GeoDCAT-AP 2.0.0 is finally available

The new version of GeoDCAT-AP has been officially released!

Published on: 17/03/2021 Last update: 24/03/2021 News

The new version of GeoDCAT-AP has been officially released!

As part of the SEMIC Action, we are delighted to inform you about the release of the new version of GeoDCAT-AP (version 2.0.0).

This brand-new version incorporates the changes and suggestions reported within the GeoDCAT-AP Working Group as well as discussed during the GeoDCAT-AP webinar. This specification is therefore the outcome of a continuous effort to bring GeoDCAT-AP up to date, with the ultimate goal of making geospatial information better findable across borders and sectors.

Introduced as an extension of the DCAT-AP and developed according to the INSPIRE directive, GeoDCAT-AP allows Member States to keep geospatial datasets up to date and compliant according to the INSPIRE guidelines while also facilitating the publication of these collections on DCAT-AP compliant data portals.

What are the major changes brought by this new version?

The new version is a major revision of the GeoDCAT-AP specification that can be summarized as follows:

Whereas the GeoDCAT-AP 1.0.0 mainly focused on the mapping from the ISO standards in the context of INSPIRE to DCAT-AP, GeoDCAT-AP 2.0.0 is now developed as a standalone extension of DCAT-AP for geospatial datasets;
The mapping and the supportive tooling comply now with the latest version of GeoDCAT-AP;
GeoDCAT-AP 2.0.0 is now aligned with the latest releases of DCAT 2.0.0 and DCAT-AP 2.0.0; and
Many of the lessons learned from the usage of GeoDCAT-AP 1.0.0 have been included in the latest release of DCAT 2.0.0. This has led to a new specification that better supports the publication of the geospatial information on data portals.

With a view to easing the access to this new version of GeoDCAT-AP and consequently increase its reuse rate, the distribution of this specification was also published online, in addition to the traditional collaborative platform GitHub.