Overview
EN ISO 19115-1:2014/A1:2018 is Amendment 1 to the international standard ISO 19115-1:2014, adopted by CEN (European Committee for Standardization). It updates the fundamentals of geographic information metadata (metadata schema, class structure and references) and was approved for national adoption by CEN members in 2018. The amendment preserves the original standard text while making targeted revisions to normative references, UML figures and key tables that define metadata components for geospatial data.
Key Topics
- Scope: Fundamentals of geographic metadata (data discovery, identification, content and spatial/range representation).
- Updated normative references: e.g. ISO 19115-2:2018 added; replaced older references with ISO 19103:2015, ISO 19109:2015, ISO 19110:2016, ISO 19119:2016 and ISO 4217:2015.
- Metadata classes and structures: Revisions and clarifications to classes such as:
- MD_SpatialRepresentation, MD_GridSpatialRepresentation, MD_Georectified and MD_Georeferenceable (grid and vector spatial representation details).
- MD_RangeDimension, MD_SampleDimension, MD_Band (range/band and sample dimension attributes for coverage data).
- Citation and responsible party structures (figures and UML models updated).
- Figures and tables replaced: Several UML diagrams and tabular definitions (e.g. Figure 11, Figure 13, Figure 20, Table B.7, Table B.9.2) were updated to reflect clarified data elements and relationships.
- Clarifications to attribute definitions: numeric ranges, units (UnitsOfMeasure), geometry descriptors (GM_Point), and boolean/flag fields for availability and georeferencing.
Applications and Who Uses It
EN ISO 19115-1:2014/A1:2018 is essential for:
- GIS professionals, geospatial data managers and catalog administrators implementing consistent metadata for discovery, access and reuse.
- National mapping agencies, environmental agencies and data portals standardizing dataset descriptions (coverages, grids, vector data).
- Developers of metadata catalogues and interoperability services who map metadata schemas to ISO classes and implement harvestable metadata records (CSW, APIs).
- Data stewards and quality managers who document spatial representation, band information, sampling dimensions and provenance.
Practical uses include improving dataset discoverability, enabling automated ingestion into geospatial catalogs, supporting data interoperability and ensuring metadata complies with European/national implementations.
Related Standards
This amendment refines the ISO 19115-1 metadata fundamentals, making it current with later ISO/TC 211 publications and improving clarity for implementation in geospatial metadata catalogues and data management workflows.
