Abstract GeoDCAT-AP is an extension of the DCAT application profile for data portals in Europe (DCAT-AP) for describing geospatial datasets, dataset series, and services. Its basic use case is to make spatial datasets, dataset series, and services searchable on general data portals, thereby making geospatial information better findable across borders and sectors. For this purpose, GeoDCAT-AP provides an RDF vocabulary and the corresponding RDF syntax binding for the union of metadata elements of the core profile of ISO 19115:2003 and those defined in the framework of the INSPIRE Directive of the European Union.

Currently, DataCite is the de facto standard for data citation. Therefore, the ability to transform metadata records from and to the DataCite metadata schema would enable, respectively, the harvesting of DataCite records, and the publication of metadata records in the DataCite infrastructure (thus enabling their citation).