STANAG 2586 NATO geospatial metadata profile

What it is

STANAG 2586 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering the NATO Geospatial Metadata Profile. This promulgation is dated 25 February 2019, and its own SUPERSEDED DOCUMENTS section states that it replaces an earlier STANAG 2586, Edition 2, and folds in STANAG 7136, Edition 3, into a single agreement.

A STANAG is not the specification

A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical specification itself. STANAG 2586's own text is short and administrative: an aim, a set of interoperability requirements, and the ratification, implementation and reporting machinery. The metadata elements themselves sit in a separate publication, AGeoP-08, Edition B, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement the following standard." Anyone actually building a geospatial metadata catalogue needs AGeoP-08's own text, not this cover agreement.

What it commits nations to

The stated aim is "to standardize geospatial metadata elements in support of the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in NATO," so that NATO and its nations can "interpret the metadata of the geospatial data and services produced by or supplied to NATO," "discover and explore the geospatial data and services," and "manage, disseminate and publish geospatial dataset, dataset series and web services." None of the three is developed further here; the detail sits in AGeoP-08.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 2586 binds nations, not suppliers. "This STANAG is effective upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies," and "the partner nations are invited to adopt" it, a lighter standing than the commitment on participating member nations. A nation is bound through ratification, recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD): "the national decisions regarding the ratification and implementation of this STANAG are provided to the NSO." Implementation is a further, separate step. NATO itself is regarded as having implemented the STANAG "when the NATO Command Structure has promulgated in its orders, manuals or instructions, the specifications laid down in this STANAG and is prepared to utilize the NATO Geospatial Metadata Profile to manage and provide geospatial metadata to nations." A nation is regarded as having implemented it once it "has promulgated in its national orders, manuals or instructions, the minimum set of geospatial metadata elements documented in this STANAG," so it can produce metadata for NATO's use and read metadata NATO supplies. Within NATO, the profile "shall be implemented in CN/PN Reporting Process and ACO geospatial e-Catalogue as mandated by NATO Geospatial Policy (MC 0296/3)." A supplier meets STANAG 2586, or the AGeoP-08 elements it covers, only where a contract or tasking says so; this cover sets no obligation reaching a supplier directly.

Reporting and review

Nations are "invited to report on their effective implementation of the STANAG in accordance with AAP-03," and partner nations are likewise "invited to report on the adoption of the STANAG in accordance with AAP-03" - an invitation, not stated here as a duty. The STANAG "is to be reviewed at least once every five years," with the result "recorded within the NSDD," and any nation or NATO body may propose changes at any time to the tasking authority, for the next review to process.

What sits alongside it

The cover lists a further set of documents under "OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS," without saying which, if any, must already be in place: the DGIWG Metadata Foundation 2.0, the ISO 19115 family and related geographic-information standards, ISO 8601 and ISO 639-2, three IETF RFCs on UTF-8, URIs and UUIDs, NATO's own confidentiality metadata labelling STANAG, NATO Geospatial Policy MC 0296, and STANAG 2599 on geospatial support doctrine. It names them as related reading rather than prerequisites.

How it's evaluated

STANAG 2586 names no certification scheme and no audit of a supplier or a product. Nations report ratification and implementation to the NSDD, and are invited to report effective implementation "in accordance with AAP-03." Review of the STANAG runs on a fixed five-year cycle recorded in the NSDD, not through an assessor visiting an organisation. Nobody is "STANAG 2586 certified"; the cover never uses that language.

Standards it references

STANAG 2586 covers AGeoP-08, the publication participating nations "agree to implement" and where the metadata elements actually live. Among the "OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS" it names NATO's own STANAG 4774 and the ADatP-4774 publication it covers, on confidentiality metadata label syntax, and STANAG 2599 and the AJP-3.17 doctrine it covers, on geospatial support. Reporting on implementation and adoption both run "in accordance with" AAP-03. Outside our catalogue, it also names the DGIWG Metadata Foundation 2.0, ISO 639-2:1998, ISO 8601:2004, ISO 19106:2004, ISO 19115-1:2014, ISO 19115-2:2009, ISO/TS 19115-3:2016, ISO/TS 19139:2007, three IETF RFCs (3629, 3986, 4122), MC 0296, and AC/322-N(2011)0130, all listed as related documents rather than requirements.

Standards it references

• STANAG 4774Background
• ADatP-4774Background
• STANAG 2599Background
• AJP-3.17Background