Insuring data interoperability is a critical task that should not be overlooked. Incompatible data is a thief of time, of human and financial resources, and of usefulness of your system. Developing and maintaining standards internal to an organization is a critical start to any data management project. Furthermore, when data is generated outside of an organization, measures must be taken to ensure that it can be integrated into the existing infrastructure. Industry standards have been developed by large scale data producers, data users, and government commissions over the years to maintain quality and insure data interoperability. These standards are not unified, as individual regions have specific needs that are only addressed locally. The following sections attempt to explain both technical and political spatial data parameters that require attention to standards.