CGIAR-CSI GeoSpatial Metadata Resource Center
The CGIAR-CSI is currently conducting a geospatial metadata inventory within
the CGIAR system, as part of their ICT-KM Project. In order
to support that effort, and to promote the use of metadata for
discovery and inventory of Global Public Goods produced by the
CGIAR system, we hope to build this page as a Resource Center
for both geospatial practitioners and decision-makers working
with diverse geospatial data efforts. Please check back regularly
for updates and more info.
The objective of this web
page is to explore the different basic aspects that lay behind
the implementation of the FGDC metadata standard to support
GeoSpatial DataSet description.
The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) approved a content standard for metadata, the Content
Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM). The CSDGM
standard, due to its widespread use, has been adopted to describe
the Geospatial resources within the CGIAR network. Other metadata
standards, and more specifically the ISO
19115, are currently starting to be adopted within the geographical
community; however the development of these new standards follows
defined compatibility rules of harmonization in such a way that
the CSDGM standard can be easily converted to the ISO 19115
standards, if necessary in the future. This metadata resource
web page offers a description in sections of the different component
that might assist novice metadata producers.
The first
two sections of this metadata web page focus on the concept
of metadata (Why metadata?) and
dataset (What is a dataset?).
Before starting to apply metadata standards, we realized that
it is extremely important to understand the reasons behind the
application of a metadata policy and what is exactly the object
of a metadata implementation, namely the geospatial dataset.
The two
following sections present an overview of the general rules
for the implementation of the CSDGM standards (CSDGM
Overview) and a description in detail of the structure and
the elements of the CSDGM standard (CSDGM
image map) This last section has been developed by the United
States Geological Survey, USGS.
The last
sections provide some useful guidelines for the implementation
of specific utilities within the CSDGM standard.
The use
of extensions and formalized profiles is explained in the Metadata
Profile section, while a list of potential thesauri and
their description can be found in the Metadata
Thesauri section.
The Metadata
Tips section reports an interesting collection of advices
from FGDC for novice metadata users with the objective of avoid
common metadata errors.
Many metadata
editing and management tools have been developed by commercial
companies and agencies. These tools might have several advantages
and disadvantages; therefore it is preferable to provide a list
and a description of such tools in the Metadata
Tools section with the hope that metadata users can select
the ones that better fit their need.
Send comments, feedback and suggestions to: csi@cgiar.org
