{"id":504312,"date":"2022-04-05T19:59:18","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T02:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=504312"},"modified":"2022-04-05T08:51:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T15:51:04","slug":"arcgis-pro-add-in-simplifies-creation-of-epa-compliant-metadata","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/arcgis-pro-add-in-simplifies-creation-of-epa-compliant-metadata","title":{"rendered":"ArcGIS Pro Add-In Simplifies Creation of EPA-Compliant Metadata"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10412,260002,318502],"tags":[284982,157412,165542,295782,296032],"arcnews_issues":[478332],"class_list":["post-504312","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-pro","category-data-management","category-environmental","tag-climate-data","tag-data","tag-data-sharing","tag-environmental-protection","tag-metadata","arcnews_issues-spring-2022","arcnews_sections-your-work"],"acf":{"short_description":"The EPA Metadata Editor, now available in ArcGIS Pro, ensures that geospatial assets on the environment are easy to find and use.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Metadata is critical for helping users document and locate datasets and geospatial assets. When metadata includes sufficient and consistent detail, it facilitates the search and discovery of key data. But creating metadata is a challenge for many government agencies across the United States. That\u2019s because, although government metadata must comply with various standards and requirements, establishing consistency, there aren\u2019t many tools available that make it easy to enter and edit metadata.\r\n\r\nThe United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a large inventory of geospatial assets that continually grows, such as data on the climate, air and water quality, the population, and environmental impacts. These assets require metadata to ensure that EPA staff, employees from other government agencies, and the public can easily find, effectively interpret, and appropriately use them to do work that ranges from environmental monitoring to emergency response. The metadata must also conform to the EPA\u2019s Geospatial Metadata Technical Specification and the International Organization for Standardization\u2019s ISO 19115, which has been endorsed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":504282,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"To help people create and edit metadata that meets the EPA\u2019s standards, the agency released the EPA Metadata Editor<\/a>. Originally developed in 2007 as a stand-alone, open-source Windows desktop app that had basic integration with Esri products, the EME is now an add-in for ArcGIS Pro. As the EME has evolved over the years, Esri partner Innovate!, Inc., has assisted with its design and development, ensuring that as technology and standards change, the EME keeps pace."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

A More Effective Way to Write and Edit Metadata<\/h2>\r\nEME Pro, the most recent iteration of the EME, was released in November 2020. It offers ArcGIS Pro users an efficient way to edit and modify the metadata in their geospatial data so it complies with the EPA\u2019s standards, including both the EPA Geospatial Metadata Technical Specification and the North American Profile (NAP) of ISO 19115:2003. Given that EME Pro is an ArcGIS Pro add-in, it is easy to distribute and install.\r\n\r\nAs with all iterations of the EME, the new ArcGIS Pro add-in offers customized tools and automated workflows. Once the EME is incorporated into ArcGIS Pro, users access it from a tab labeled EME Tools that appears on the ArcGIS Pro ribbon. The tools allow users to edit metadata, update thumbnails for the data, sync contacts in a metadata document with a prepopulated list of EPA contacts, and import and export metadata according to the EPA\u2019s specifications.\r\n\r\nThe EME Database Manager that\u2019s included with EME Pro also gives users the ability to manage default values and options for some metadata elements, such as keywords, contacts, and security constraints. Access to these defaults is provided within the editor\u2019s interface via drop-down menus or a Load Defaults button, depending on the element."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Custom Features Enhance and Improve the Toolset<\/h2>\r\nThrough each iteration of the EME, the Innovate team has been able to merge functionality from past versions and enhance select components. Thus, EME Pro isn\u2019t just the newest version of the toolset; it also improves on the most useful features from previous builds.\r\n\r\nWith the transition to ArcGIS Pro, the team at Innovate had to make sure all the functionality that the EPA wanted was possible. Staff at Innovate also had to create several custom features that weren\u2019t available straight out of the box.\r\n\r\nFor example, the team combined two tools\u2014the Metadata Upgrade tool and the Clean tool\u2014to allow users to safely update metadata and clean up legacy elements that are no longer needed in current metadata formats. Results are reported to users, and backup copies of the metadata are automatically saved in a scratch folder so users can restore the unaltered metadata in the event of an error.\r\n\r\nThe Innovate team also redesigned a tool that allows users to efficiently merge a source record with one or more target records according to customized rules. This Merge tool gives users a quick start for populating metadata, which saves time\u2014especially when various metadata records share the same values for certain elements. The team hopes to continue building out this merge functionality in future releases as well."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Developing a Streamlined User Experience<\/h2>\r\nIn building EME Pro, the team at Innovate relied heavily on the ArcGIS Pro Metadata Toolkit, a flexible template for customizing what appears in the ArcGIS Pro metadata editor. Team members were able to further customize the user interface using ArcGIS Pro SDK for the Microsoft .NET Framework, which also gave them access to items\u2019 underlying metadata components."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Throughout its iterations, the EME has been recognized for its metadata management capabilities and ease of use. Awards conferred include the following:\r\n