A Maturity Model for Urban Dataset Metadata

Abstract

The rapid increase in published datasets has intensified challenges in sourcing and integrating relevant data for analysis. Persistent obstacles include poor metadata, ineffective presentation, and difficulties in locating and integrating datasets. This paper delves into the intricacies of dataset retrieval, emphasising the pivotal role of metadata in aligning datasets with user queries. Through an exploration of existing literature, it highlights prevailing issues, such as identifying valuable metadata and developing tools to maintain and annotate them effectively. The paper proposes a dataset metadata maturity model, inspired by software engineering frameworks, to guide dataset creators from basic to advanced documentation. The model encompasses seven pivotal dimensions, spanning content to quality information, each stratified across five maturity levels to guide the optimal documentation of datasets, ensuring ease of discovery, accurate relevance assessment, and comprehensive understanding of datasets. This paper also incorporates the maturity model into a data cataloguing tool called CKAN through a custom plugin, CKANext-udc. The plugin introduces custom fields based on different maturity levels, allows for user interface customisation, and integrates with a graph database, converting catalogue data into a knowledge graph based on the Maturity Model ontology.