ISO/IEC 18023-1:2005 addresses the concepts, syntax and semantics for the representation and interchange of environmental data. It specifies:

• a data representation model for expressing environmental data;
• specifications of the data types and classes that together constitute the data representation model; and
• an application program interface that supports the storage and retrieval of environmental data using the data representation model.

ISO/IEC 18023-1:2005 also specifies topological, rule-based, and other constraints that ensure appropriate data can be available for applications that rely on automatically generated behaviours when interacting with environmental data.