19115

ISO 19115 Geographic Information — Metadata is an international standard published by ISO/TC 211 that provides a schema for describing geographic data resources to support discovery, evaluation, and use. The metadata identifies the data's origin, purpose, spatial and temporal extent, quality, lineage, reference system, access rights, and distribution terms.

The standard is structured into core and extension modules. ISO 19115-1 covers fundamentals, while ISO 19115-2 adds extensions for imagery and gridded data. Metadata can be encoded in XML using ISO 19139, which defines schemas that implement ISO 19115 elements, facilitating integration with data catalogs and service registries.

Usage and impact: ISO 19115 is widely adopted by national and regional mapping agencies, research institutions, and data providers to document datasets and enable search, interoperability, and long-term reuse of geographic information. The standard supports cataloging initiatives, data sharing, and governance by providing a consistent set of metadata elements and relationships across diverse data types and systems.