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Unit 1.4 Research

Decent Essays

1.4 Research Issues and Challenges Spatial data is a costly resource to generate and maintain, spatial data consumers have been unable to accurately and conveniently link with other spatial data users to share and discover useful and relevant data. There is problem of insufficient and inappropriate metadata available for the clearinghouse, metadata problems impact on effective spatial data use. The following are examples of issues associated with spatial metadata: • Metadata records are absent or incomplete for some datasets. In such cases, if the contents or structure of the acquired data is difficult to understand, the user could be limited in effective use of the data. For instance, the metadata may contain missing elements such as: spatial reference information, scale, data currency and data originator contact details. If such relevant information like spatial reference is missing, this could delay or prevent further application of the data [27]. …show more content…

Metadata should be as current as the data. In other words, when data is created or edited, its metadata should .immediately be created or updated to reflect data changes. However, creating and updating metadata requires a substantial quantity of work and time. For this reason, data holdings are largely left unchecked for their appropriate age and structure to verify which data should be maintained, updated or deleted. Therefore, institutional spatial data memory could be lost through inappropriate storage of metadata records. Furthermore, outdated metadata could misinform and confuse users about the data

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