ISO

FGDC

Identification contains unique information about the dataset.  It includes details like citation information for the resource, an abstract, the purpose, the status, keywords, and points of contact.  The identification package is mandatory.

Identification describes what the dataset is used for in the description.  It can also include other information like creation date of the data, status meaning progress and maintenance.  The spatial domain describes the area of coverage and bounding coordinates of the dataset.  Keywords are an important section under identification because theses words help identify the datasets when searched.  There are categories of key words; theme, place, stratum, and temporal.  Another important data element is access and use constraints, it explains what the restrictions of accessing and using the data are.  These elements must be provided under the identification when creating metadata

Constraints entail any restrictions the dataset might possess whether it may be access or use restrictions.  This section is optional.

Data Quality Information contains a general assessment of the quality of the dataset.  It consists of the “famous five” which represents the quality of the data.  This package also contains information about the sources and production processes used in producing a dataset.  This package is conditional, therefore must be completed if data is available.

Data Quality is the general assessment of the quality of the dataset.  This category includes, attribute accuracy, logical consistency report, completeness report, positional accuracy, vertical positional accuracy, and lineage.  This category assesses the accuracy of the various entities in the dataset as well as their assigned values.  Some of these elements need a longer explanation to describe their accuracy. 

Maintenance information contains information about the scope and frequency of updating data, which is an optional element.

Spatial Representation includes details on the spatial features used to present the dataset.  This section is optional.

Spatial Data Organization represents spatial information of the dataset.  This section describes the system of geographical features, objects, and schemes in the dataset.  More specifically, it identifies what type of object is being used to represent the dataset; i.e. vector or raster.  This section is important for raster-based datasets because it describes it in much more detail. 

Reference System includes information on the map projection, coordinate system and temporal reference system.

Spatial References information is the description about the geo-referencing; coordinate system and map projection the dataset is being represented.  It is important that the users know information like projection and coordinate systems being used.  For example if they have existing datasets they want to overlap with, it would have to be using the same projection and coordinate system.  Other information like the spheroid and datum will also be included in this section. 

Content Information contains information identifying the feature catalogue used

Entity and Attribute describes the content of the data set, the entity types, their attributes, and the domains from which attribute values may be assigned

Distribution Information contains information about the distributor of, and options for obtaining, a resource.  This package is also optional but includes mandatory and optional elements within the section.

Distribution Information entails the information about the distributor and facts about obtaining the dataset.  It mentions the various options of how to obtain the datasets, whom to contact for the datasets, and persons responsible for the dataset.

Metadata Extension Information is optional but it includes details about user specified extensions.

Metadata Reference information is very detailed information about the metadata.  It contains facts about the metadata creator; when it was created/published, what standard was used to create the metadata, version of the standard, constraints, review dates, and metadata extension.

Application Schema Information contains information about the application schema used to build a dataset.  The entity contains mandatory and optional elements