Lineage

Lineage describes the history of a data set. In the case of published maps, some lineage information may be provided as part of its meta-data, in the form of a note on the data sources and procedures used in the compilation of the data. Examples include the date and scale of aerial photography, and the date of field verification. Especially for digital data sets, however, lineage may be defined more formally as:

“that part of the data quality statement that contains information that describes the source of observations or materials, data acquisition and compilation methods, conversions, transformations, analyses and derivations that the data has been subjected to, and the assumptions and criteria applied at any stage of its life (Clarke and Clark, 1995).”

All of these aspects affect other aspects of quality, for example positional accuracy. Clearly, if no lineage information is available, it is not possible to adequately evaluate the quality of a data set in terms of “fitness for use”.