Using metadata to link uncertainty and data quality assessments

Abstract

In this paper we argue that the links between data quality reporting, metadata and subsequent assessments of data uncertainty need to be stronger. This builds on the ideas developed by Fisher (2003) who commented that data quality and uncertainty were like ships that pass in the night. Current data quality reporting is inadequate because it does not provide full descriptions of data uncertainty and allow assessments of data fitness (Comber et al. 2005a; Comber et al. 2005b). As Fisher (2003) noted "data quality as it has developed in the writing of data standards, and uncertainty as it has been researched in recent years, have followed two completely different tracks". The ideas presented in this paper are an attempt to set a research agenda to provide some glue to join together three related but distinct areas of scientific endeavor in spatial and geographical information sciences: uncertainty analysis, data quality / fitness for use assessments and metadata reporting. © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.