The Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) is an open standard developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) aimed at the creation of web services for sharing georeferenced “tile maps”. To do so, the WMTS selects the map into a series of tiles representing a specific zoom level and extent, and stores them subsequently on the server. When a user requests a map, the WMTS retrieves the necessary tiles (already generated) and combines them to display the area of ​​interest at the desired zoom level. This approach optimizes the process of transferring and rendering images, since only the necessary tiles are loaded, resulting in an improved performance and a faster data access.

The WMTS allows users to zoom or rotate the map, but not to interact with single objects on it. For this reason, this standard is used exclusively for the visualization of geospatial data.

In accordance with the Directive (EU) 2019/1024, the Italian Military Geographic Institute has published a WMTS service for displaying data relating to the national land boundaries and toponyms of Italy.

A metadata sheet containing all needed information is also associated with the service. This sheet can also be consulted via the National Catalog for Spatial Data (RNDT).