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'- '- '- '- '- '- '- 'Fig. 3.19. UML package-diagram from ISO 19115 (Metadata) (IS047 2003)
Concept of metadata
In the past, metadata was supplied as additional but separate pieces of information
to a dataset. However, the concept ofthe ISO 19115 currently considers metadata as
an integral part of the data that travels with data when copied, moved, renamed, or
exported, and never gets lost. Metadata is implemented using standard technology
like XML and large GIS manufacturers have started making the ISO 19115 metadata
part oftheir system software (Danko 2002).
Hierarchy of metadata
Metadata standards existed before the work on ISO 19115 started as the development of the ISO 19115 intended to make it a superset of the existing metadata standards in the field of geographie information. A basic approach to metadata is the
Dublin core (see below) but the most comprehensive existing source is the FGDC