National Wetlands Inventory

Wetlands Metadata and Map Search

Metadata or "data about data" describes the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of data. Metadata are used to organize and maintain investments in data, to provide information to data catalogs and clearinghouses, and to aid data transfers. The Federal Geographic Data Committee approved the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata on June 8, 1994. Since that time, many organizations within and outside of the Federal Goverment have adopted the FGDC metadata standard and are using automated indexing and serving mechanisms to provide access to their holdings through the Internet.

NWI standard metadata text for NWI quad data. For shapefiles, ARC data, or personal geodatabases quad data information such as citation for publication, description of maps, purpose of mapping, constraints on data use, consistency, completeness, scale, contributing data sources, datum, etc. For standard metadata for the Wetlands Mapper, click here.

NWI Maps Database Search Form. For quad-specific metadata that includes information such as the date of the photography, type of photography (ex: black and white), the date the map was produced, and whether the map is draft, final, or has been digitized. Quadrangles that are not in the database have not been mapped.

For more information about metadata, go to the FGDC Clearinghouse.