[Seavox] Sea Area Governance

[Roy Lowry]

Dear All,

The SeaDataNet metadata uses text keywords to describe spatial objects known as 'Sea Areas'.  I am currently looking into the content governance of these.  To date I have found three authorities "active" in this area.

The first is the International Hydrographic Organisation (formerly known as International Hyrographic Bureau), which published a set of sea areas back in 1953.  Subsequent maintenance has been restricted to acceptance of the term 'Celtic Sea', but further progress has been thwarted due to use of veto over naming disputes of some sea areas in the far east.

The second is ICES acting on behalf of IOC in the role of 'RNODC formats' who maintain a set of additional sea areas as an extension to the IHO list, primarily for use in populating a field of the IOC Cruise Summary Report metadata record. This extension currently consists of terms dividing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans into quadrants.

The third was SeaSearch (and by default inherited by SeaDataNet) who published a totally separate set of sea areas for populating EDMED metadata records.  This includes some, but not all, of the IHO areas plus a significant number of newly defined sea areas, including a sort of hierearchy.  There is also an attempt to ensure non-overlapping global coverage through introduction of terms like 'remaining' Baltic Sea.

My proposal is that we use SeaVoX as a discussion forum for the further development of sea area keywords, with the initial objectives of:

Controlled expansion of the CSR extensions to the IHO list under SeaVoX content governance.  There is a real (and quite urgent) need for this as there are obvious coverage gaps in the current lists such as the Aral and Caspian Seas.

Consideration of what to do with the EDMED terms that are not in either the IHO or CSR lists. 

Your thoughts?

Cheers, Roy.

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