Describing Your Metadata

To publish, or advertise, your geospatial data, you will first have to describe it in metadata. As you saw in Module 4, Describing Geospatial Resources, there are several categories of information, or metadata, you will have to provide about your geospatial data before you can publish it within the CGDI.

Metadata categories include:

• Identification (title, purpose, geographic area covered, currency, and rules to access or acquire the data);
• Quality (positional and attribute accuracy, completeness, consistency, sources of information, methods used to produce the data);
• Spatial data organization (raster/vector, indirect reference system, number of spatial objects in the data set);
• Spatial reference system (name and parameters for map projections or grid coordinate systems, horizontal and vertical data, coordinate system resolution);
• Entities and attributes (names and definitions of features, attributes and attribute values); Distribution (available formats, contact information for distributor, fees); and
• Metadata reference (currency of metadata, responsible party).

This information will allow people to first locate your data collection, and then narrow their search to the individual data products they are interested in.

Metadata in action

The National Forest Information System (NFIS) uses the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure to publish forest resource information from autonomous, distributed databases to support the analysis of, and reporting on, matters relating to sustainable forest management in Canada. Publishing through the CGDI allows the National Forest Information System:

• To provide ready access to the most current, consistent and reliable forest resource information;
• To reduce costs through the sharing of information technology; and
• To eliminate duplication in reporting, resulting in greater efficiency and reduced costs.

For more information about the NFIS, please visit http://www.nfis.org/.