ISO 19157-1:2023

Overview

ISO 19157-1:2023 - Geographic information - Data quality - Part 1: General requirements - establishes a structured, internationally agreed framework for describing, evaluating and reporting the quality of geographic data. It defines a system of data quality components, the content structure for data quality measures, procedures for evaluation and principles for reporting quality information. The standard is intended for data producers and data users who need to assess how well a dataset conforms to its product specification.

Key technical topics and requirements

• Data quality model: A component-based system (elements, descriptors, units) for describing quality aspects such as completeness, logical consistency, positional accuracy, temporal quality and thematic quality.
• Extensibility: Procedures and rules for defining additional, domain‑specific components and user‑defined quality measures.
• Data quality measures: Specification of measure content structure (identifier, name, parameters, value type/structure, examples) and separation of standardized vs user‑defined measures.
• Evaluation methods and process: General process flow for evaluating data quality, classifications of evaluation methods (direct and indirect), sampling and aggregation principles.
• Reporting principles: How to report raw, aggregated and derived quality results and reference original results while preserving hierarchical relationships.
• Conformance and XML encoding: Conformance requirements for a data quality model and requirements for XML schema implementation and encoding.
• Supporting material: Normative and informative annexes (abstract test suite, data dictionary, sampling methods, aggregation guidance, XML encoding, and backward compatibility information).

Note: ISO 19157-1:2023 does not set minimum acceptable quality levels - those are defined in product specifications (e.g., ISO 19131).

Practical applications and users

• Data producers and custodians creating quality metadata to support data discovery and reuse.
• GIS managers and analysts selecting datasets for projects who must determine fitness for purpose.
• Quality assurance teams implementing systematic evaluation, sampling and reporting processes.
• Software vendors and implementers building tools for automated data quality assessment and XML metadata exchange.
• Standards developers and policymakers harmonizing data product specifications and conformance testing.

Related standards

• ISO 19157 series (this document and Part 3) - consolidated data quality guidance.
• ISO 19131 - Data product specifications (used to define target quality requirements).
• ISO/TC 211 suite - broader geographic information/geomatics standards referenced for interoperability.

Keywords: ISO 19157-1, data quality, geographic information, GIS metadata, quality measures, positional accuracy, completeness, logical consistency, data quality reporting, XML encoding.