Geospatial Data Quality Guarantee

Abstract

Geospatial data has become ubiquitous in our society and abundantly used by public institutions fulfilling their mandates as well as citizen managing their day-to-day affairs. But the dissemination of geospatial data raises certain issues surrounding the nature of the contract involved along with the quality guarantees that may be applicable. Should this data be treated as a tangible or intangible asset? Would the standard guarantees defined by our legislation apply if it were considered intangible? What about the specific characteristics of geospatial data? How simple would it be to guarantee its quality? This article presents an overview of geospatial data quality guarantees under Quebec law. We will first address the intrinsic characteristics of geospatial data, the concepts of quality guarantees and precision, along with implied and conventional guarantees. Next, we will investigate the potential effects of various contract categories on the scope, if not the very existence, of quality guarantees. The results of the analysis hold that a number of quality guarantee variations are possible and that some legal uncertainties remain, which further complicates the dissemination of geospatial data for any organization that seeks to do so.