ED-269 vs ED-318: the two UAS geozone formats, compared field by field
Updated
ED-269 is the format EU states publish their UAS geographical zones in today; ED-318 is its GeoJSON-based successor, already published by several of them. They describe the same zones, but not with the same field names — and a converter that treats one as the other silently loses information. These are the differences that matter, found in real national files.
Where each format is used
Article 15 of Regulation (EU) 2019/947 requires states to publish zones in a common digital format, and EASA’s AMC names EUROCAE ED-269. Finland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Latvia publish a textbook ED-269 UASZoneVersion document; Switzerland publishes ED-269’s data model flattened into GeoJSON. ED-318 is published alongside or instead of it by, among others, Portugal, Sweden, Czechia, Germany and Spain.
The differences that break naive conversion
| Concept | ED-269 | ED-318 |
|---|---|---|
| Container | A JSON document with a features array of zones | A GeoJSON FeatureCollection |
| The restriction | restriction | properties.type — and variant holds what ED-269 called type |
| Authorization value | REQ_AUTHORISATION (with an S) | REQ_AUTHORIZATION (with a Z) |
| When the zone applies | applicability | limitedApplicability |
| Altitude limits | Per volume, with uomDimensions and vertical references | In geometry.layer |
| Circle | A Circle horizontal projection | A Point with extent.subType: "Circle" |
| Zone with several volumes | Several entries in geometry | A GeometryCollection |
| Human-readable text | Plain strings (sometimes two languages jammed together) | Arrays of { text, lang } — clean multilingual text |
The REQ_AUTHORISATION / REQ_AUTHORIZATION spelling is the trap to expect in every ED-318 feed: in Portugal’s file, a converter that only knows the ED-269 spelling turns 207 of 358 zones into “unknown effect”, with no parse error at all.
Traps in real national files
- Sentinel altitudes. Switzerland writes
upperLimit: 99999on most zones to mean “no ceiling”; read literally, that is a 100 km ceiling. - All-day schedules in local time. An “all day” window written as
00:00+02:00–23:59+02:00is 22:00–21:59 UTC; recognise it by its span, not by midnight. - A byte-order mark at the start of some national ED-269 exports, which a strict JSON parser rejects.
- Mixed shapes in one file. Portugal’s ED-318 wraps most text in
{ text, lang }arrays but leaves an authority’ssiteURL,emailandphoneas bare strings. - Duplicate identifiers. Portugal publishes two identifiers twice, each for two different nature-reserve zones.
Converting between them
The GeoPilot conversion API converts in any direction between ED-269, ED-318, KML and GeoJSON, and handles every format difference in the table above; publisher-specific quirks like the sentinel altitudes are things to check in your own source data. One conversion is lossy by nature: ED-269 has no value for “information only” or “unknown”, so those are written as NO_RESTRICTION and the response says so in its warnings rather than hiding it.
Frequently asked questions
- Is ED-318 replacing ED-269?
- ED-318 is the successor and several states already publish it, often alongside ED-269. Software that reads national geozone data today needs to handle both.
- Is ED-318 just ED-269 as GeoJSON?
- No. Several fields are renamed or moved — the restriction lives in
type, authorization is spelled with a Z, altitudes move intogeometry.layer— so it needs its own parser.
Related guides
- How to convert ED-269 and ED-318 geozones to GeoJSON or KMLConvert UAS geozone data between ED-269, ED-318, KML and GeoJSON with one API call: the scopes you need, the request, and how to read errors and warnings.
- Drone no-fly zone API: getting startedQuery published drone zones from your own software: get an API key, ask what applies at a point or nearby, check a flight area, handle limits and errors.
- Drone no-fly zones explained: how UAS geographical zones workWhat UAS geographical zones are, who publishes them, and how to read one: prohibited, authorization, conditional zones, height limits and schedules.
Sources
- EUROCAE ED-269, Minimum Operational Performance Standard for UAS Geo-Fencing
- EUROCAE ED-318, Technical Specification for Geographical and Aeronautical Data for UAS
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947, Article 15