CSA R100:20

Preface:

This is the first edition of CSA R100, Canadian metadata standard for hydrometeorological monitoring stations.

CSA Group has been commissioned to develop four national standards focusing on data collected by hydrometeorological monitoring stations and descriptive data about the stations. The standards are for
a) the collection and public dissemination of metadata for hydrometeorological monitoring stations;
b) siting, design, and operations of hydrometeorological stations;
c) a data quality rating system; and
d) the exchange of hydrometeorological data sets across information systems.

These standards will promote the standardization of methods, procedures, techniques, and practices used for collecting hydrometeorological data and related information across Canada. Standardization and improved best practices will help make more hydrometeorological observations become more easily accessible to a larger and better-informed audience. The availability of standardized sets of metadata, and through a single portal, also helps gain access to information required for homogenizing data, improving asset management, and optimizing monitoring networks.

CSA Group acknowledges that the development of this Standard was made possible, in part, by the financial support of the Standards Council of Canada.

This Standard was reviewed, evaluated, and tested for Canadian adoption by the CSA R-100 Weather Stations Metadata Committee, under the jurisdiction of the CSA Technical Committee on Weather Stations and the CSA Strategic Steering Committee on Environment and Business Excellence, and has been formally approved by the Technical Committee.

This Standard has been developed in compliance with Standards Council of Canada requirements for National Standards of Canada. It has been published as a National Standard of Canada by CSA Group.

Scope:

This Standard promotes best practices for collecting metadata for hydrometeorological stations and for publishing those metadata publicly at a central repository.

Any operator of a hydrometeorological station located in Canada should follow the WIGOS Metadata.

The metadata collected includes information about the observed variable, purpose of the observations, station, monitoring environment, instruments and methods of observation, sampling, data processing and reporting, data quality, ownership and data policy and contacts.

This Standard also provides data users with the metadata taxonomy and the necessary definitions of the metadata elements. Metadata for any hydrometeorological station located in Canada, and for which the data are available, should be uploaded to the OSCAR/Surface metadata.

This Standard is an adoption without modification of the WMO WIGOS Metadata Standard (WMO 2019c), a semantic standard that specifies the metadata elements for observations, that can be recorded and exchanged, and the WMO OSCAR/Surface metadatabase (WMO 2020).