1. Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Working Group 3.1: Development of a GIS Task 10. Definition of a Metadata Structure
A. Annoni, P.C. Smits
European Commission
Joint Research Centre
Institute for Environment and Sustainability

2. What is metadata?
Metadata is the information and documentation, which makes data understandable and shareable for users over time (ISO Annex B)
Types of metadata, according to level of detail
Metadata for Inventory
i.e. internal to an organisation
Metadata for Discovery
i.e. necessary for external users to know who has what data, where to find it, and how to access it
Metadata for Use
i.e. a fuller description of an information resource that enables users to make a judgement about the relevance and fitness-for-purpose of the resource before access it

3. Standards in geospatial metadata
At this moment: no accepted international standard on GI metadata (but we’re close: IS in )
1997: European Committee on Standardisation (CEN) Technical Committee 287: pre-standard on GI metadata
USA: Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) on GI metadata standards
International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) Technical Committee 211: family of standards related to geo-spatial information, including one for metadata (DIS 19115)

4. Standards in geospatial metadata (Cnt’d)
New versions of FGDC standards will become a profile of DIS 19115
CEN is likely to endorse DIS 19115
No competition, but mutual support
IS 19115
FGDC
CEN TC287
Input
CEN
IS endorsed by CEN
Future versions of FGDC metadata standards will become profile of IS 19115

5. Other metadata standards
ISO/CD
GILS - Government Information Locator Service
GELOS
G-7 ENRM project (97)
DUBLIN CORE
ETC/CDS

6. Dublin Core (DC) international initiative
Gained wide support
Dublin Core (DC) international initiative
Not specifically for GI but focuses on the Discovery aspect of metadata related to multimedia in general
Helps discover information resources across disciplinary or sectoral domains.

7. Mission of the ETC/CDS
to conceptualize and implement a locator system for environmental metainformation from all Network members in Europe - the Catalogue of Data Sources (CDS)
to harmonise and promote concepts for registering and locating this information
to provide environmental metainformation for the EEA, the EIONET and the public on:
                              

8. Available ETC-CDS tools
for the data collection the WinCDS based on Access.
This cataloguing tool allows to describe different data sources e.g. maps, documents, data sets, address information and more. WinCDS runs on Windows98, Nt 4.0.
for on-line retrieval/distribution the on-line cataloguing system WebCDS.
Data can be updated on-line (JAVA driven upload interface) or by using usual data exchange formates (SGML up to come XML). Momentary the data is stored by an Oracle database. User interactivity features are programmed in JAVA or simple HTML. This on-line system is available for Sun, HP and Linux Server. If you are interested contact us.
for indexing and retrieval
the Search and indexing functions of both applications are based on the GEMET - the GEneral Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus - available for free

9. Migration Migration to DIS 19115 (FDIS: 2002-04 IS: 2002-07)
CEN/TC287 pre-standards on metadata already implemented by some organisations and countries.
Some organisations developed internal “standards” on GI metadata
Appropriate migration path has to be developed:
To Dublin Core
To IS core elements
Some conversion tables are already available
From ENV (CEN) to DIS (thanks to CNIG Portugal),
From DC to DIS (JRC is involved in CEN activities to work on this– )
Process can be automated
Software tools will become available that will help the people responsible for the maintenance of the GI metadata to convert existing and create new metadata in DIS format.

10. ISO availability Cost issue: are IS metadata standards free of charge?
No, if organisation develops its own software in which DIS is built-in
Yes, if organisation uses third-party software in which standards are implemented (e.g., ESRI components)
JRC is actively involved in ISO standards development
DIS and other ISO/TC211 documents are freely available to the Commission
ISO standards are inexpensive
Cost depends on length of document
DIS is 158 pages, and would cost about €135

11. Core metadata for geographic datasets (ISO/DIS 19115, p. 14)
Dataset title (M)
(MD_Metadata > MD_Identification.citation >
CI_Citation.title)
Spatial representation type (O)
(MD_Metadata >
MD_DataIdentification.spatialRepresentationType)
Dataset reference date (M)
(MD_Metadata > MD_Identification.citation > CI_Citation
> CI_Date.date and CI_Date.dateType)
Reference system (O)
(MD_Metadata > MD_ReferenceSystem)
Dataset responsible party (O)
(MD_Metadata > MD_Identification.pointOfContact >
CI_ResponsibleParty)
Lineage statement (O)
(MD_Metadata > DQ_DataQuality >
LI_Lineage.statement)
Geographic location of the dataset (by four coordinates or by geographic identifier) (C)
(MD_Metadata > MD_DataIdentification.geographicBox
or MD_DataIdentification.geographicIdentifier)
On-line resource (O)
(MD_Metadata > MD_Distribution >
MD_DigitalTransferOption.onLine >
CI_OnlineResource)
Dataset language (M)
(MD_Metadata > MD_DataIdentification.lauguage)
Metadata file identifier (O)
(MD_Metadata.fileIdentifier)

12. Core metadata for geographic datasets (cont’d)
Dataset character set (C)
(MD_Metadata > MD_DataIdentification.characterSet)
Metadata standard name (O)
(MD_Metadata.metadataStandardName)
Dataset topic category (M)
(MD_Metadata > MD_DataIdentification.topicCategory)
Metadata standard version (O)
(MD_Metadata.metadataStandardVersion)
Spatial resolution of the dataset (O)
(MD_Metadata >
MD_DataIdentification.spatialResolution >
MD_Resolution.equivalentScale or
MD_Resolution.distance)
Metadata language (C)
(MD_Metadata.language)
Abstract describing the dataset (M)
(MD_Metadata > MD_Identification.abstract)
Metadata character set (C)
(MD_Metadata.characterSet)
Distribution format (O)
(MD_Metadata > MD_Distribution > MD_Distributor >
MD_Format.name and MD_Format.version)
Metadata point of contact (M)
(MD_Metadata.contact > CI_ResponsibleParty)
Additional extent information for the
dataset (vertical and temporal) (O)
(MD_Metadata > MD_DataIdentification.extent >
EX_Extent)
Metadata date stamp (M)
(MD_Metadata.dateStamp)

13. Recommendations to WFD
Metadata management mandatory.
Information resource not geographic?
Use the Dublin Core (DC) for the discovery of data (or ETC/CDS).
If the information resource contains spatial component, ensure that Dublin Core is also supported for cross-IT searching so as to increase the visibility of the resource.
If the information resource contains spatial component
use Core elements of the current draft for ISO standard IS IS should be bought and adopted by the European Commission as soon as it is issued as an IS.

14. Open questions Where we should focus now Inventory , Discovery , Use ?
Should a specific WFD ISO profile be developed ?
Should the proposed choice be compatible with other stds
DC, ETC/CDS, …?
Plan to migrate from National to unified European?
Language and semantic issues (e.g. data dictionary)
Tools ?
Link with Task 7 to be established to avoid overlapping / redundancy