Governance
Intended stewardship of the open landscape metadata specification: three-entity structure, Foundation Standards, standards constellation (spine + orbits), institutional asks (EBDA / ELDX), licence, and interim stewardship. Draft terms for consultation only.
Three-entity structure
A separation of roles keeps the public specification clean of commercial control. The commercial and IP layers exist today; the Foundation layer is proposed and not yet an independent entity.
The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd
Holds proprietary IP and interim copyright in the public specification, pending assignment. Stewards and powers the Foundation until it incorporates.
The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd
- SaaS, Library, Hub, Data API
- Revit / BIM integrations
- Subscriptions, contracts, support
The Landscape Archive Foundation
- Public specification stewardship
- Open RFC / registry process
- First Nations advisory review (proposed)
Public TLA-185 / TLA-169 specification is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Library, Hub, Studio+™, Data API, and populated datasets are licensed separately by the commercial operator and are not under Creative Commons.
How the standard matures
Credibility builds in layers, not on a launch date. This is the honest current position — what is live, what is early, and what has not started.
- Layer 1
Open specification
LiveField registry, JSON schemas, worked examples, RFC process, and semantic versioning are published.
- Layer 2
De facto adoption
EarlyExport profiles, jurisdiction crosswalks, and pilot references are forming. Reference tooling is partly paused during the licence review.
- Layer 3
Formal standardisation
Not startedFormal recognition (e.g. ISO, buildingSMART, OGC) requires an incorporated Foundation, independent governance, and real-world use. No status is claimed today.
Standards constellation
TLA-185 is the single field grammar (185 documented elements). Named orbits extend provenance, evidence packaging, plant-form labelling, living-system delivery, and verification posture without creating a rival dictionary. Maturity labels are deliberate: only the spine is published as the live open specification today. Draft orbit HTML stubs are linked below as consultation shapes.
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Open landscape metadata field registry, schemas, and conformance criteria under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. The gravity well for all orbits.
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la.archive.synthetic-nature.v1Synthetic-nature provenance: how surveyed, modelled, generative, and composite assets declare lineage beside the spine.
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la.archive.audit-pack.v1Open landscape evidence / audit pack shape. Archive Seal remains a separate commercial attestation.
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la.archive.ml-label.v1Plant-form label standard for ML Hub sidecars and dataset manifests. Foundation-facing name for the existing la.archive.ml-label.v1 schema.
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la.archive.substitution.v1Plant substitution and equivalency pack beside the spine. Consultation stub for phase-to-phase botanical change records.
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la.archive.lifecycle-states.v1Lifecycle states for softscape instances: intent, installed, established, and removed with as-of dating.
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la.archive.care-obligations.v1Establishment and maintenance obligation packs for maintainer handover beside the spine.
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la.archive.soil-media.v1Soil and growing-media asset profiles for planting zones beside the spine.
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la.archive.hydrozone.v1Hydrozone identity and water-budget metadata for living-system stewardship.
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la.archive.living-performance.v1Living performance KPIs with measurement method and reporting period beside sustainability claims.
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la.archive.softscape-lod.v1Softscape delivery maturity gates for phase handover and procurement language.
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la.archive.site-truth.v1Site-ground truth verification status profile over TLA-EVID evidence. Status enums only; no continuous absolute ground truth.
- Orbit
Regional flora packs
In developmentla.archive.regional-flora-pack.v1Region-scoped content packs bound to hubs. Named on the roadmap; graduation under Foundation profile language is deferred.
- Orbit
Further orbits
In developmentPlant-instance identity, cultural-protocol profile, and plant-recipe interchange remain named for later work.
Draft and in-development items are consultation shapes. Public draft pages live under /standards. Beside the constellation, the Foundation names institutional asks EBDA and ELDX (proposed stewardship instruments); see Governance. Commercial Library, Hub, Studio+™, populated datasets, and Archive Seal stay separately licensed.
Foundation stewardship
The Landscape Archive Foundation’s public mandate is digital infrastructure for landscape architecture communities: a shared dictionary, Library-facing grammar, tools, jurisdiction packs, and evidence — rooted in the founder’s lived history in the discipline.
Because the Foundation is not yet incorporated, one potential is that upon incorporation it helps steward a digital twin commons for landscape architecture: open grammar, twin-ready interchange, and Creative Commons inheritance as shared public infrastructure. Until then, the open specification remains published here under interim stewardship by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd, with commercial operations through The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.
Intended public purpose (draft)
The sections below describe draft public purpose for consultation while incorporation is prepared.
The Landscape Archive Foundation is a digital infrastructure provider for landscape architecture communities: a shared field dictionary, Library-facing grammar, TLA-185 / TLA-169 interchange, tools, jurisdiction packs, and evidence shapes. In the interim it is stewarded and powered by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd; correspondence and commercial operations are through The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.
Founding warrant
Mark Norlan Laririt founded this work from years in landscape architectural practice and research, asking how ecological knowledge, design intent, and project claims can remain legible in lasting records. The Archive grew from a wish that authorship, botanical evidence, and living-systems claims travel with the same documentary care as the drawing.
He built toward an archive so meaning could keep a trace — so claims, methods, and evidence stay readable across decades of growth, maintenance, and institutional memory. That history is the warrant. The public purpose is larger than one life: shared digital infrastructure so the discipline can advance ecological literacy, digital method, and education while keeping its records inspectable for those who inherit the work.
One potential that follows is that this same Foundation, once incorporated, could help steward a digital twin commons for landscape architecture — open grammar for a durable record of place, in conversation with the wider profession.
Mission
The Landscape Archive Foundation is a digital infrastructure provider for landscape architecture communities.
Intended mission: publish and maintain open, citable digital infrastructure so practices, educators, agencies, and allied teams can share one dictionary, cite Library and project records, inspect evidence, and bind local codes through jurisdiction packs. The Foundation holds grammar, tools, and packs — not a social-care remit, and not a membership institute.
Landscape architecture interprets living systems under uncertainty. Draft TLA-185 / TLA-169 fields exist so botanical identity, site context, climate screening, cultural protocol, and synthetic lineage can be stated with method notes — knowledge that can be taught, tested, and revised in public.
Draft public commitments for consultation:
- Shared dictionary — one international field grammar (TLA-185 / TLA-169) that communities can cite without forking national schemas
- Library-facing grammar — structural definitions for botanical, site, climate, and provenance claims; populated inventories stay licensed separately
- Tools and evidence — public validator, Evidence Checker, and open packs for local inspect; not Archive Seal or Foundation Approved
- Jurisdiction packs — bind the same field IDs to local codes, climate products, and disclosure regimes
- Digital testing and advancement — renew schemas, integrity digests, and twin-ready interchange through documented use and open critique
- Education — studio, university, and continuing pathways that treat metadata and representation as part of design literacy
- Digital twin potential — upon incorporation, help hold open grammar, Creative Commons inheritance, and twin-ready interchange as shared public infrastructure
- Continuity — keep the open grammar and citation path available so later project teams can still read, teach, and check records
Mission boundaries
This site does not offer shares, equity, options, or other investment products in The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd, The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd, or the Foundation.
Open TLA-185 / TLA-169 grammar remains published here under interim stewardship. One incorporation potential is that The Landscape Archive Foundation helps steward that twin-ready commons in public, as shared infrastructure for the profession. Commercial seats and Archive Seal renewals on the Australian hub fund ongoing product labour separately.
Foundation incorporation, any future endowment, and related capital structures remain matters for counsel and entity formation.
Intended beneficiaries
Intended users of this infrastructure are landscape architecture communities that need a shared, vendor-neutral reference — practices, educators, agencies, and allied teams. No beneficiary services or enrolment programmes are offered today.
- Practices, educators, and students who need a citable dictionary and inspectable project records
- Researchers and open-data communities supplying taxonomic and environmental evidence behind botanical fields
- Indigenous knowledge holders whose protocol governs restricted cultural material and whose authority must remain clear in disclosure
- Public agencies and practices that cite open planting metadata in procurement, handover, and digital twin programmes
- Institutions that bind the same field IDs through jurisdiction packs rather than forking a national schema
Activities
Live work includes publishing the open specification, governance pages, and adoption language. Awards and volunteer coordination are in preparation.
Future activities require independent entity formation and Council approval. Grants, paid services, and overseas branch operations are not active.
- Live: digital-infrastructure mission pages, open-specification publishing, adoption and citation language
- In preparation: awards, volunteer onboarding, public briefings on dictionary, packs, and evidence tools
- Potential at incorporation: The Landscape Archive Foundation helping steward a digital twin commons for landscape architecture
- Institutional asks (separate instruments): Ecological & Built-Environment Data Authority (EBDA); International Land-Data Exchange (ELDX)
- Landscape-native software initiative: in-studio coding knowledge and native tools for landscape architecture
- Later / separate: grants and scholarships after entity formation; Archive Certified training via Archive commercial channels
Funding
Due to our incorporation status, voluntary contribution intake has been taken down. The Foundation is not yet an independent incorporated entity, so we are not accepting bank transfers, donations, or public fundraising on this site.
Referencing the open TLA-185 specification remains free under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. For institutional partnerships or funding conversations after incorporation, contact us.
- Today: contribution intake paused (see Support page)
- Future: donations, grants, and sponsorships when entity structure allows
- Commercial implementation remains licensed through The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd
Truth-telling
Landscape projects carry claims about species, climate, sustainability, cultural context, and visual provenance — and about who specified the work and who bears documented risk. Truth-telling means those claims can be stated, checked, and questioned in a shared vocabulary.
The open vocabulary (taxon IDs, banded site context, evidence URIs, sensitivity classes, synthetic lineage) is published here under interim stewardship and is part of the Foundation’s digital twin potential at incorporation. Substantive verification remains with project teams and governing institutions.
- Authorship — who specified the work and who bears documented risk remains visible in the record
- Botanical — names, taxon IDs, growth form in exchange bundles
- Climate and sustainability — auditable fields with evidence and method notes
- Cultural — protocol-aware metadata with sensitivity-class routing
- Provenance — attribution and lineage for synthetic or derivative assets
- Institutional — Foundation Approved (open conformance) vs Archive Certified (vendor credential)
Entity and stewardship layers
Commercial assets remain with the Vault and Archive. The Landscape Archive Foundation provides digital infrastructure for landscape architecture communities, and may upon incorporation help steward a digital twin commons for open landscape metadata. EBDA and ELDX remain two further, separate institutional instruments.
- The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd
- Private IP holding company. Proprietary IP: TLA Brain, 3D assets, databases, pipelines. Stewards and powers the Foundation until incorporation.
- The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd
- Commercial operator; the Vault→Archive intra-group licence is in force. Products, subscriptions, sales, support. Live regional hub: landscapearchive.com.au (Australian data portal). Additional hubs planned — not live. Made in Australia; international customers welcome on published Terms. Independent of professional institutes and peak bodies unless stated in writing.
- The Landscape Archive Foundation
- Intended independent foundation (incorporation in preparation). Digital infrastructure for landscape architecture communities; potential steward of open TLA-185 / TLA-169 twin commons under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
- EBDA / ELDX
- Two separate institutional asks: public-interest data authority gravity, and cross-border land/landscape exchange.
Governance scope
Foundation governance covers the Foundation’s professional mission and public consultation on the open specification while incorporation is prepared. Member organisations retain authority over their own operations and IP.
In scope: admitted members electing Council representatives and approving schema proposals while interim stewardship continues. Outside scope: Foundation brand forks, Archive pricing, or Vault licensing terms.
- TLA-185 extension
- Council — RFC, working group, simple majority
- TLA-169 minor release (1.x)
- Council — RFC, working group, simple majority
- TLA-169 / TLA-185 major revision
- Council — RFC, two-thirds super-majority
- Cultural context and badge criteria
- Council with First Nations advisory review
- Foundation budget, brand, domain
- Council — simple majority; not-for-profit
- GitHub releases
- Foundation officers — public PRs; merges via officers
- Member practice
- Each member organisation
- Member proprietary IP
- Each member — contribution retains member project IP
- Archive products and pricing
- The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd — no Foundation voting seat
- Vault IP
- The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd — Vault-held
- Commercial implementation licence
- The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd
- Client project exchange records
- Project author — restricted cultural material via sensitivity classes
Foundation and Archive
Foundation Approved is intended as vendor-neutral open-specification conformance when criteria are published — not a live self-serve product today. Landscape Archive Certified is a paid practitioner credential — distinct from Foundation Approved.
- “Foundation Approved” means open conformance when criteria are published; “Archive Certified” is a practitioner credential
- Archive Seal is a commercial attestation and is distinct from Foundation Approved
- Certification, commerce, and licensed datasets remain with the Archive
- Vault — Brain, assets, datasets, pipelines
- Proprietary IP — Vault-held
- Foundation — TLA-185 / TLA-169, schemas, draft reference
- Public specification — CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- Foundation — Foundation Approved
- Open conformance concept — criteria not yet a public product
- Foundation — cultural-context policy
- Policy and checklists only
- Archive — Library, Revit, Studio+™, shop
- Commercial products
- Archive — Archive Seal
- Paid renewable commercial attestation (distinct from Foundation Approved)
- Archive — practitioner certification
- Paid vendor credential
- Archive — species library, licensed data
- Licensed separately from the open specification
- Layer 1 · Foundation Approved
- Intended open conformance — criteria not yet a public product
- Layer 2 · Archive Certified
- Archive training (paid)
- Layer 3 · Institutional attestation (future)
- Foundation policy; Archive may be one issuer
Draft consultation — request a review pack
The published schema pack and field registry are open for critique as draft reference. Interactive validators and the Evidence Checker upload interface remain unavailable while stewardship and incorporation arrangements are clarified; the open specification remains under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Draft orbit pages including TLA-EVID remain available for citation. Request a review pack when you want structured follow-up on handover vocabulary.
Founding-alliance language elsewhere on this site describes a proposed consultation model. The Foundation is preparing for incorporation; requesting a review pack does not create an alliance seat.
Start with the shared-vocabulary Field Note and the field registry / draft dictionary.
- Critique schema clarity, examples, and conformance notes
- Surface mapping gaps as public RFC feedback where possible
- Keep proprietary project IP and client data out of unsolicited attachments
Founding alliance
Draft model: an international coalition of independent organisations that could steward the open specification through charter consultation. No alliance has been formed yet.
The Archive affiliate partner programme is a commercial referral arrangement and is separate from Foundation founding membership.
If a founding alliance proceeds after incorporation, classes may include practices, universities, public bodies, Indigenous protocol authorities, supply-chain partners, and implementation partners (advisory; no voting majority). Each organisation remains legally independent.
Interested organisations may read the draft charter and register interest. Alliance seating begins only after incorporation — requesting a review pack or charter comments does not create a seat.
- Practice — landscape and allied firms
- Academic — universities and research groups
- Public-body — agencies referencing the open standard
- Indigenous protocol — custodial authorities with advisory sign-off on cultural-context rules
- Supply-chain — nurseries and material suppliers
- Implementation — BIM/GIS/validation vendors (advisory; no default vote)
- Affiliate partner programme
- Commercial Archive programme
- Founding alliance
- Proposed; in formation
- Implementation partners
- Advisory by default; no voting majority
One international dictionary
TLA-185 is one international dictionary. Australia is where it was first exercised, and where the commercial Hub is live. That is origin and fill.
Other institutions do not get different field IDs. A UK, Canadian, or Singapore studio still uses the same published keys: species key, taxon ID, quantity, climate claim slots, LOD, cultural sensitivity. Inventing a parallel UK dictionary would be the thing the standard exists to stop.
What changes by place is the binding, not the slot. Jurisdiction packs and climate disclosure crosswalks point the same field IDs at local country codes, climate products, and reporting regimes.
A London studio does not get a new botanical name field. It fills the same botanical slots from UK flora and protocol, points climate screening at Met Office / UKCP18 instead of SILO / CCIA, and cites IFRS S2 instead of AASB S2. Same keys; local evidence. Teaching examples that use Australian taxa illustrate fill. The remap rule (empty stays empty; slogans are not claims) is not Australian.
TLA-169 is the earlier field count (169); TLA-185 extends it by 16 fields to 185. That is versioning, not geography.
The Foundation’s path is independent stewardship of the grammar that other bodies can cite. It is not a replacement for national professional institutes. It holds the dictionary, the RFC, jurisdiction packs, and the line that local inspect ≠ Archive Seal ≠ Foundation Approved ≠ government approval. It does not hold nursery lists, municipal standing, cultural protocol, or professional sign off. Those stay with the local profession.
A new country or institute joining does not fork fields. It either binds existing slots in a jurisdiction pack or crosswalk, or proposes a missing term into the one dictionary. That is how the grammar stays singular instead of becoming eight private vocabularies.
- Do not invent parallel field names for a second country
- Bind local flora, climate products, and procurement rules to published keys
- Propose a missing term into the one dictionary rather than forking a national schema
- Local inspect, Archive Seal, Foundation Approved, and government approval remain distinct
- Layer 1 · Dictionary
- One public grammar (TLA-185 / TLA-169). Status: live
- Layer 2 · Jurisdiction pack
- Local codes, dataset pointers, disclosure crosswalks. AU is the reference pack; others are starters
- Layer 3 · Formal standardisation
- ISO, buildingSMART, OGC. Not started; needs an incorporated Foundation
- Australia
- Reference fill and live commercial Hub (landscapearchive.com.au)
- Other packs
- Starter bindings. Australia remains the live commercial Library fill
International adoption
Credibility builds in layers: (1) published open specification with RFC and validator; (2) de facto adoption in tools, procurement, and teaching; (3) formal standardisation (ISO, buildingSMART, OGC) only after independent governance and real-world use.
TLA-185 stays one dictionary. See One international dictionary. ISO status and universal Australian dataset bindings remain future work. Other jurisdictions bind the same field IDs to local climate and geospatial products through published jurisdiction packs and crosswalks that keep the dictionary singular.
Jurisdiction packs (AU reference; UK, CA, US, NZ, SG, HK, and ZA starters) supply country and subnational enums for project.jurisdiction. They are Layer-2 adoption artifacts. The Archive commercial hub remains landscapearchive.com.au until additional hubs are published.
Formal standardisation remains forward work subject to Council approval, national-body sponsorship, and budget.
- Incorporate Foundation; recruit founding alliance members outside Australia
- Maintain public GitHub pack and 14-day RFC periods
- Pilot adoptions and standards-liaison introductions
- Publish jurisdiction packs (AU reference; UK, CA, US, NZ, SG, HK, ZA starters) and climate crosswalks (AASB S2, UK, EU, US, CA, NZ available)
- Layer 1 · Open specification
- Dictionary, RFC, schema portal, semver — live
- Layer 2 · De facto adoption
- Export profiles, jurisdiction packs, crosswalks, pilots — early
- Layer 3 · Formal standardisation
- Not started; requires incorporated Foundation
- Jurisdiction packs
- AU reference · UK/US starter — published
- Public language
- Prefer “open landscape metadata standard”; reserve TLA codes for registry/schema
Digital twin potential
One potential path for The Landscape Archive Foundation — still unincorporated — is to help steward a digital twin commons for landscape architecture: open grammar, twin-ready interchange, and long-horizon Creative Commons inheritance. Shared digital infrastructure and technical commons could live in one public entity if incorporation and conversation with the profession allow.
Today the open TLA-185 specification remains published on this site under interim stewardship while incorporation is prepared. The Foundation’s centre is shared digital infrastructure for landscape architecture communities: dictionary, packs, tools, and evidence. A twin-ready grammar would be a technical charge in that service: definitions that can be checked, not assumed. Commercial Archive products and Vault proprietary IP stay outside the Foundation layer. EBDA and ELDX remain two further, separate institutional instruments.
Draft potential under consultation. The Foundation is not yet an independent incorporated entity.
- Explore incorporation so the Foundation can help steward landscape architecture’s digital twin commons in public
- Publish and renew the open field dictionary as twin-ready public infrastructure
- Herald Creative Commons inheritance for landscape project records across generations
- Invite dialogue with educators, practices, and institutions on shared grammar and lasting project accountability
- Keep EBDA and ELDX as two separate institutional instruments beside that commons
- One Foundation path
- Because the Foundation is not yet incorporated, one possible path is that it helps hold open grammar, twin-ready interchange, and Creative Commons inheritance as public infrastructure — if incorporation and institutional conversation allow.
- Open grammar
- Publish and renew the public TLA-185 / TLA-169 field dictionary, schemas, and conformance rules as citable infrastructure for landscape digital twins and project records.
- Creative Commons inheritance
- Keep the open licence alive across generations so practitioners seventy years from now can still cite, teach, and check honest records.
- Shared with the profession
- This potential is metadata and twin-commons infrastructure for practitioners, educators, and institutions — offered for citation and conversation, with membership and accreditation remaining where they already belong.
- Beside EBDA and ELDX
- EBDA supplies public-interest authority gravity; ELDX supplies cross-border exchange. Both remain separate instruments that could orbit a twin commons.
Landscape-native software initiative
As part of the Foundation’s digital twin potential, this initiative centres innovative in-studio coding knowledge and the advancement of landscape architectural native software — tools and methods built for the future of the discipline.
The aim is durable capability: practices that can read and write open TLA-185 records, extend workflows with code where it serves design, and ship landscape-native software that keeps living systems, evidence, and authorship legible. Commercial Archive connectors and Studio+™ delivery remain separate products. This initiative is Foundation stewardship of public grammar and professional digital literacy — an invitation to build for landscape architecture itself.
Draft initiative under consultation.
Vendor products remain free to implement the open grammar. This page names a discipline-led software path, not a partnership claim with any named platform.
- Cite the open field dictionary in one studio, teaching, or RFQ deliverable
- Share mapping gaps and studio coding experiments against draft registry keys for public consultation
- If you build landscape-native tools or teach digital methods, register interest for structured conversation after incorporation milestones allow
- In-studio coding knowledge
- Advance practical coding literacy inside landscape practices — scripts, interchange, and tooling that extend design method rather than sit outside it.
- Landscape-native software
- Encourage software shaped for landscape architectural workflows: planting, softscape maturity, site context, evidence, and provenance as first-class concerns.
- Open grammar in tools
- Publish TLA-185 so native tools and studio pipelines can cite the same field IDs without each office inventing a private vocabulary.
- Studios and educators
- Give universities and practices a clear path to teach and test landscape-native digital methods beside design judgement.
Institutional asks
Beside the potential that The Landscape Archive Foundation helps steward a digital twin commons upon incorporation, the Foundation names two further institutional instruments. EBDA and ELDX remain separate. Both are stewardship goals and public asks for consultation.
Public asks in formation under consultation. EBDA and ELDX remain two distinct instruments.
These asks sit with the Foundation’s public agenda. They are distinct from Archive Seal, commercial Archive products, Vault proprietary IP, and from the Foundation’s digital twin potential. Licence for the open specification remains CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
- The Ecological & Built-Environment Data Authority (EBDA)
- A proposed public-interest stewardship instrument for ecological and built-environment data conformance, disclosure shape, and standards gravity that orbits TLA-185. The Foundation asks for EBDA as institutional weight beside the open grammar.
- The International Land-Data Exchange (ELDX)
- A proposed cross-border interchange for land and landscape project records under the open metadata grammar. The Foundation asks for ELDX as exchange infrastructure — separate from EBDA.
Cultural pillars
Land, art, technology, and data frame why the Foundation exists. The Landscape Archive Foundation holds the open digital infrastructure those pillars require and may, upon incorporation, help steward a digital twin commons for that metadata.
Product organisations ship commercial tools. The Foundation publishes the shared dictionary, packs, and evidence grammar those tools can cite — twin-ready public infrastructure beside EBDA and ELDX.
- Land
- Living systems, place, and practice.
- Art
- How landscape is seen and represented.
- Technology
- Tools that make evidence usable.
- Data
- Traceable records and methods for the commons.
Foundation Standards
Five interrelated standards describe domains where landscape project metadata must meet rising professional and public expectation. Together they treat truth in landscape documentation as an infrastructural problem: shared definitions, open governance, and a clear public/commercial boundary.
1 · Botanical truth and reference standard
Planting schedules often imply botanical knowledge without encoding it. TLA-185 (185 elements; extending TLA-169 at 169) defines taxonomy, traits, botanical asset rows, and BIM delivery metadata as first-class interchange elements.
When Foundation Approved criteria are published, a conforming bundle should carry at least one botanical asset row reconstructable without proprietary joins: taxon identifier, scientific name, native status, and growth form. That bar is not a live self-serve product today. Populated species matrices remain licensed Archive/Vault datasets.
2 · Climate and environmental disclosure
TLA-185 extends environment and sustainability modules with site-context bands, climate screening, risk metadata, and structured disclosure fields with method notes.
The Foundation specifies metadata shape. Entity-level inventories, audited filings, and regulatory assessments remain with project teams and institutions.
3 · Open research infrastructure
Universities and practitioners need a stable, citable reference independent of vendor access. The Foundation publishes the canonical specification, schema artefacts, and examples for TLA-185 / TLA-169. Public validator and Evidence Checker inspect files locally; they do not issue Archive Seal or Foundation Approved.
TLA Brain, high-fidelity assets, Studio+™, and populated libraries remain licensed commercial products. The Foundation layer holds the grammar of landscape project metadata.
4 · Public-sector and digital twin interface
Agencies may cite the open specification in procurement and digital twin discussions without lock-in to a single vendor data model. Foundation Approved is intended as a machine-checkable interchange baseline when criteria and validators are published — it is not a live self-serve product today.
Reference the schema under the published licence; implement through licensed partners as needed; treat Foundation Approved assessment as forward work until criteria ship.
5 · Ethics of synthetic nature and attribution
Synthetic imagery enters landscape visualisation faster than shared provenance rules. The specification separates open schema from commercial assets and defines sensitivity classes for restricted cultural detail.
Planned policy will require creator attribution, derivation lineage, and explicit marking of synthetic or composite assets in exchange bundles.
Licence
Public specification (185 documented elements) and schema documentation are published under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0:
Library, Hub, Studio+™, Data API, 3D assets, and populated datasets are not under Creative Commons — they are licensed separately by The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.
- BY — canonical specification must be credited
- NC — commercial use requires a separate Archive licence
- ND — modified redistributions are not permitted; updates via Foundation semver only
Creative Commons inheritance
The Foundation heralds Creative Commons as the public licence for the open landscape metadata grammar — so landscape architecture seventy years from now can still cite, teach, and check project records without renting a private vocabulary. That commons is part of the Foundation’s digital twin potential at incorporation.
Inheritance here means institutional succession and durable public infrastructure. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 remains the ongoing public licence; the seventy-year horizon names a duty of care to future practice. Formal wills, assignments, and succession instruments remain matters for counsel and entity formation. This page states the public intention while incorporation is prepared.
Draft stewardship intention for consultation while incorporation is prepared.
Citing the open specification under Creative Commons is free for non-commercial reference; commercial implementation remains separately licensed.
- Publish and keep the open field dictionary citable under Creative Commons while commercial layers stay clearly separated
- Treat long-horizon readability of landscape project records as a founding duty of twin-ready stewardship
- Advance incorporation and copyright assignment so the commons can outlast interim private stewardship
- Invite institutions and educators to cite the grammar now, so future practice inherits a living public record rather than a closed archive
- Herald the commons
- Keep the public TLA-185 field dictionary, schemas, and conformance rules under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 so citation can outlast any one company's product life.
- Seventy-year horizon
- Design for practitioners, educators, and maintainers around 2096 and beyond — a professional inheritance horizon for landscape architecture.
- Institutional succession
- Plan entity formation, copyright assignment to an independent Foundation, and governance so stewardship can pass while the open grammar remains public.
- Licence boundary
- Creative Commons covers the public specification. Library, Hub, Studio+™, Data API, 3D assets, and populated datasets remain separately licensed commercial products.
Interim stewardship
The Foundation name reflects intended stewardship once an independent entity exists. In the interim it is stewarded and powered by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd, which holds copyright in the public specification pending assignment. Commercial operations: The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.
These pages describe draft governance and licence terms for discussion only.
- Specification under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- Stewarded and powered by The Landscape Vault Pty Ltd, which holds interim copyright
- Species values, automation, and commercial assets excluded from the open layer
How to cite
Recommended: The Landscape Archive Foundation. TLA-185 Landscape Metadata Standard, version 1.0.0. https://landscapearchive.org/governance (accessed [date]). Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
For the field registry or a release tag, add that identifier. Cite commercial Archive products separately at landscapearchive.com.au/citations.
Commercial use
Non-commercial reference (teaching, research, open government documentation) may be permitted under NC terms. Commercial implementation licences through The Landscape Archive Pty Ltd.