Introduction

Introduction

Metadata is essential for dealing with geospatial data. On printed maps the user can find information about the content, its product specification, the currency of the data sources, the producer, the distributor, scale and other relevant data important for the usage of the map. For digital geospatial data this metadata has to be provided in addition to the actual data. Digital metadata needs to be structured, i.e. metadata elements, their value types, obligations and multiplicities of occurrences have to be defined.

While metadata has been used in the past to facilitate the interchange of geospatial data, it becomes a core component of the emerging civilian and military spatial data infrastructures. Interoperability of the different components of a spatial data infrastructure implies:

·         A standard metadata structure;

·         Standard interchange mechanisms;

·         Well defined vocabularies.

Each spatial data infrastructure remains specific in terms of users, requirements, practices, cultures, and policies. If the adoption of standards is a challenge from this perspective, it becomes a necessity when there are requirements to interface different spatial data infrastructures.

The military community is widely adopting the civilian metadata standards (ISO 19115, ISO/TS 19139, etc.) and there is a growing requirement to develop a general metadata profile for the military community harmonising the existing practices and addressing emerging requirements. The development of this general metadata profile is conducted by the Defence Geospatial Information Working Group (DGIWG).

This document defines a set of metadata elements, which form the DGIWG Metadata Foundation (DMF). This version address a number of new metadata requirements stemming from:

·         NATO Command Structure[1]

·         Defence community via a survey. This includes metadata for services.

·         Imagery and gridded metadata requirements to support the DGIWG’s Elevation Surface Model (ESM) profile and GeoTiFF profile.

·         Review of existing profiles of the ISO Geographic Information Metadata profiles, including the MGCP Metadata Specification.

[1] STANAG 2586, Edition 1, and its standard, AGeoP-08, is a profile of the DMF Ed. 1.