIRES → ASAMXML grammar for road networks (geometry, lanes, signs, signals, junctions, elevation profiles) for AV simulationActive, the de facto AV-sim road formathttps://www.asam.net/standards/detail/opendrive/
ASAM OpenSCENARIO XML (1.x)1.0 in 2018VIRES → ASAMXML scenario description for AV simulation; renamed OpenSCENARIO XML in January 2024 to disambiguate from 2.xActive; current 1.3https://www.asam.net/standards/detail/openscenario/
ASAM OpenSCENARIO DSL (2.x)2.0.0 in 2022-07; 2.2.0 published 2026-03-19ASAMCustom domain-specific language for abstract scenarios (constraints, scenario libraries) — not backwards compatible with 1.xActive and rapidly evolving; supersedes 1.x conceptuallyhttps://www.asam.net/standards/detail/openscenario-dsl/

Notable threads

  • The OGC’s slow XML → JSON pivot. The OGC web-services stack (WFS, WMS, WMTS, WCS, GML) was conceived in the early 2000s SOAP/XML enterprise-services era. Its successors are an OpenAPI 3 + JSON REST stack: OGC API – Features replaces WFS, OGC API – Maps (1.0.0 published 2024) replaces WMS, OGC API – Tiles replaces WMTS, OGC API – Coverages replaces WCS. The transition is real but slow — INSPIRE, European national mapping agencies, and most US federal SDIs still publish primarily WMS/WFS in 2026, with OGC API endpoints offered alongside. The XML stack is being deprecated in spirit but the installed base will outlive the standards by a decade or more.

  • KML’s rise and stall. 2004–2014 was peak KML, driven entirely by Google Earth’s consumer dominance and the network-link mechanism that turned Google Earth into a thin client over arbitrary geo-data servers. OGC KML 2.3 (published 2015-08-04, the day Google began deprioritising the desktop Google Earth client) is still the current OGC version eleven years later — there is no KML 3.0 and no working group activity. GeoJSON has eaten essentially all of the modern web-map ecosystem; KML survives in legacy data pipelines (UAV ground stations, real-estate, some government overlays) but is no longer where new tooling is built.

  • Vector tiles (MVT) as the dominant web-map data format in 2026. MVT 2.1 (January 2016) is now the universal wire format for web maps: every modern map renderer (Mapbox GL JS, MapLibre GL JS, MapTiler, Esri ArcGIS Maps SDK, Apple MapKit JS) ships MVT. OpenStreetMap’s own vector-tile service launched in 2024, finally giving the open-data community a first-party MVT endpoint. The shift from raster tiles to vector tiles is the single biggest architectural change in web mapping since slippy maps replaced Java applets — it moves styling client-side, allows runtime restyling, supports retina/HiDPI without retiling, and delivers ~10× smaller payloads for typical OSM-style data.

  • The Mapbox-Style → MapLibre-Style fork (2020–2024). Mapbox went from BSD-licensed to a proprietary “Mapbox v2” license in late 2020, removing open-source distribution rights for Mapbox GL JS v2+. The community forked v1.13 into MapLibre GL JS, and forked the style specification along with it. The two specs have diverged: MapLibre Style Spec v8 (current) has added 3D terrain, globe projection, and new expression operators; Mapbox’s proprietary spec has gone its own way. In 2026 MapLibre is the open-source canonical specification and is what the OSM ecosystem, OpenFreeMap, MapTiler open-source builds, and most government open-data viewers target.

  • Spatial SQL is its own ecosystem. PostGIS (2001, Refractions Research) leads with ~4000 ST_functions and effectively defines the practical contract; Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle Spatial, BigQuery, Snowflake, DuckDB-spatial, and even SQLite (via SpatiaLite or GeoPackage) all expose ST_ prefixed APIs. ISO/IEC 13249-3 (SQL/MM Part 3, 5th edition 2024) provides a nominal common subset, but in practice cross-vendor portability is limited beyond the core type hierarchy from OGC Simple Features. The 2020s have also seen the rise of cloud-native geospatial — STAC catalogues, Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF, Zarr — sitting alongside the SQL world.

  • NMEA 0183’s 40-year reign on GPS receivers. NMEA 0183 is technically primitive — comma-separated ASCII over a 4800-baud serial line, fixed-form sentences, two-character XOR checksum — and has been criticised as such for decades. Yet it is at version 4.30 (December 2023) and remains the universal text protocol from any consumer GPS receiver in 2026. Why nothing replaced it: (a) every receiver firmware in the world already implements it, (b) text is debuggable with a serial console and no special tools, (c) NMEA 2000 solved the marine-integration problem but kept the L1 receiver chip output as 0183 because the cost/benefit of changing was zero. Inertia at protocol level beats elegance every time.

  • EPSG codes as a registry-as-language. The EPSG Geodetic Parameter Registry is run by IOGP and contains 7000+ entries — every coordinate reference system, datum, ellipsoid, prime meridian, and transformation in active use, each with a unique numeric code (EPSG:4326 = WGS84, EPSG:3857 = Web Mercator, EPSG:27700 = OSGB36 British National Grid, etc.). The registry itself functions as a lightweight DSL: any spatial application can take an integer code and resolve it to a full CRS definition via the WKT2 representation in the registry’s PostgreSQL/SQLite/JSON exports. PROJ 6+ shipped a SQLite copy of the registry as its primary lookup mechanism, replacing the legacy +proj=... PROJ-string-as-language with EPSG-code-as-language.

  • The AV-simulation overlap. ASAM OpenDRIVE (road networks) and OpenSCENARIO (traffic scenarios) are not OGC standards and are not strictly geo-spatial in the GIS sense — they are automotive-simulation DSLs. But OpenDRIVE describes road geometry in a curvilinear coordinate system tied to inertial / WGS84 frames, and OpenSCENARIO 2.x (DSL 2.2.0, 2026-03-19) is a genuine custom DSL with its own grammar (constraint programming, scenario libraries, abstract scenarios). They are dual-classified into robotics-control and listed here because they are how the AV industry encodes “where things are” — and increasingly because HD-map vendors (Lyft Level 5, Mobileye REM, TomTom Orbis) are publishing OpenDRIVE-format maps that are unambiguously geo-spatial datasets.

Citations

Graph View