Digital Geoscience Spatial Model (DGSM) - best practice guidelines

This report has been prepared as part of the DGSM component ‘Best Practice and Modelling Systems’. This component of the DGSM project seeks to develop an understanding of issues surrounding the errors and uncertaintities in the computation of spatial models and the consequent confidence that might be placed upon them, to provide guidance on and to coordinate Best Practice standards to be used in the DGSM, and to implement procedures and documentation for carrying out the work.
What do we mean by best practice? Best practice is not designed to provide the definitive answer or methodology in a particular case, but rather it should represent a consensual guideline to the solution of a particular problem, or the implementation of a particular methodology. As such it is just one component in a quality management system for the DGSM.
This report outlines a framework for best practice, reviewing the relationship between best practice and other aspects of DGSM quality, such as quality assurance, data management and metadata. It outlines the suggested scope of best practice, and gives guidelines for preparation, review and dissemination of best practice documentation, sets out a structure for the preparation, management and dissemination of best practice for the DGSM. The IT systems required to support best practice are reviewed, and the appendixes contain templates for best practice documentation and examples.