Colorado Plateau Metadata Resources

Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata

The Standard

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) developed and ratified the recent (version 2) Metadata Standards or the Content Standard for Digitial Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) in 1998. This basic standard can be applied to all areas of geospatial data, but also allowed for modification by individual disciplines. Some user communities found that the CSDGM standard did not supply enough information for their discipline and developed profiles or extensions to the standard to meet their needs. These profiles and extensions were submitted to the FGDC for reveiw and were ratified.

CSDGM: What is it?

The FGDC has created a content standard for digital geospatial metadata. This standard was established in collaboration with state, federal, academic and tribal agencies. It attempts to encompass all of the important pieces of information describing data. The idea is that data delivered with metadata meeting this FGDC content standard will be what I call a 'stand alone' deliverable. All the information required for data interpretation, analysis, QA/QC, etc. is available to the end user.

The full content standard is available in several formats. The first and most common format is the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata Workbook, or 'the green book'. This lays out each metadata element, its allowable values, if fields are required or otherwise, etc. Since the inception of this standard, many people have developed different formats of this information. These various formats are available on the Metadata Tools with download or URL options for more information where possible.

Graphical representation of The Federal Geographic Data Commitee's Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
(Prepared by Susan Stitt, Center for Biological Informatics, USGS, In conjunction with the FGDC)
-The CDDGM Workbook as a color coded graphic for quick reference.

Graphical summary of Federal Geographic Data Committee's Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata V. 2.0
(Prepared by Ray Tucker, Tennessee Dept. of Transportation)
-The CSDGM Workbook as a color coded graphic (Adobe Acrobat PDF file) with hotlinks for a quick reference and search.

The standard is organized in series of elements that define the information content for metadata to document a set of digital geospatial data and is organized using numbered chapters called "sections".
Each Section begins with the name and definition of the section. These are followed by the component elements of the section. Each section provides the name and definitions of the component elements, information about the types of values that can be provided for the elements, and information about the elements that are mandatory or repeatable.

Extending the CSDGM

Expanding beyond the FGDC's CSDGM Standard are profiles and extensions. These have been developed by and to meet specific user communities' needs and are ratified by the FGDC.

Profile: document that describes the application of the Standard to a specific community.

Extension: extended elements to the standard are elements outside the standard but needed by the data
set producer.

Examples:

-Biological Data Profile
-Shoreline Data Profile
-Remote Sensing Extensions

| Contact Us | ©2004 MPCER