Geography
Higher Geography is defined in Arctos to reflect the administrative intersections of asserted geographic boundaries that describe the locality of a record. For example, the location of a record occurs in a country, state or provice, county, municipality etc. Many marine-focused collections wish to assert both marine (where the event took place) and terrestrial (e.g. perhaps the administrative land from which permits are issued) geography for various reasons, while there is little or no overlap in spatial definitions of these places. issue ref
Higher Geography provides a lexicon of geographic terms that are consistent across all collections in Arctos and, where appropriate, consistent with consolidator websites’ generally accepted lexicon. In Arctos, the function of higher geography is to accommodate marine and terrestrial authoritative sources (GADM and IHO, respectively), with accommodations for where the authorities are out of date.
Terrestrial terms in Higher Geography are based on GADM administrative areas (countries, states/provinces, and counties where applicable). Marine and aquatic terms are based on IHO oceans and seas. Higher Geography terms are required to match an authority’s term in order to maintain standardized, clean, and realistic data; however, Higher Geography terms in Arctos do not themselves carry spatial data.
When collections want to curatorially assert both terrestrial administrative areas and marine geography, Higher_geog is a concatenated value of GADM and IHO terms. For example, the higher geography of a specimen collected in Florida Bay off the coast of Monroe county Florida may be “Gulf of Mexico, Florida Bay, United States, Florida, Monroe County”.
When the authorities that Arctos uses for Higher Geography are found to be out of date, missing data, or containing errors, the Geography Committee will use Wikipedia to create terms when requested by Arctos users. See below for Geography creation request guidelines.
Specific controlled values for records that do not have a defined Higher Geography:
- No information exists (i.e., we don’t know) - no higher geography recorded
- Information may be available but curatorial decision is to not specify here (i.e., we refuse to say) - no specific higher geography
Structure
geog_auth_rec_id
Primary key, internal, not stable.
continent
A continent is the largest, terrestrial, contiguous geographic region or area as defined by accepted sources and that meet the needs of Arctos users. First level division. We currently recognize seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America.
Source: Wikipedia (continents) and GBIF (continents)
ocean
An ocean is a conventional division of the global body of salt water into a basin as enumerated by accepted sources that meet the needs of Arctos users. First level division. We currently recognize five: Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean
Sources: Wikipedia (ocean) and IHO (ocean); https://www.vliz.be/en/imis?module=ref&refid=78851
sea
A sea is a subdivision of an ocean. Seas are usually larger than lakes, and usually smaller than an ocean and frequently surrounded by more landmass. Second level division.
Most seas will be associated with a first level division ocean, but unlike administrative regions, an ocean is not an absolute requirement for the Sea to be used as the highest level in Higher Geography. For example: Gulf of Oman, Mediterranean Sea, Bass Strait may not have an associated Ocean.
Sources: Wikipedia (seas), Marine Regions, IHO; https://www.vliz.be/en/imis?module=ref&refid=78851
Contents: The initial list will contain the 105 IHO Sea Areas from Marine Regions. See list
Waterbodies that are considered “marginal seas” can be considered as Seas for purposes of higher geography concatenation (Wikipedia (seas by area)
waterbody
(Awaiting guidelines and recommendations by the Arctos Geography Committee)
Use ocean and sea for terms for now
country
A sovereign state, nation or other first-level political entity as listed with an listed by ISO country code. Acceptable values are available in referenceable gazetteers and compendia; Arctos currently has adopted the Database of Global Administrative Areas (GADM) for its internal administrative boundaries (i.e., Admin0).
Source: GADM and alternative source Wikipedia for missing or erroneous data
Contents: see GADM (Admin0 0)
state_prov
The primary administrative subdivision of a country as listed by the Arctos country authority (i.e., GADM Level 1 aka State/Province).
Source: GADM and alternative source Wikipedia for missing or erroneous data
Contents: see GADM (admn 1)
county
Definition: The secondary administrative subdivision of a Level 1 State/Province as listed by the Arctos country authority (i.e., GADM Level 2 or US county). Level 2 divisions will be created by Community approval only when there is a special need and a significant history of stability. The following are the only entities approved for this treatment:
- United States
- United Kingdom (source: geography cleanup: United Kingdom arctos#5178)
Source: GADM and alternative source Wikipedia for missing or erroneous data
quad
Pending review
Reference: Locality Attribute Code Table
The name of the U. S. Geological Survey topographic map quadrangle. The name of the quad should include the map scale. Ex. ‘Ambler River 1:250,000’. The 1:250,000 series has been used because Alaska lacks anything as inclusive counties; “quads” have been used extensively in organizing collections and interrogating data (Although note that a combination of Borough and Census Area is all-inclusive and mutually exclusive and therefore serves as a suitable if large-scale “county substitute.”). Finer scale quads are used by other collections as sub-county level geography.
feature
Pending review
Reference: Feature Code Table
island_group
Pending review
Reference: Island Group Code Table
island
Pending review
source_authority
GADM for administrative terrestrial terms, IHO for marine/aquatic terms. Wikipedia for terms where GADM and IHO authorities are lacking.
geog_remark
Remarks field is intended to provide guidance and clarification in future geography creation or merge events, and is not searchable nor intended for public display.
Use geographic remarks to describe remarkable things about the geography itself, such as when the named place existed or how it differs from potentially-confusing other places. Do not use remarks for procedural information or information concerning other data (such as specimens or localities).
higher_geog
Generated concatenation of comma-separated terms (in the order above, as of this writing). Serves as a unique ‘handle’ for the data object; what’s entered during data entry (i.e., creation of the higher geography “code table” value).
Creation Guidelines
When the authorities that Arctos uses for Higher Geography are found to be out of date, missing data, or containing errors, the Geography Committee can use Wikipedia as a alternative authority to create terms by request.
To request the addition of a higher geography term, aquatic or terrestrial, submit a code table request in the main Arctos forum. That will allow for regular review and appropriate staging: discussion by community and eventual approval by the Geography Committee, and implementation by Code Table administrators (role manage_geography). Please include relevant links to sources for the most exclusive terrestrial unit for the requested geographies. For example, include a Wikipedia link to the relevant Admin level 0, 1, or 2 terrestrial unit, whatever is most specific to the request. Geography Request Requirements:
- Requested geography term must be present in GADM, IHO, or Wikipedia (when GADM or IHO are lacking).
- Ideally, GADM or IHO term is linked to a shape file, ensuring that the geographic term is grounded in reality. When the term is from Wikipedia, the Geography Committee will evaluate the request based on consistency, reasonableness, and benefit to the requesting collection and the organization overall.
- GADM administrative terms that are a subdivision of a higher level administrative division must include the higher level term(s). For example, a GADM Level 1 division (state or province) must be preceded by the Level 0 entity (the country the state is in).
- Arctos will handle in higher geography up to admin level 2 for the United States (other countries to be discussed and handled later, as requested by members of the community)
Spatial
Spatial data are maintained separately from geography, and may be used to facilitate search or suggest spatial affiliation.
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