Procedures for production of standardised information about the data from monitoring programmes are central to the quality assurance
and increased co-ordination in the use and update of monitoring data. This is particularly important with respect to monitoring information
derived from remote sensing. Many aspects of remote sensing are technically specialised. In providing results from remote sensing to workers
in a wide range of applications it is often necessary to reduce the technical complexity. The danger in this is that subtle differences between
data products are lost, but can represent significant differences in how the data should be interpreted and used. Standardisation is also important
for the presentation of data quality, in terms of the statistical errors and confidence associated with data. It is rarely adequate to state that a
map derived from remote sensing is 'x'% accurate without qualification in terms of the spatial and thematic distributions of errors and the
basis of the comparison (points, areas sums or feature coincidence). The spatial temporal and thematic differences between the map and the
reference data, and the errors associated with the reference data are also critical factors in the interpretation of data accuracy. Meta-information
can help reduce these obstacles to increased use of remote sensing and other landscape monitoring data products. Progress on this theme will be
made through:
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liaison between those reponsible for the major Nordic national remote sensing data derived mapping and monitoring
programmes towards constructing and populating a single metadatabase of information on the products, methods and other characteristics
(e.g. accuracy assesment) of these programmes,
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