Environmental Data Coding Specification

Introduction

Purpose

This International Standard provides mechanisms to unambiguously identify the properties of objects used to model environmental conditions. This is accomplished by specifying a collection of eight EDCS Dictionaries of environmental concepts and a functional interface to convert between numeric values given in different units of measure.

This International Standard defines EDCS Dictionaries for the following categories of information:

1. classifications that define the type of environmental objects;
2. attributes that define the state of environmental objects;
3. attribute enumerants that describe the state of some environmental objects;
4. units that describe quantitative measures of the state of some environmental objects;
5. unit scales that allow large and small numerical values to be stated;
6. unit equivalence classes that define sets of units that are mutually comparable;
7. organizational schemas that are useful for locating classifications and attributes with similar meanings; and
8. groups into which related concepts are collected.

Design criteria

This International Standard was developed to fulfill the following requirements:

9. Flexibility and extensibility: Accommodate growth by registration.
10. Information: Define what objects are (classifications), what the properties of objects are (attributes) and how values of properties are characterized (enumerants, units).
11. International Standard units: Adopt the International System of Units.
12. Leverage existing domain-specific approaches: Build on the experience gained by other organizations in developing coding schemes.
13. Organization: Structure for efficient access.
14. Orthogonality: Separate the concepts of classification and attribution.
15. Rigor: Provide unambiguous and clearly defined concepts.
16. Separate units of measure from attributes: Relate units of measures to attributes through unit equivalence classes.
17. Unification: Define a comprehensive set of concepts that allow environmental information to be shared among different communities.

http://www.sedris.org/Specifications/EDCS/index.html