CityGML

CityGML is a common information model for the representation of 3D urban objects. It defines the classes and relations for the most relevant topographic objects in cities and regional models with respect to their geometrical, topological, semantical and appearance properties. Included are generalization hierarchies between thematic classes, aggregations, relations between objects, and spatial properties. These thematic information go beyond graphic exchange formats and allow to employ virtual 3D city models for sophisticated analysis tasks in different application domains like simulations, urban data mining, facility management, and thematic inquiries.

CityGML is realised as an open data model and XML-based format for the storage and exchange of virtual 3D city models. It is implemented as an application schema for the Geography Markup Language 3 (GML3), the extendible international standard for spatial data exchange issued by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the ISO TC211. CityGML is intended to become an open standard and therefore can be used free of charge.

In July 2007 the OGC Technical Committee approved the CityGML specification as an OGC adopted Best Practice Paper on their meeting in Paris. The members of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) have adopted version 1.0.0 of CityGML as an official OGC Standard in August 2008 (official OGC press release).