Data Governance and Change Management

Reliable Visual Explorer results depend on current, authoritative country data and clear ownership of changes. Administrators coordinate these responsibilities with data stewards, GIS specialists, agronomists, and other designated country-data owners.

Establish Data Ownership

Identify an accountable owner and expected review cycle for:

• administrative hierarchy and geometry;
• active crops and crop names;
• yield-category definitions for Crop Production;
• crop detection and crop health data availability;
• production forecast and historical-production information; and
• ground-truth information used to validate crop representation.

Manage Customer-Visible Changes

Coordinate an update when an authoritative boundary changes, a crop is added or retired, a yield-category definition changes, or a new dataset is intended for user access.

Before communicating the change to users:

1. confirm the source and accountable data owner;
2. confirm the intended country, crops, regions, layers, and detection date;
3. validate the result in Visual Explorer using a representative context;
4. record the effective date and any interpretation guidance; and
5. communicate the user-visible impact through the organization’s normal process.

Maintain Data Trust

Treat missing, outdated, or unexpected data as a governance signal rather than only a technical issue. Work with the accountable data owner to confirm source authority, timing, definitions, and required follow-up.

For detailed guidance on country data readiness, reference data, ground truthing, and ongoing maintenance, see the Digital Twin and Data Onboarding Guide.