Overview
ISO 19157:2013 - Geographic information - Data quality defines principles and structured methods for describing, evaluating and reporting the quality of geographic data (geospatial data). The standard specifies components for describing data quality, the content structure of a register (catalog) of data quality measures, general procedures for evaluating data quality, and principles for reporting quality information. It is intended for both data producers and data users and standardizes how data quality results are expressed so that datasets can be compared and selected for particular applications. Notably, ISO 19157:2013 does not set minimum acceptable quality levels.
Key Topics
- Data quality components: standardized building blocks (data quality unit, data quality elements, descriptors and metaquality elements) used to describe quality consistently.
- Data quality measures: definitions of standardized and user-defined measures, including a catalogue and data dictionary for consistent metrics.
- Evaluation procedures: general methods for assessing quality (direct evaluation, sampling, methods for aggregation and derivation).
- Reporting and metadata: principles for packaging and reporting quality results so they are interoperable and comparable across datasets and systems.
- Conformance and tests: abstract test suites (Annex A) define conformance tests for evaluation processes, metadata, standalone reports and measures.
- Supporting annexes: normative and informative annexes cover a data dictionary, list of standardized measures, basic measures, sampling methods, aggregation, and reporting guidance.
Applications
ISO 19157 is practical for organizations and workflows that require reliable, consistent geospatial data quality information to support decision-making:
- Selecting the best dataset for mapping, urban planning, environmental monitoring, infrastructure, emergency response or insurance risk assessment.
- Documenting data lineage and quality for data sharing portals and national mapping agencies.
- Implementing quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) workflows in GIS projects, remote sensing processing and database management.
- Enabling interoperable metadata and quality reporting between data producers, custodians and end users.
- Building software tools for automated quality evaluation, sampling, aggregation, and standards-compliant reporting.
Who Should Use It
- Geospatial data producers (mapping agencies, surveyors, remote sensing teams)
- Data users and analysts evaluating data fitness-for-use
- GIS managers, QA/QC teams and metadata specialists
- Software developers creating geospatial data quality tools
- Organizations managing data catalogs and geospatial data infrastructures
Related Standards
ISO 19157 is commonly used with other ISO/TC 211 standards for geospatial metadata and schemas, such as:
By applying ISO 19157:2013, organizations can produce consistent, comparable geospatial data quality information that improves data selection, interoperability and trust in GIS-driven decisions.