North American Profile for Geospatial Metadata

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North American Profile for Geospatial Metadata

• C. Douglas O'Brien
• Chair CGSB-COG
• IDON Technologies Inc., Ottawa
• Jean Brodeur
• Natural Resources Canada,
• Centre for Topographic Information, Sherbrooke
• David Danko
• ESRI, Washington, DC

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Metadata is the Basis

• The ISO 191152003 geographic information -
  metadata standard is the foundation upon which
  most geospatial services are based.
• A complementary standard 19115-2 is under
  development to address Imagery and Gridded Data
  metadata.
• However, these standards mandate only a few (8)
  metadata elements and provide a list of elements
  to be selected to address particular uses.

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Implementation by Profile

• The 19115 metadata standard is implemented by
  profiling.
• Profiles are needed
• first at the regional level to localize it to
  regional and national needs and
• second at the application level to address
  particular application requirements.
• A North American Profile is required address
  common North American requirements such as
  cultural and linguistic adaptability and the
  extension of code lists.

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North American Requirements

• Canada and the US need common metadata standards
  so that their spatial data infrastructures will
  interwork.
• There is a need to support English, French and
  Spanish as well as native languages
• Code lists may be extended to include additional
  standardized elements
• Free text character string fields may have
  standardized content defined in code lists
• Optional fields may be made mandatory or
  conditional

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What is a profile?

• ISO 19106 Profiles
• ...set of one or more base standards or sub-sets
  of base standardsthat are necessary for
  accomplishing a particular function.
• Two levels of Conformance
• Level 1 - subset
• Level 2 - extension with allowed context
• An implementation of the base standard is a valid
  (but maybe limited) implementation of the profile
• Levels of Profiles
• Internationally Registered (ISP)
• Nationally/Regionally Registered
• Published Profiles
• Formally within Community
• Informally within Organization

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Community Profile

• A standard tailored for a Community

• Standard
• Broad/complex
• Generic
• Optional
• Undefined domains

• Profile
• Narrow focus/often simpler
• Specific
• Mandatory
• Explicit Domains codelists
• Easier implementation

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Regional, national, organizational profiles
Communities with a common need for metadata
ISO191152003 Geographic Information - Metadata
State Profile
Navigation Profile
ANZLIC Profile
European Profile
North American Profile
NATO Profile
EO Profile
Perfil Latinoamericano de Metadata
Profiles Enable Interoperability Between
Communities
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Current Situation

• Directory Information Describing Digital
  Geo-referenced Data Sets, Canadian General
  Standards Board, July 1994, Ottawa.
• Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata,
  Federal Geographic Data Committee, June 8, 1994,
  Washington DC.

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The Goal
CAN/CGSB 171.3-95
North American Profile Geospatial Metadata Based
on ISO 19115/19139
USA CSDGM
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Approach
Co-located Meetings Parallel Development
North American Profile of ISO 19115 Metadata
North American Profile of ISO 19115 Metadata
MOU between Canada and the USA
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Participants

• Canada
• Natural Resources Canada
• Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
• CGSB-CoG
• members

• USA
• Federal Geographic Data Committee
• NPS, USGS (BRD, Geography, Geology), NJ, BLM,
  Nature Serve, NOAA
• INCITS-L1
• members

NAP Metadata Working Group
Potential Mexican involvement
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Meetings Schedule

• Sherbrooke, QC Sept 2005
• Columbus, OH Dec 2005
• Vienna, VA March 2006
• Denver, CO Sept 2006
• Initial draft document Sept 2006
• Submit to standards bodies Dec 2006?

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Approach

• Requirements analysis
• Past experience with metadata standards
  implementation
• Crosswalk table development (FGDC-ISO 19115)
• Modified UML
• Promote options to obligations
• Extended codelists
• Added codelists

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Crosswalk
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Profiling

• Selection of items from ISO191152003
• Promotion of optional fields to mandatory
• Extension of code lists
• Addition of values to existing code lists
• Addition of code lists
• Introduction of a multilingual register
• Compliant to ISO191352005 on registers
• English and/et Français (and potentially Spanish)
• Metadata items
• Code lists
• Register will be accessible on the Web
• XML document
• Web Services
• Web Browser

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Outline of Profile

• Title NAP Metadata
• 1. Preface (Introduction)
• 1.1. About Metadata
• 1.2. Using Metadata
• 2. Scope
• 3. Normative References
• 4. Terms and Definitions
• 5. Symbols and Abbreviated Terms
• 6. Metadata Content
• 6.1. Best Practices
• 7. Cultural and Linguistic Adaptability
• 8. Code Lists
• 9. Registry
• 10. Annexes
• 10.1. Differences/UML (normative)
• 10.2. Examples (informative)
• 10.3. Mapping from FGDC to NAP - Metadata (XSLT)
  (informative)

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Changing Obligations
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Cultural and linguistic Adaptability

• Register
• CharacterString

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Code Lists
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Register

• North American Profile of ISO191152003
  Metadata (NAP Metadata) challenges
• Modification of code lists and coded values as
  needed without affecting the standard
• Cultural and linguistic adaptability
• Documentation in multiple languages
• Query in different languages
• ISO191352005 compliant register a solution to
  the these challenges

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Register Conceptual Model (from ISO191352005)
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Register Item
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Alternative Expression and Locale
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NAP - Metadata Register

• System of
• Information about the register
• Information describing metadata items of interest
  for the profile
• Information describing code lists and values
• Composed of
• NAP Metadata Register Management Application
• NAP Metadata Register XML Document
• NAP Metadata Register Web Services

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NAP Metadata Register Management Application

• Based on
• Open source ontology editor
• Developed in Java (multiple platforms)
• Number of plug-ins available
• http//protege.stanford.edu/index.html
• Allows the management of the register efficiently
• Structure
• Content
• Format
• XML, RDF, OWL,

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NAP Metadata Register XML Encoding

• The NAP Metadata Registry is an XML Document
• Requires the development of a Register XML Schema
• Compliant with ISO19135, ISO19118
• Refers to ISO19139
• Namespace grg standing for geospatial registry
• Requires an XSL Transformation (XSLT) of the
  Protégé Management Application to the Register
  XML Schema

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NAP Metadata Register Web Services

• getCapabilities Provides in XML the capabilities
  of the register services
• getRegisterProperties Returns in XML the
  properties of the register
• getItemClass Returns in XML information of a
  class or a set of classes of the register
• By className
• getItemURI Returns in XML URIs of an item
• By ID
• getRegisterItem Returns in XML item(s) of the
  register
• By ID
• By className alternativeLanguage
• By itemName itemLanguage
• By itemStatus

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Conclusion

• Introduction of the North America Profile of
  ISO191152003 Metadata
• NAP - Metadata Register
• Compliant with ISO19135
• Provides information about the registry, metadata
  items of the profile and code lists and values
• Includes a Management Application, an XML
  Document, and Web Services
• Provides content and semantics of metadata items,
  code lists, and values of the profile
• Provides multilingual support to users of
  metadata
• XML Register Encoding and Registry Web Services
  would be good international standard candidates
  (acknowledge the contribution of Tarek Sboui, PhD
  student at Université Laval and Jean Brodeur
  NRCan)
• Web Browser is also currently in development

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Additional Information

• Participation in standardization process
• C.D. O'Brien - IDON Technologies
• Canadian NAP Project Leader
• Jean Brodeur - NRCan
• US NAP Project Leader
• Dave Danko - ESRI