Automating geospatial metadata generation—An integrated data management and documentation approach

Geospatial metadata have long played an important role in the management of geospatial datasets. Often employed by institutions to organise, maintain and document their geographic resources internally, metadata may also provide a vehicle for exposing marketable data assets externally when contributed to on-line geospatial exchange initiatives. In spite of the numerous benefits it affords, obstacles to the production of such geospatial surrogates are numerous. The current work proposes an approach aimed at reducing the effort associated with geospatial metadata generation through the customisation of a proprietary Geographical Information System (GIS). By coupling data preparation, management and documentation approaches with such a bespoke application, it is intended to mitigate impediments to geospatial metadata generation whilst promoting a system of data administration that safeguards the data it supports. The current prototype, implementing an extended Dublin Core geospatial profile of 23 elements, was capable of generating a total of 20 basic metadata entries. While the findings do not suggest a dispensability of human mediation in the authoring process, they do support the view that a dataset's ambient computing infrastructure has the potential to play a significant role in automating the creation of geospatial metadata.