Data standards

Forest information is standardized so that actors engaged in the forest sector could develop and use harmonized information systems. Although basic concepts and measurement units have been defined for decades, almost every actor has implemented them differently in their information systems. Converting and transferring information is difficult or almost impossible between systems. Forest information standards facilitate the use of open materials and data transfer between actors. This improves operational efficiency and international competitiveness of forest sector.

The development of information exchange interfaces is not finished. The goal is a situation where all forest industry systems would read, write and send via a forest information standard.

Standard defines the structure, data types and codes used in different schemes. Forest information standards are based on XML-format (geometry: GML).
Data to be exchanged with standards is: special feature data, forest compartment data, forest use declaration, timber trade, harvesting and operations. The projects outcome is: documentation, schemas, guidelines, practises. The outcome will be written XML files which are transferred between different systems. XML is used as it is international data standard, a method to structure electronic documents. XML-documents (=files) are readable and alloes to import data into all systems capable of reading such documents. The structure of XML-documents can be validated automatically so it follows its definitions (=schema).