GeoPackages

GeoPackage is an open standard for geospatial data packaging defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It stores geographic features, rasters, and accompanying metadata in a single SQLite database file with the .gpkg extension. The format is designed to be portable, platform-independent, and interoperable across GIS software, serving as a replacement for multiple formats and separate data stores used in traditional workflows.

A GeoPackage uses a published schema that organizes vector features, raster tiles, and metadata. Vector data are stored as feature tables with a geometry column and associated attributes; raster data are stored as tile matrices used for map tiling. The standard includes metadata tables for contents and spatial reference systems and maintains information about data types, extents, and encodings. The database can include multiple feature and tile sets, all described with standardized metadata.

Adoption and use: The format is widely supported by GIS applications and libraries, including QGIS, ArcGIS, GDAL, and MapServer. The file-based nature makes it suitable for data distribution, offline work, and cross-platform sharing. It is also extensible through OGC standards and community extensions.

Advantages and limitations: Benefits include a self-contained, portable container with support for both vector and raster data, built-in CRS definitions, and wide software support. Limitations include performance considerations for very large datasets, and the fact that as a file-based database it can experience concurrency constraints compared with server-based databases.