Evaluating data using metadata

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 1
Metadata: information about data
 Needed to determine if a data set is suitable for a specific task:
 Purpose?  Geographic area?
 Where did it originate?  Attributes?
 How created?  How do I obtain the data?
 Scale?  Cost?
 Map projection?  Contact information?.

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 2
Metadata
 Like nutrition label on food: But is it art?
 What’s in it?
 Is it good for me?

 Helps you make informed decision about data.

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 3
ArcCatalog: Contents

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 4
 Preview

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 Description

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 Editing metadata

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 Metadata styles

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 8
 302 pages! FGDC

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Metadata in ArcMap

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 Viewed in ArcMap

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Data dictionary

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 12
What does it all mean?

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 13
Data dictionary
 Detailed description of the data contents of a 
database, with particular attention paid to 
explanations of categories

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 14
 Data dictionary

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 15
 Data dictionary

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 16
 Data dictionary

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 17
 Data dictionary

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 18
Estimated speed limits

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 19
Importance of metadata

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 20
Why bother with metadata?
 Data producers:
 Staff turnover: undocumented data lose their value 
 New staff can't trust data
 Increase efficiency 
 Enables data discovery  more use  more value

 Data users:
 Avoid duplication of effort
 Often 80% of GIS implementation cost is related to data 
acquisition and preprocessing.

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 21
Boring, yet very useful
 When you’re looking for data, metadata 
suddenly becomes very interesting!

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 22
Clipping a feature class

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 23
Clip
 Cut out part of one theme using 
another theme as a "cookie 
cutter"

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 24
 c
Æ Library
Low income

Isolate libraries in low income areas

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 25
 c
Æ Library in low income area
Low income

Clipped version of libraries

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 Park
Park in low income area
Low incomeLow income

Clipping polygons

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 27
Merging feature classes

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 28
 Map sheet 1

Map sheet 2

Merge adjacent map sheets

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 29
 Merge

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 One new 
feature class

Merge Completed

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 Map sheet 1

Merged

Map sheet 2

Common attributes are carried over

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 32
Why are lines still there?

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 33
Dissolve based on common attribute

© Donald Boyes, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto 34
 Dissolve

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