Overcoming Key Challenges In Gis Data Quality And Interoperability

Overcoming Data Quality Issues in GIS

Geographic information systems (GIS) integrate hardware, software, and data to capture, manage, analyze, and display information related to positions on the Earth’s surface. GIS allows users to view, interpret, question, visualize, and understand data in ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends.

However, for GIS to deliver reliable and defensible analysis and visualization, the data within the system must have sufficient quality. Poor quality data leads to poor quality analysis results and decisions. Common data quality issues include inaccuracies, incompleteness, formatting errors, duplication, and lack of documentation among others.

Organizations can overcome data quality issues in GIS through concerted efforts across people, processes, and technology to assess, control, and improve data quality.

Assessing Current Data Quality Practices

Assessing the current state of data quality practices provides a baseline to guide improvement efforts. This involves reviewing existing protocols, validation checks, and documentation processes to identify gaps.

Quantitatively assessing data quality attributes like positional accuracy, attribute accuracy, logical consistency, completeness, lineage, and temporal information shows where deficiencies exist. Comparing results against internal data quality standards and industry benchmarks frames the severity of problems.

Identifying Common Data Quality Problems

Understanding the types of errors commonly afflicting the organization’s data enables targeting resources to the biggest and most pervasive problems first. Documenting the specific issues uncovered during assessment pinpoints areas needing attention like positional inaccuracies, miscoded attributes, missing required elements, formatting inconsistencies, out of date records, and undocumented sources.

Implementing Automated QA/QC Procedures

Automating quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures through GIS workflows increases efficiency over manual techniques. Scripted algorithms can systematically scan data to check for standards compliance, consistency, accuracy, and completeness. Automation makes repetitive testing simple and scalable while freeing personnel to focus on deeper analysis and process improvements.

Leveraging Metadata for Data Documentation

Metadata is structured information about data characteristics like content, source, vintage, accuracy, collection methods, and processing workflow. Rich metadata documentation enables data consumers to properly interpret and use the data while providing lineage details. Capturing metadata throughout the data lifecycle aids quality control and interoperability.

Establishing Data Quality Standards and Benchmarks

Data quality standards and quantitative benchmarks guide assessment efforts and improvement targets based on the organization’s priorities and risk tolerance. Standards might dictate positional accuracy thresholds, attribute coding schemas, mandatory inclusion rules, update frequencies, format specifications, and metadata fields. Comparing against quality benchmarks tests data fitness for intended uses.

Training Personnel on Best Practices

Technology and process controls support data quality, but people implement policies and make decisions that ultimately introduce or eliminate errors. Training all personnel involved in data workflows on best practices raises proficiency and reduces mistakes. Addressing knowledge gaps and risky behaviors improves culture around data quality.

Integrating Validation Tools and Techniques

GIS and database platforms provide built-in and custom tools to validate data formats, schemas, relationships, workflows, and business rules. Integrating appropriate techniques and tools at ingestion, processing, and output stages serves as an early warning system for quality issues.

Improving Interoperability Through Data Standardization

Interoperability enables the interaction of diverse systems and the free flow of data between them through common protocols, schemas, and models. Standardizing data structure and meaning increases interoperability while easing merges, migration, collaboration, analytics, and application integration.

Understanding the Need for Interoperability

Interoperability stems from the need to use, combine, and augment data from various sources within and across organizations. It expands possibilities for cross-domain investigation, modeling, benchmarking, and decision making using an organization’s full range of data resources.

Evaluating Existing Data Formats and Schemas

Documenting existing proprietary data formats, custom schemas, data models, coding schemes, and metadata conventions provides context to shape standardization tactics. Assessing the landscape highlights areas where translation and transformation maps will connect systems by resolving representational differences while preserving meaning.

Adopting Widely Used Open Standards

When possible, adopting, adapting, or extending existing widely used open standards takes advantage of industry thought leadership invested into data semantics and structure while enabling easier connections with common tools and components.

Developing Common Data Models and Specifications

For uniquely local or specialized data without existing standards, developing common data models and formal specifications institutes structure and convention to facilitate system interactions. This guides local data resource design and provides reference schemas.

Mapping Data to Standard Models and Schemas

Data mapping establishes correspondence between elements across distinct data formats and schemas by articulating transformations rules to resolve structural, semantic, and syntactic differences. Explicit mappings then drive conversion routines to standardize data automatically.

Providing Tools to Transform and Export Data

Making data transfer frictionless encourages adoption of standards. Providing scripted schema transformations, ingestion and export utilities, and conversion tools lowers barriers to standardizing datasets for interoperability.

Documenting Data Lineage and Transformations

Tracking data provenance through its sources and transformations aids integrity and interoperability. Metadata should capture standardization lineage including original schema, standards used, rationale, mapping logic, conversion details, debugging, and approximations.

Overcoming Organizational Barriers

Beyond technical hurdles, adopting high quality interoperable systems requires surmounting common institutional barriers through strategic leadership and coalition-building.

Getting Buy-In from Leadership

Executive sponsorship signals organizational commitments and aligns groups to shared objectives. Leaders can reinforce data and system interoperability’s central role in optimizing workflows, improving service, realizing efficiencies, and enabling innovation.

Promoting a Data-Driven Culture

Data quality and interoperability necessitate a workplace culture valuing documentation, transparency, collaboration, standardization, reproducibility, precision, and facts. Training, incentives, messaging, and leading by example help make data-driven mindsets normative.

Developing Partnerships and Agreements

Coordination across business units, departments, and jurisdictions facilitates developing cohesive, consistent, and connected systems. Partnerships and service agreements make objectives, capabilities, responsibilities, and resource needs explicit.

Allocating Sufficient Resources

Executing on quality and interoperability vision requires allocating staff hours, technology budgets, and ongoing investments commensurate with scope. Securing appropriate resources and funding makes success realistic.

Sustaining Data Quality Improvements

Optimizing data quality and interoperability provides ongoing value only through deliberately constructing supportive environments that continually reinforce best practices while allowing for flexibility and progress.

Implementing Repeatable QA/QC Processes

Making quality assurance and quality control central elements of standard workflows hardens defenses against errors entering and propagating through the system. Checklists, automated testing, verification requirements, and audits make rigor habitual.

Monitoring Results and Identifying Gaps

Assessments, dashboards, reports, and reviews help gauge effectiveness of quality and interoperability efforts, demonstrate value, and illuminate remaining problem areas needing mitigation according to the established standards and benchmarks.

Retraining Staff on Latest Best Practices

Technology, workflows, understanding of challenges evolve constantly, necessitating commensurate employee skills development to prevent knowledge and culture gaps. Regular retraining syncs personnel capabilities with the state-of-the-art.

Maintaining Clear Documentation

Extensive documentation of data lineage, business logic, mapping schema, conversion code, transformation rules, and interoperability linkages preserves institutional knowledge across staff turnover while providing reference sources enabling consistent quality and connectivity improvements.