Geography and oceanography

A profile of ISO 19115, also mapping to the AGLS profile of Dublin Core, designed to facilitate efficient access to descriptions of information resources, particularly geographic or spatial data.

The CF standard was originally framed as a standard for data written in netCDF format, with model-generated climate forecast data particularly in mind. However, it is equally applicable to observational datasets, and can be used to describe other formats. It is a standard for “use metadata” that aims both to distinguish quantities (such as physical description, units, and prior processing) and to locate the data in space–time.

Sponsored by the NetCDF Climate and Forecast Metadata Convention, the current version dates from December 2011.

Developed by the Cooperative Ocean-Atmosphere Research Data Service (COARDS), these conventions constitute a standard set of metadata to include in netCDF files, allowing them to be shared and interchanged.

The COARDS Conventions are generalized and extended by the CF (Climate and Forecast) Metadata Conventions.

The National Oceanographic Data Centre's required format for reporting on cruises or field experiments at sea, formulated using tags from the ISO19115 metadata standard.

An extension to the FGDC/CSDGM metadata standard providing a common terminology and set of definitions for documenting geospatial data obtained by remote sensing.

A body of standards, including a glossary of terms (in other contexts these might be called properties, elements, fields, columns, attributes, or concepts) intended to facilitate the sharing of information about biological diversity by providing reference definitions, examples, and commentaries.

Sponsored by Biodiversity Information Standards (TWDG), the current standard was last modified in October 2009.

A protocol-independent XML schema for a geospatial extension to the Darwin Core.

A widely used, international standard for describing data from the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Two versions of the standard are currently maintained in parallel:

  • DDI Codebook (or DDI version 2) is the simpler of the two, and intended for documenting simple survey data for exchange or archiving. Version 2.5 was released in January 2012.
  • DDI Lifecycle (or DDI version 3) is richer and may be used to document datasets at each stage of their lifecycle from conceptualization through to publication and reuse. It is modular and extensible. Version 3.2 was published in March 2014.

Both versions are XML-based and defined using XML Schemas. They were developed and are maintained by the DDI Alliance.

An early metadata initiative from the Earth sciences community, intended for the description of scientific data sets. It includes elements focusing on instruments that capture data, temporal and spatial characteristics of the data, and projects with which the dataset is associated. It is defined as a W3C XML Schema.

Sponsored by the Global Change Master Directory, the DIF Writer's Guide Version 6 is from November 2010.

The European Directory of Marine Environmental Datasets metadata scheme, which is a profile of ISO 19115.

A widely-used, but no longer current standard defining the information content for a set of digital geospatial data required by the US Federal Government.

CSDGM was sponsored by the US Federal Geographic Data Committee.  However, in September 2010 the FGDC endorsed ISO 19115 and began encouraging federal agencies to transition to ISO metadata.

A profile of the FGDC/CSDGM metadata standard, intended to support the collection and processing of biological data.

Established by a global network of countries and organizations, GBIF is a web portal promoting and facilitating the mobilization, access, discovery and use of biodiversity data. The portal uses a profile of EML; a How-to Guide and Reference Guide for using the profile are available.

A profile of ISO 19115:2003, adopted in 2007 as the common metadata standard for the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE). The other profiles of ISO 19115 in use in European Member States have been made compliant with INSPIRE.

An internationally-adopted schema for describing geographic information and services. It provides information about the identification, the extent, the quality, the spatial and temporal schema, spatial reference, and distribution of digital geographic data.

Sponsored by the International Standards Organisation, the first edition of ISO 19115 was published in 2003. It has since been split into parts: ISO 19115-1:2014 contains the fundamentals of the standard; ISO 19115-2:2009 contains extensions for imagery and gridded data; and ISO/TS 19115-3:2016 provides an XML schema implementation for the fundamental concepts compatible with ISO/TS 19138:2007 (Geographic Metadata XML, or GMD).

A common profile of ISO19115:2003 between the United States and Canada, designed to enhance interoperability of geographic information metadata in North America.

An extension of ISO 19115 defining the schema required for describing imagery and gridded data.

A profile developed in accordance with ISO 19115 rules by the Australian Ocean Data Centre that supports the documentation and discovery of marine spatial datasets.

The MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard is a marine profile of the UK government Standard GEMINI2 and also complies with other international conventions such as INSPIRE and ISO19115.

Some repositories have decided that current standards do not fit their metadata needs, and so have created their own requirements.

A set of common technical and statistical standards and guidelines to be used for the efficient exchange and sharing of statistical data and metadata.

Sponsoring institutions include BIS, ECB, EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN, and the World Bank. Technical Specification 2.1 was amended in May 2012.

Providing the format and content for describing data sets related to shoreline and other coastal data sets, this profile complies with the FGDC/CSDGM standard.

A profile of ISO 19115 designed to support the documentation and discovery of spatial datasets, dataset series and geo services within Higher and Further Education.

A specification for a set of metadata elements describing geospatial data resources for discovery purposes, based on ISO 19115.

A metadata standard for describing environmental monitoring activities, programmes, networks and facilities published by the UK Environmental Observation Framework (UKEOF).