Thanks Alison, your analysis makes sense to me. I do think having a systematic way to deal with all gazetteers is quite important.
John On Jan 13, 2012, at 06:39, <[email protected]> <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear John, All, > > I wasn't involved with CF before 2006, but I suspect the original reason for > creating the region list was based on the idea that CF compliant files should > be self-describing. I don't think the existing list of regions, or indeed the > most recent proposal of contiguous_united_states are tied to any particular > project. Participants in any project needing to use CF can propose new region > names, just as they can propose standard names, and I don't think we are > according any special status to CMIP5 in that regard. > > Maintaining a list of region names as another controlled vocabulary alongside > standard names and area types is not a particularly onerous task and I think > it can readily be achieved within the existing standard names process. I > agree with Roy's point that there will sometimes be a need to describe > geographic regions that are not available in other controlled vocabularies > and so I think we should retain the ability to add them within CF. I don't > have a strong feeling either way as to whether we need to allow the use of > external gazetteers, but if we do then I think it should be in addition to > the CF list rather than simply replacing it. The standard name and area type > tables are version controlled and dated and the same should be done for the > region names. > > Best wishes, > Alison > > ------ > Alison Pamment Tel: +44 1235 778065 > NCAS/British Atmospheric Data Centre Email: [email protected] > STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory > R25, 2.22 > Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11 0QX, U.K. > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] [mailto:cf-metadata- >> [email protected]] On Behalf Of John Graybeal >> Sent: 12 January 2012 17:40 >> To: Jonathan Gregory >> Cc: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Request for a region standard_name >> >> i may be missing a key organizational imperative, but it will be >> helpful for all of us to understand I think. To review the bidding: >> >> On Jan 12, 2012, at 07:15, Nan Galbraith wrote: >> >>> Maintaining a gazetteer seems a little outside the scope of CF - >> wouldn't it be preferable to require (or at least allow) an attribute >> for the "region" variable pointing to an external vocabulary? >> >> >> On Jan 12, 2012, at 08:45, Lowry, Roy K. wrote: >> >>> However, in the case of CMIP5 I doubt if any published resource will >> fulfil their requirements because the spatial objects are sections >> defined by the project, which are unlikely to be included in any >> resource originating outside the project. Therefore they need their >> own project-specific resource and I can't see any alternative to this >> being governed and served by CF. >> >> On Jan 12, 2012, at 09:03, Jonathan Gregory wrote: >> >>> Dear Alison >>> >>>> The CMIP5 regions I was thinking of were the names of various sea >> channels and straits. >>> >>> I agree that it makes sense to add the CMIP5 channels and straits to >> the CF region list. Thanks. >> >> What is it about the CMIP5 project that makes it (uniquely?) supported >> by the community resource CF? >> >> Generally, if a project that needs a project-specific resource, the >> project creates that resource, right? In this day and age, creating a >> gazzetteer, or equivalent resource of terms, is pretty trivial even >> without programming expertise. >> >> So I go back to Nan's input, and reply "Yes -- it would be preferable >> to require an attribute for the region variable pointing to the >> external vocabulary." Or at least, pointing to the vocabulary. Even if >> CF is the one that maintains the vocabulary (for its own purposes, or >> for this project), including region names as part of the CF conventions >> seems idiosyncratic rather than systematic. >> >> John >> >> >> John Graybeal <mailto:[email protected]> >> phone: 858-534-2162 >> Product Manager >> Ocean Observatories Initiative Cyberinfrastructure Project: >> http://ci.oceanobservatories.org >> Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org >> >> _______________________________________________ >> CF-metadata mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata > -- > Scanned by iCritical. > _______________________________________________ > CF-metadata mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata John Graybeal <mailto:[email protected]> phone: 858-534-2162 Product Manager Ocean Observatories Initiative Cyberinfrastructure Project: http://ci.oceanobservatories.org Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
