One of the most critical problems of hydroinformatics systems is the heterogeneity of the components. To solve them, specific standards describe how different components can inter-communicate, and how they can understand the exchanged messages.

This section presents two important approaches. INSPIRE Directive (May 2007) establishes an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe with the main aim to support community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment (see Section 6.1).

OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards have a larger scope, being dedicated to the global geospatial community, and responding to the needs of many domains including Environment, Defense, Health, Agriculture, Meteorology, and Sustainable Development (see Section 6.2).