Datasets and reference data

Datasets are governance, not duplication

• Asset datasets group assets of the same class and state who is accountable for them, what quality is expected and where the data came from. They read their counts live from the register and never hold their own copy.
• Spatial datasets describe the mapped layers, their geometry type, their CRS and their completeness.

Linking the two is what makes "which layer does this asset class live in?" an answerable question.

Reference data

Keep the controlled lists clean — asset classes, types and subtypes, site and facility identifiers, and the units of measure used for dimensions. Every free-text variant that creeps in becomes a reporting problem later.

Your configuration duties

Review new classes and types quarterly, confirm the project's authoritative spatial reference is still correct, and check that deprecated datasets are actually marked deprecated rather than quietly abandoned.