OGC requests comment on revision of its GWML2 specification

GWML2 provides an encoding for data involved in the study and use of groundwater. The candidate standard includes conceptual and logical models as well as an XML-based encoding schema. GWML2 is part of the larger WaterML2.0 suite of standards coordinated in an initiative within the joint World Meteorological Organization (WMO) / OGC Hydrology Domain Working Group to address standards development and interoperability of hydrological information systems at an international level.

The GWML2 standard is motivated by 5 usage scenarios that focus on commercial uses (drilling water wells), policy uses (managing aquifers), environmental uses (protecting ecosystems), scientific uses (groundwater modeling), and technical uses (data interoperability). GWML2 consists of six modules including: (1) core entities (aquifers and groundwater bodies), (2) groundwater constituents (biologic, chemical, and material), (3) groundwater flow, (4) water wells and groundwater monitoring, (5) water well construction, and (6) aquifer testing.

Two OGC Interoperability Experiments were performed to test and enhance GroundWaterML capabilities, which resulted in the first version of GWML2. Further content was developed in conjunction with contributors from North America,Europe, Australia and New Zealand.