[DDI-ADG] GeographicCoverage

[Mary Vardigan]

Kate and others,

As I recall, the Geographic Coverage element at the highest level and the 
Geographic Unit element at the lowest level (in Version 2.0) were 
equivalent to FGDC elements, so I think there was interest in retaining 
these two elements/concepts.

Mary

At 04:49 PM 6/30/2005, Katherine McNeill-Harman wrote:
>Here are my initial thoughts on this (and I won't be in the phone call 
>Tuesday).  I think it's a helpful start, and particularly like your 
>distinction between the type of level and the value within it.  Couple of 
>comments/questions:
>
>1) I like how you make GeographyValues present and required at each level 
>of geography, but provide different ways to describe it.
>
>2) I'm not sure I understand the relationship between GeographicCoverage, 
>IntermediateGeography, and GeographicalUnit.  It appears that the latter 
>two are sub-elements (if that's the right term) of the first, and within 
>themselves would have multiple fields (some sort of nesting?).
>
>I have mixed feelings about calling them three different categories; in my 
>response to Sanda/Mary's email earlier, I wondered if we should have a 
>single element for geographic level (and then maybe have its relationship 
>with the others a sort of hierarchical characteristic).  I'm just trying 
>to think about what'd be easiest for users and systems to interpret.  And 
>conceptually, what is the difference between coverage and unit?  I know 
>what the definitions are, but do we want to describe overall geographic 
>coverage as the highest unit?
>
>And then what do we do when we have several different types of geography 
>but aren't exactly in hierarchical relationship with one another; how do 
>we know which is the lowest unit (e.g. county vs. congressional 
>district)?  I know it's nearly impossible to account for every possible 
>scenario, but this one makes me wonder.
>
>3) I wonder if we should require GeographicLevelName.  I like the idea of 
>trying to see if there's a controlled vocabulary for GeographicLevelCode, 
>to standardize among similar levels but with different names in different 
>countries (e.g. province vs. state).  So let's say that the standardized 
>term is sub-national (I'm just making that up); wouldn't we also want to 
>provide users with a way of searching on the term used in that particular 
>country (i.e. state)?  I know there's a balance between thoroughness and 
>requiring too much, but it's a consideration.
>
>4) Under GeographyValues, are we missing a place to link to an external 
>URL w/the codes maintained by an external authority?
>
>A lot of these are just ideas, and some of my comments are awkward to try 
>to convey over email, but maybe it'll be material for your discussion Tuesday.
>
>Kate
>
>At 01:55 PM 6/30/2005 -0400, J Gager wrote:
>>Hello Everyone -
>>
>>Attached is a general outline of what I had in mind for the Geographic
>>Coverage after our discussion on Tuesday.  Note that I did not go into
>>great detail about the specifics of any fields.  The point that I am
>>trying to make is that it seems we need two types of identifcation for
>>any geographic level:
>>
>>1.  The type of level we are describing - is it a countries, states,
>>counties, cities, etc.
>>2.  The possible values at that level - which may be described by code,
>>coordinate, name, or reference a variable in the study.
>>
>>Feel free to comment via email.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>J
>>
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>___________________________________________
>Katherine McNeill-Harman
>Data Services Librarian
>Dewey Library for Management and Social Sciences
>Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>77 Massachusetts Avenue, E53-100
>Cambridge, MA 02139
>mcneillh at mit.edu
>617-253-0787
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Mary Vardigan
Director, Collection Delivery
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
University of Michigan
P.O. Box 1248, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248
Phone: 734-615-7908
Fax: 734-647-8200
www.icpsr.umich.edu