This document outlines Delaware's metadata standard for geospatial data. It discusses how metadata provides important contextual information about geospatial data like who created it, when, and for what purpose. Delaware law requires metadata be published for any geospatial data created by state, county, or local agencies that receive state funds. The standard was developed by Delaware's Geographic Data Committee and includes required fields like title, abstract, contact information, and spatial/temporal references as well as recommended optional fields. Following the standard helps fulfill legal requirements and allows data to be more easily discovered, understood and shared.

1. M I K E M A H A F F I E
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M I K E . M A H A F F I E @ S T A T E . D E . U S
S T A T E P L A N N I N G . D E L A W A R E . G O V / D G D C
The Delaware Metadata
Standard

2. Go Back to the Very Beginning of GIS

3.  What did you need then?
 Data
 What do you need now?
 Data

4. But…
 You need to know what
you are looking at…
 …who created it…
 ...when…
 … how…
 …why?
 You need…

5. Metadata
 Data about data
 The details behind the fancy maps and analysis
 “What does “1” mean in the field “IS_OPEN”?
 And it is required in state law

6. 29 Delaware Code, Ch. 91
§ 9144. Publication of geospatial data and information in Delaware.
All geospatial data and information created by or for any state, county or local agency, or by
or for any other organizations receiving state funds in whole or in part for the development
of such data, shall be subject to the following conditions:
(1) All geospatial data and information shall be considered to be in the public domain…
(2) Metadata for all geospatial data and information shall be published on … any
clearinghouse system that may be approved the by the Executive Council of the Delaware
Geographic Data Committee …
a. All metadata shall meet at least the minimum metadata specifications
approved by the Executive Council of the Delaware Geographic Data Committee.
b. Metadata shall be published for data projects at all stages of development including
planning for data acquisition, data collection and creation, publication as draft and
final publication.
c. Restrictions placed on geospatial data and information pursuant to paragraph (1) of
this section shall not apply to metadata for those data sets.
(3) Agencies or entities responsible for the creation of any geospatial data and information
in or representing Delaware shall make all efforts to provide full and practical access to
such geospatial data and information.

7. The Metadata Standard
 Developed by the DGDC standards subcommittee
 A necessary subset of the full-on, mega-scary,
federally official FGDC metadata
 The full monty is fine, if you are responsible enough
to go for it.
 But there are a set of data fields that we really need…

8. Required -- ID
 Title (what)
 Abstract and purpose (why)
 Access and use constraints
 Contact information and agency (who)
 Publication date and time period (when)
 Progress/updates
 Bounding coordinates (where)
 Theme and place keywords (for search-ability)
 Security classification

9. Theme -- ISO 19115 Topics
• farming
• biota
• boundaries
• climatologyMeteorology
• atmosphere
• economy
• elevation
• environment
• geoscientificInformation
• health
• imageryBaseMapsEarthCo
ver
• intelligenceMilitary
• inlandWaters
• location
• oceans
• planningCadastre
• society
• structure
• transportation
• utilitiesCommunication
bit.ly/iso_cat

10. Places – Delaware Place Thesaurus
 A list of populated places and locales
 Based on GNIS
 You can’t go too far wrong with
 Delaware
 Kent County
 New Castle County
 Sussex County
 But feel free to use
 Little Bacon Island
 Scrap Tavern Crossroads
bit.ly/de_places

11. Required – Other Info
 Spatial reference (projection)
 Distribution type and contact
 “Downloadable data”
 Metadata information (Data about data about data)
 Who created the metadata
 When

12. Optional (but Important) Items
 Security classification system
 Data quality and process steps
 Vertical coordinate system
 Attribute Domain Values
 What does this mean?

13. Metadata is Required
 The new Data Exchange being developed at DTI will
require valid metadata for data uploads
 Validated against our own standard

16. Do This, and…
 …no one gets hurt
 …we can all get back to work

17. M I K E M A H A F F I E
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M I K E . M A H A F F I E @ S T A T E . D E . U S
S T A T E P L A N N I N G . D E L A W A R E . G O V / D G D C
G r a p h i c s g l e e f u l l y s t o l e n f r o m a 1 9 8 2 A r c I N F O b r o c h u r e
p o s t e d o n “ G I S a n d S c i e n c e ”
( b i t . l y / 8 2 _ a r c i n f o )
The Delaware Metadata
Standard