Enhancing Value of Environmental Data: Data Lineage Reporting
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 119, Issue 1
Abstract
Concerns about environmental data quality and the need for data documentation are increasing due to increased accessibility to and demand for environmental data. Local, state, and federal agencies as well as consultants, researchers, and the public are interested in current, reliable, accessible, and understandable data. It is often necessary to rely on data obtained from secondary sources, originally collected for purposes other than present applications. Information describing form, specificity, and processing are needed, in addition to assessment of data quality, to make informed decisions about the usefulness of secondhand data. This paper merges the thinking of environmental sciences and spatial information systems, and presents an initial proposal for an environmental data lineage report. The proposal describes two kinds of information needed in a lineage report—an overview of the data collection process, and an overview of relevant legal and organizational factors driving the data collection. The process description includes information about sample design, site conditions, instrument calibration, data recording and processing, and so forth. Description of legal and organizational factors such as laws, decision criteria, and existing standards explain the original purpose for data collection.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 119 • Issue 1 • January 1993
Pages: 5 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 26, 1991
Published online: Jan 1, 1993
Published in print: Jan 1993
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