This document establishes the principles for describing the quality of geographic data. It:

—？defines a well-considered system of components for describing data quality;

—？defines the process for defining additional, domain-specific components for describing data quality;

—？specifies components and the content structure of data quality measures;

—？describes general procedures for evaluating the quality of geographic data;

—？establishes principles for reporting data quality.

This document is applicable to data producers providing quality information to describe and assess how well a dataset conforms to its product specification and to data users attempting to determine whether or not specific geographic data are of sufficient quality for their particular application.

This document does not attempt to define minimum acceptable levels of quality for geographic data. Such information is usually present as a requirement in a data product specification, defined in accordance with ISO 19131, for example.