Definition

Metadata is an important component of any geospatial resource. This information about data answers “who, what, where, when, why, and how” about every facet of a piece of data or service. When properly done, metadata answers a wide range of questions about geospatial resources:

• Who created the data? Who maintains it?
• What is the content of the data? What is its structure? What is the scale?
• Where is the geographic location? Where is it stored?
• When was the data collected? When was it published?
• Why was the data created?
• How was it produced? How can it be accessed? What data quality can you expect?

To ensure consistency, metadata can be defined by standards that offer a common set of terms, definitions and organization.

Standards in action:

Hassan is a graduate student studying soil erosion. His thesis supervisor has asked to look at his metadata, and Hassan is panicking because he has been so focused on collecting and analyzing his information, he has given little thought to describing it.

Little does he know, but Hassan probably has some metadata in some form already. For example, his file folders filled with notes on his data sources and the procedures he used to build his data constitute metadata—he just doesn’t recognize it as such. By investing a little time and organizing this information using accepted metadata standards, Hassan will be able to satisfy his supervisor, and protect all his hard work by identifying it properly.