This part of BS7666 defines the essential components of a gazetteer of geographic locations and provides a general model of spatial references based upon named spatial units in the United Kingdom. It defines the attributes of each geographic location to be recorded in a gazetteer, and the metadata associated with the gazetteer.
This part of BS7666 may be used for defining gazetteers of locations and systems of spatial references based upon named spatial units, but does not specify any particular ones, nor does it define a database schema. It provides the basis for the other parts of BS7666 by defining general structures to enable gazetteers of a range of classes of geographic locations to be created in a consistent way. Specific gazetteers of particular classes of locations are defined in the other parts of BS7666.