diff --git a/Source/moja.modules.gdal/include/moja/modules/gdal/rasterreadergdal.h b/Source/moja.modules.gdal/include/moja/modules/gdal/rasterreadergdal.h
index 31b5e61..726b948 100644
--- a/Source/moja.modules.gdal/include/moja/modules/gdal/rasterreadergdal.h
+++ b/Source/moja.modules.gdal/include/moja/modules/gdal/rasterreadergdal.h
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ class GDAL_API MetaDataRasterReaderGDAL : public datarepository::MetaDataRasterR
   private:
    std::string _path;
    std::string _prefix;
+   bool _metaDataRequired;
 };
 
 class GDAL_API TileRasterReaderGDAL : public datarepository::TileRasterReaderInterface {
diff --git a/Source/moja.modules.gdal/src/rasterreadergdal.cpp b/Source/moja.modules.gdal/src/rasterreadergdal.cpp
index 0a8602b..f64ba63 100644
--- a/Source/moja.modules.gdal/src/rasterreadergdal.cpp
+++ b/Source/moja.modules.gdal/src/rasterreadergdal.cpp
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ MetaDataRasterReaderGDAL::MetaDataRasterReaderGDAL(const std::string& path, cons
       auto parent = filePath.parent().toString();
       auto abs = filePath.parent().absolute().toString();
       _path = (boost::format("%1%%2%.json") % filePath.parent().absolute().toString() % filePath.getBaseName()).str();
+      _metaDataRequired = true;
+      if (settings.contains("metadata_required")) {
+         _metaDataRequired = settings["metadata_required"].extract<bool>();
+      }
    } catch (...) {
       BOOST_THROW_EXCEPTION(flint::LocalDomainError()
                             << flint::Details("GDAL Error in constructor") << flint::LibraryName("moja.modules.gdal")
@@ -64,7 +68,11 @@ DynamicObject MetaDataRasterReaderGDAL::readMetaData() const {
       auto layerMetadata = parsePocoJSONToDynamic(metadata).extract<const DynamicObject>();
       return layerMetadata;
    } else {
-      BOOST_THROW_EXCEPTION(datarepository::FileNotFoundException() << datarepository::FileName(_path));
+      if (_metaDataRequired) {
+         BOOST_THROW_EXCEPTION(datarepository::FileNotFoundException() << datarepository::FileName(_path));
+      } else {
+         return DynamicObject();
+      }
    }
 }