5.1 Profiles

Only a small subset of the standards would be used in a typical data transaction. For example, a groundwater modeller may only be interested in the hydrographic record from a few monitoring bores. A consultant may be after the historic record of any chemical analyses taken around a contaminated site. Hence, the full range of the standards would not to be used in these common data requests. In all transactions, the groundwater data should be accompanied by metadata documenting the portion or subset of the standard data model that is used. This metadata is a part of the profile and contains descriptions of the:

• data entities used;
• attributes of these entities;
• codes used to describe attributes;
• data conventions that apply; and
• the standard units of measurements.

This information is derived from the data dictionary relating to the standard data model. Like the data itself, the standards are not prescriptive in terms of the digital format that the profile is provided. The profile may be provided in a word processing document, spreadsheet or simple text file, depending on what is most appropriate for the data user and provider. Profiles are used in the Geoscience Data Model to document data transfers (Miller et al, 1997b).

In addition to this information that describes the component of the standard data model that is being utilised in a data transaction, other metadata is needed. This includes basic information on the dataset such as who is the custodian, how often the data is updated, its currency, available digital format, conditions of use and who to contact. The ANZLIC metadata guidelines should be used as the protocol for the transfer of this basic information (refer Convention 4.7)