This project report is a compilation of three papers presented by involved scientists in the DCW Data Quality project at two occasions during the spring 1995. 

The first event was a joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Global Resource Information Database (GRID) & Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Workshop held in Arendal, Norway, 8 - 11 May 1995, with the aim inter alia to discuss mutual interests among CGIAR centers and UNEP/GRID centers in the field of GIS data. The first paper in this compilation was an invited expert presentation. The purpose of the presentation was to review current small scale cartographical databases that are of interest for several CGIAR and UNEP/GRID centers for strategic applications, i.e. applications covering large areas ranging from several countries to continental to global. The databases reviewed were the Digital Chart of the World (DCW), the World Vector Shoreline and a Digital Elevation Model currently under development and derived from the DCW. Also the issue of data quality was briefly touched upon. 

The second event was the 5th Scandinavian Research Conference on Geographical Information Systems held in Trondheim, Norway, 12 - 14 June 1995. The second and third paper in this compilation both were presented at this conference. The second paper addresses the issue of accuracy assessments of geographical line data sets. The paper suggests an alternative measure to assess the positional accuracy of line data sets compared to current standards for spatial data, namely average displacement. The paper also proposes a new data quality component for linear features, shape fidelity, and a measure, oscillation, as an indicator of this. The calculation of both these measures involves the use of neighbourhood buffering iteratively followed by boolean overlay operations and generation of statistics. The third paper conceptually discusses the differences in the data quality component completeness as defined and applied in the data quality part of the US Spatial Data Transfer Standard and the data quality part of the European Standard currently under development by CEN TC287, respectively. The DCW is used to exemplify the differences.