Data Identification ★★★★
When capturing information on a spatial resource, it is important to identify and categorise information as pertaining to the data resource and to distinguish these information from that which applies to the metadata itself or service resources. MD_DataIdentification extends the abstract class MD_Identification to document a spatial data resource.
| Element Name | MD_DataIdentification |
| Parent | MD_Metadata.identificationInfo |
| Class/Type | class-MD_DataIdentification |
| Governance | Common ICSM |
| Purpose | Discovery, Use |
| Audience | machine resource - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ |
| general - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ | |
| resource manager - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ | |
| specialist - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ | |
| Metadata type | structural |
| ICSM Level of Agreement | ⭑ ⭑ |
Definition -
basic information required to uniquely identify and understand a data resource.
ISO Requirements
At least one [1..*] MD_Identification must be present in a metadata record. This must be instantiated as a MD_DataIdentification for metadata about data rsources.
ISO Associations
MD_Identification is an abstract class that is parent to
- MD_DataIdentification
It is a child of
- MD_Metadata.identificationInfo
Discussion
Identification information about a resource is of high importance to document as this information strongly impacts on the ability of a user to asses the resource fitness to use. MD_DataIdentification instantiates the abstract class MD_Identification for use with data resources.
Best Practice Recommendations
Therefore - to clearly understand what resource a metadata record is describing, there should be one and only one [1..1] MD_Identification package in a metadata record. For dataset metadata, this must be expressed as an MD_DataIdentification instance. The Data Indentifaction package contains several sub-packages and sub-elements. To ease the common use of such metadata, it is important that the use of these sub-packages and sub-elements be standardised.
Recommended Sub-Elements
The following provides additional guidance to MD_Identification element recommendations.
- Citation - (class - CI_Citation [1..1] - Citation for the data resource, includes name, publication date, identifiers, originators and publishers.
- abstract - (type - charStr) [1..1] - A brief narrative summary of the cited data resource.
- purpose - (type - charStr)) [0..1] - A brief summary of the intentions with which the data resource was develope
- status - (codelist - MD_ProgressCode) [0..1] - The status of the data resource populated from a domain of values
- topicCategory - (enumeration - MD_TopicCategoryCode) [0..*] - The main themes of the data resource populated from a fixed domain of values
- pointOfContact - (class - CI_Responsibility) [0..1] - The name and contact information for the organisation, role and/or individual that serves as the point of contact for the cited data resource.
- spatialRepresentationType - (codelist - MD_SpatialRepresentationTypeCode) [0..*] - The method used by the data resource to spatially represent geographic information.
- spatialResolution - (class - MD_Resolution) [0..*] - The nominal scale and/or spatial resolution at which the information is designed to be used.
- graphicOverview - (class - MD_BrowseGraphic) [0..*] - A graphic that provides an lightweight illustration pertaining a data resource
- additionalDocumentation - (class - CI_Citation) [0..*] - Citation of other documentation associated with the data resource, e.g. related articles, publications, user guides, data dictionaries.
- associatedResource - (class - MD AssociatedResource) [0..*] - Used to indicate association between resources and records related to the data resources
- referenceSystemInfo - (class - MD_ReferenceSystem)
- resourceConstraints - ( abstract class MD_Constraints) [0..*] see
- Resource Security Constraints
- Resource Legal Constraints
- Resource Other Constraints
In addition to all the attributes of MD_Identification, the additional recommended elements apply -
- Locale - (class - PT_Locale) [0..1]
- distributionInfo - (class - MD_Distribution) [0..*]
Additional optional attributes
- otherLocale - (class - PT_Locale) [0..*]
- environmentDescription - (type - charStr) [0..1] description of the resource in the producer’s processing environment, including items such as the software, the computer operating system, file name, and the dataset size
- supplementalInformation - (type - charStr)[0..1] any other descriptive information about the resource
Related Classes
- MD_Identification the abstract parent class to
MD_DataIdentification- See guidances for the composite elements. - SV_ServiceIdentification a sibling class and implementation of MD_Identification used for metadata for services as apposed to data resources.
\pagebreak
UML diagrams
Recommended elements highlighted in yellow
\pagebreak