Metadata standards

Here follows relevant information and discussions for the identification of sets of Metadata which could be supported by iMarine. A specific subset of Metadata, the Business metadata, should be identified for supporting the implementation of the EA-CoP Data Access and Sharing Policies.

The iMarine web infrastructure can support fully or partially different types of metadata according to requirements. I.e. standard widely used among EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. and indispensable for optimized use of the iMarine infrastructure and its many data management and processing capacities; Open Source community committed to support with software components the further development of this standard.

Dublin Core (DC)

The Dublin Core® Metadata Initiative http://dublincore.org is the potential candidate for supporting the business matadata in iMarine.

Darwin Core (DwC)

Darwin Core matadata http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/ are supported by iMarine web infrastructure for handling information related to taxa, their occurrence in nature as documented by observations, specimens, samples, and related information. As per DwC definition ".. It is meant to provide a stable standard reference for sharing information on biological diversity. As a glossary of terms, the Darwin Core is meant to provide stable semantic definitions with the goal of being maximally reusable in a variety of contexts...".

Geographic information (ISO/TC211, OGC)

Three main types of geographic abstract metadata (approved or draft) ISO/TC 211 Standards, can be listed:

• ISO 19115:2003 - Dataset Metadata
• ISO 19119:2005 - Service metadata
• ISO 19110:2005 - Feature Cataloging

Abstract specifications

ISO 19115:2003 - Dataset Metadata

The ISO 19115:2003 standard is the metadata standard approved by OGC, and is composed by 2 parts:

• Part 1 (ISO 19115-1): base ISO metadata standard for the description of geographic information and services.
• Part 2 (ISO 19115-2): extension for imagery and gridded data & instrument-based data collection. These extensions also include improved descriptions of lineage and processing information.

The ISO 19115:2003 is structured by a set of metadata packages:

• Entity Set Information: main metadata package that contains information such as identifiers (file, parent), characterSet, language, hierarchical level, main contact (party in charge of the metadata), metadata standard name/version
• Identification Information: package that describes the resource described in the metadata. Part of this package is specialized for the data or service identification (ISO 19119).
• Constraints Information: package required for managing rights to information including restrictions applied to the resource access and/or use. Can apply to both Entity Set (metadata) and Identification (resource)
• Data Quality Information: package required to give information on the quality of the resource.
• Maintenance Information: package that describes the maintenance and update procedure applied to the resource. Can apply to both Entity Set (metadata) and Identification (resource)
• Spatial Representation Information: package that aims to describe the spatial representation of the geographic information, either for vector or grid-based representation
• Reference System Information: package that describes the spatial and temporal reference systems used in the described resource
• Content Information: package that aims to describe the content of resource either the feature catalogue de (for vector data) or coverage (for grid data). Related to the ISO 19110 standard specification.
• Portrayal catalogue information: information about the portrayal catalogue(s) used to display the resource
• Distribution Information: package required to access the resource. This package especially aims to distribute the resources by pointing to the OGC Web-Service resource.
• Metadata extension Information: package to handle extented metadata elements
• Application schema information: package defining the application schema used

ISO 19119:2005 - Service metadata

The describes the web-services such as the OGC Web-Services (OWS), usable in association with the ISO 19115 standard.

ISO 19110:2005 - Feature Cataloging

The ISO 19110 standard is aimed to address the description of feature types / coverage usable in association with the ISO 19115 standard.

Implementations

The ISO 19139 standard defines the XML schema implementation of the above abstract metadata standards.

Handling iMarine Business metadata with ISO/OGC metadata standards

• Considering the [Dublin Core® http://dublincore.org] vocabulary is seen as reference for supporting the business metadata in iMarine, it is important to address how the different internationally-recognized domain metadata standards are mapped the Dublic Core metadata vocabulary.
• For more information on the mapping Dublin Core / ISO 19115, see:
  • Joinup EU initiative
  • [Iftp://cenftp1.cenorm.be/PUBLIC/CWAs/e-Europe/MMI-DC/cwa14857-00-2003-Nov.pdf CEN/ISSS MMI-DC workshop report])

SDMX

• What SDMX can hold in terms of Metadata?
• Which fields of SDMX can be mapped to Business Metadata and how?

Handling iMarine Business Metadata through selected iMarine Metadata standards

The EA-CoP Data Access and Sharing Policies document contains a proposal for associating all shared datasets in iMarine with a descriptive and standard set of metadata, the business metadata (i.e. ownership and context, authorship, copyright licenses, content description and main features).

• Which should be the most appropriate format?
• Which standards can iMarine support?