1 Approaches for providing user relevant metadata and data quality assessments A.J. Comber 1 , P.F. Fisher 2 , R.A. Wadsworth 3 , 1 Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. E-mail: ajc36@le.ac.uk 2 Department of Information Science, City University, London, UK e-mail: pff1@city.ac.uk 3 CEH Monks Wood, Abbots Ripton, Cambridgeshire, UK E-mail: rawad@ceh.ac.uk 1. Data discordance Spatial data, especially natural resource inventories, vary for a variety of reasons that are not to do with differences in the feature being measured. Often these differences in data well known amongst geographers: the real world is infinitely complex and all representations (such as are contained in a map) involve the processes of abstraction, aggregation, simplification etc. In the creation of any spatial data there are series of choices about what to map and how to map it. These choices over representation will depend on: - The commissioning context specifically legislation and policy (often related to who “paid” for it?); - Observer variation such as the classic geography field trip (what do you see?); - Institutional variation in classes and definitions (why do you see it?); - Representational variation over map scale, minimum unit, (how do you record it?). A second set of factors that contribute to data discord and variation originate in the demand for ‘better’ science. New technologies, improved techniques and changes in the understanding of the phenomenon offer greater insight into the process under investigation. Such changes in representation and understanding have a profound effect on the end data product and the meaning of the data in its widest sense. They change the data collection context in terms of data ontologies (specifications), data epistemologies (measurement) and data semantics (conceptualisations). 2. Metadata Prior to its inclusion under the wider umbrella of information sciences, the GI community developed metadata standards for reporting data quality. Metadata for spatial data focussed on the need to document information about data for data quality assessments. The FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata places an emphasis on