Australia 2001

2001 National Report for Australia

 

 

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES RELATING TO SPATIAL METADATA STANDARDS AND OTHER RELATED SPATIAL DATA STANARDS

 

Australia

Craig Macauley

Australian Member,

 ICA Commission on Standards for the Transfer of Spatial Data and Convenor

ANZLIC Metadata Working Group

Friday July 13, 2001

 

For distribution at the 2001 Meeting of

the ICA Commission on Standards for the Transfer of Spatial Data

  1. METADATA

  • ANZLIC is the peak council for public sector spatial data management in Australia and New Zealand.  The ANZLIC Metadata Working Group (AMWG) reports to ANZLIC’s Spatial Data Infrastructure Standing Committee.
  • In February 2001, AMWG completed a review of ANZLIC’s Metadata Guidelines.  The objectives of the review were to:

q       correct inconsistencies and deficiencies in the ANZLIC core elements;

q       describe elements that have been subsequently defined but not included in the Guidelines;

q       harmonise the Document Type Definition (DTD) with the metadata elements defined in the Guidelines;

q       describe the current working environment of ANZLIC, the Metadata Working Group and implementation of Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI), including the Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD) and the Metadata Entry Tool (MET);

q       describe the current environment for the transfer of ANZLIC core metadata elements; and

q       provide the foundation for the development of the ANZLIC profile of ISO 19115.

  • Version 2 of the Guidelines is published at:

 http://www.anzlic.org.au/asdi/metaelem.htm

  • In May 2001, AMWG formulated a plan to develop and implement the ANZLIC Profile of ISO 19115.  Work has commenced on this project, the initial task being to finalise the mapping between ANZLIC elements and equivalent ISO elements.
  • ANZLIC’s metadata elements are used in the Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD).  ANZLIC is currently reviewing the content and use of the Directory, with the aim of improving the service to clients.

(See the ASDD at http://www.environment.gov.au/net/asdd/ )

 

  1. OTHER RELATED SPATIAL DATA STANDARDS

  • ANZLIC’s SDI Standing Committee is forming a new Spatial Data Infrastructure Technical Working Group to develop an implementation plan for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) Distribution Network.  Standards from the ISO 19100 series and specifications from the Open GIS Consortium (OGC) will be used in this work.
  • The Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) has released a draft standard for street addressing which will incorporate geocoding and complex addressing.  This will supersede existing street address standards. (see http://www.anzlic.org.au/icsm/street/)
  • ICSM have also developed a harmonised model for Street Addressing, Place Names, Cadastre and Topography using standards from the ISO 19100 series.  In addition, a  Cadastral Feature Catalogue is being developed using the methodology defined in ISO 19110.

  • The following areas of standards development are of particular interest to the spatial information community in Australia:

q       The emergence of XSD (Extensible Schema Design) to complement XML Document Type Definitions (DTD’s);

q       The development of the Geography Markup Language (GML) by OGC.

  • Australia is hosting the thirteenth Plenary meeting of ISO/TC 211 in Adelaide (October 25-26, 2001).  In conjunction with the meeting, a workshop entitled “Standards in Action” will be held on October 24.  Meetings of Editing Committees and Working Groups will be held on October 22-23.

© Copyright, ICA Standards Commission, 2001