This document discusses geo-referencing concepts for fisheries data interoperability. It describes different levels of geo-referencing including geographic coordinates, classification systems like gridded and area systems, and coding systems. It also discusses metadata and data standards like ISO 19115 that can provide metadata for fisheries data. Finally, it presents the need for standard services and formats to help publish and share fisheries data.

1. Geo-referencing concepts for
fisheries data interoperability
Emmanuel Blondel
Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN
Fisheries & Aquaculture Department
emmanuel.blondel@fao.org RDA 9th Plenary meeting
06/04/2017 – Barcelone, Spain

2. Geo-referencing concepts for
fisheries data interoperability
• Synergy between RDA Fisheries Data
interoperability WG and Coordinating Working
Party on Fishery Statistics
• Scope and definitions
• Scope of “Fisheries data”?
• Geo-referencing / geographic dimension
• Geo-referencing for fisheries data
• Levels of geo-referencing
• Data and Metadata standards
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain

3. CWP GIS task group
CWP: Coordinating Working Party on Fishery
Statistics (http://www.fao.org/fishery/cwp/en),
comprising several international organizations
with responsibilities in fishery statistics Format
GIS task group: 3 activities
1- Provide recommendations on spatial gridded systems
for fisheries data reporting
2- Strengthening promotion and implementation of
geographic information standards & best practices
3- Inventory GIS reference datasets and layers relevant
for fishery & aquaculture
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain

4. Scope and Definitions
Fisheries data?
Fishery(-dependent) data
Commercial / recreational sources
Amount (catch, landings), Effort
By-catch, Discarded species
Fishery(-independent) data
Scientific surveys
Biological data, Acoustic data, Environmental data
Fishery information & knowledge management
Reference geographic datasets
Derivate datasets & information
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain

5. Scope and Definitions
Geo-referencing levels
1- Geo-coordinates (raw)
2- Classification systems
Spatial locations / sites
Gridded systems
(aggregated)
Area systems (aggregated)
3- Coding systems
Grid Encoding/Decoding
systems
Code lists (Area types, Areas)
Registries
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain

6. Scope and Definitions
Geo-referencing levels
4- (Meta)data Formats in
support to geo-referencing
Standard vs. Non-standard
GIS oriented
Statistics oriented
5- Web-Services in support to
geo-referencing
Standard vs. Non-standard
GIS oriented
Statistics oriented
1- Geo-coordinates (raw)
2- Classification systems
Spatial locations / sites
Gridded systems
(aggregated)
Area systems (aggregated)
3- Coding systems
Grid Encoding/Decoding
systems
Code lists (Area types, Areas)
Registries
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain

7. Geo-referencing levels
Geographic coordinates
Raw locations (finest resolution), Longitude / Latitude
Writing conventions
Decimal Degrees (DD) – preferred
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (DMS)
Standards & best practices:
OGC Simple Feature Specification + WKT
Integrated formats
CSV (non-standard, combined with WKT)
OGC GeoJSON
OGC GML
Metadata requirements
Positioning System (e.g. GPS), Material, Precision
Geographic Reference System / RS, projected systems
WGS84, North American, ED50, OSGB36
Standards & best practices:
EPSG code & URN notation
urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
OGC WKT CRS
Axis Ordering: Lon/Lat (x/y) or Lat/Lon
OGC Axis ordering policy http://www.ogcnetwork.net/node/491
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Source: GeoServer

8. Geo-referencing levels
Classification and Coding systems
Classification systems
Area Grid systems (polygon)
Regular
Type of unit
(square, rectangle)
Grid resolution
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Coding systems
Encoding/Decoding mechanisms
Pros:
Bridge to/from Statistics domain
(and other standards)
Coding systems Interoperability
Facilitated by data management tools
(e.g. i-Marine/BlueBridge)
Flexibility for data managers
Suitable for aggregated and
summarized public data
Cons:
Aggregated data
Interoperability is partial (depends on
coding systems characteristics,
resolution).
• Areal Grid coding system
Currently recommended by the CWP on Fishery Statistics
http://www.fao.org/fishery/cwp/handbook/G/en
Only used by IOTC (Tuna RFMO), FAO (for Tuna Atlas)
• C-squares coding system
http://www.cmar.csiro.au/csquares/about-csquares.htm
• ICES rectangles
http://www.ices.dk/marine-data/maps/Pages/ICES-
statistical-rectangles.aspx

9. Geo-referencing levels
Classification and Coding systems
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Source: FAO / CWP

10. RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Geo-referencing levels
Classification and Coding systems
8.20 (lon)
38.77 (lat)
6134005 (Areal grid system – 5deg)
1300:4 (C-squares – 5deg)
06F8 (ICES rectangle)1300:488 (C-squares – 1deg)

11. Geo-referencing levels
Classification and Coding systems
Classification systems
Area systems (polygon)
Aggregated
Irregular
Possible hierarchies / breakdown
Statistical areas, Reporting areas,
Jurisdictional areas, Competence areas
Management areas (protected, restrictions,
closures) / units, etc.
Locations / Sites (point)
Ports, landing sites, sampling sites, etc.
Transects (line)
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Coding systems
Geo-codelists
Registries

12. Geo-referencing levels
Area system classification for fisheries data?
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
No Fisheries data area types common vocabulary
Towards building fisheries data vocabularies
(definitions, code list)?
ISO 19115 Topic categories
? ?
?
Fishery Statistical area
Reporting area
Competence area
Jurisdiction areaManagement unit
Asssessment /
Distribution area Fishing area

13. Geo-referencing levels
GIS & Integrated Fisheries data formats
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Geometry formats fishery data
In the GIS domain
OGC Simple Feature / WKT
OGC GML / GeoJSON
In the Statistics domain
SDMX: No support for geometry. Requires geo-classification systems
(grid coding systems, codelists / registries)
Integrated fishery data formats (combining geographic data with other
concepts and dimensions, and statistical values)
In the GIS domain
CSV (+WKT)
OGC GML / GeoJSON
No real support for Data Structure Definition (DSD)
e.g. GML FeatureType description is incomplete
Need for enriching data with DSD
In the Statistics domain
SDMX formats
Support for Data Structure Definitions

14. Geo-referencing levels
GIS Metadata standards in support to fisheries data
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
ISO/OGC geographic metadata standards
ISO 19115 – Geographic metadata
19115:2003, 19115:2014 revision, ISO 19139 – XML
Relevant metadata elements in support to fisheries data discovery
(non-exhaustive list)
Fisheries data vocabularies / global attributes
Topic Categories: limited (too general)
Keywords Set / Thesaurus: flexible
• possibility to handle custom and multiple thesaurus for data
geographic dimension (fishery area types) or other concepts (species,
gear, etc.)
• simple keywords or URIs
Data extents: Geographic, Temporal, Vertical
ISO 19110 – Feature Cataloguing
Extending ISO 19115 geographic metadata
Usable for fishery data structure definitions?
NetCDF-CF: metadata & data structure elements, mapping to ISO metadata

15. Geo-referencing levels
Standard services in support to fisheries data
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
GIS domain
Data access/discovery services
OGC Web Feature/Map Service (WFS/WMS)
Data as GML, GeoJSON, CSV
OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS)?
Unidata / OpenDAP
Data/Metadata as NetCDF
OGC Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW)
ISO/OGC 19115-19119 Metadata, 19139 (XML)
(+ ISO 19110 – Feature Cataloguing)
Statistical domain
Data access/discovery services
SDMX APIs
Data retrieval (client) services available for users and machines

16. Geo-referencing levels
RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
DATAMETADATA
Geo-coordinates Classif. systems Coding systems GIS
formats
Web
services
• Reporting spatial
Reference System(s)
• Positioning system,
material, precision
Geographic coordinates
• Raw locations
• Decimal Degrees
• Deg/Minutes/Seconds
(as “text” information)
Location / Sites
Transects
Area systems
Aggregated - Irregular
Grid systems
Aggregated - Regular
Registries
Landing sites
Area code lists
Stat. areas, admin. units,
Fishing area, jurisdiction,
Square-based systems
Areal grid, C-square
Rectangle-based systems
ICES rectangles
Registry of Reference
systems
• Registry / code list
management metadata
• Grid coding systems
- definition, methodogy
- grid resolution
- Encoding/decoding rules
• SRS EPSG registry
OGC GML, GeoJSON, KML
OpenDAP
Thredds
ISO/OGC 19115/19119, 19139 XML
ISO 19110 – Feature Cataloguing,
for data structures
SDMX -ML,
SDMX JSON
Data, Data
Structure
OGC
WFS (data)
WMS (maps)
OGC SFS/WKT
OGC WKT CRS
Unidata / OGC
netCDF –CF
OGC CSW
SDMX APIs
ESRI Shapefile
CSV, JSON
Integrated
formats
Other GIS formats & services?
Other Stat. formats & services?
SDMX APIs?

17. FAO Fisheries knowledge base
Aquatic Species
distributions
Vulnerable Marine
Ecosystems
FIRMS Stocks &
Fisheries
Regional
Fishery Bodies
Vulnerable Marine
Ecosystems
Sharks conservation/
management measures
Port State
measures
FIRMS Stocks
& Fisheries
Regional
Fishery Bodies
Aquatic
species
Thematic Map Viewers
Factsheet Maps
FAO Fisheries & Aquaculture
Geo-referenced Knowledge Base

18. OGC/ISO 19115-19139 INSPIREOGC / CSW
OGC GeoAPI
OGC / WMS
OGC / WFS
Metadata enforcing

19. Metadata enforcing
ASFIS
WoRMS
OGC/ISO 19115-19139 INSPIREOGC / CSW
OGC GeoAPI
Standard Vocabularies
(species names & codes)
Link to other domain systems
Statistics, Linked Open Data
Interoperability with other
Search Engines
OGC / WMS
OGC / WFS

20. Metadata enforcing
OGC/ISO 19115-19139 INSPIREOGC / CSW

21. RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Metadata enforcing
Data & Metadata publication flows
GIS fishery reference data collections
GIS Enforcing Metadata and Semantics (GEMS)
Built on standards
OGC GeoAPI, OGC WMS/WFS, ISO/OGC
19115/19139 metadata
Java technology:
Apache SIS / Geotoolkit for ISO Metadata
production
API Client libraries: GeoServer / GeoNetwork
managers
Supported by

22. RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Metadata enforcing – Emerging needs
Increasing Need to create, publish, update metadata in
flexible way
Mapping metadata:
To data harmonization/processings/models outputs
From existing metadata sources NetCDF-CF
Generating metadata through easy-to-use scripting
approach.
Pushing on R open solutions (packages) for:
ISO/OGC 19139 metadata model (read, write)
Interfaces to GIS Data / Metadata publication APIs
Building metadata templating solutions, relying on common
fisheries data vocabularies (for spatial and other data
dimensions)

23. RDA 9th Plenary, April 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Metadata enforcing – Emerging needs
RDA Use Case – Tuna fisheries data Atlas
Mainly supported by i-Marine/BlueBridge, and building on
shared FAO GIS knowledge & practices.
Work with BlueBridge partners (FAO, IRD, CNR, etc.)
Objectives: Building on CWP and RDA recommandations:
Standardized, transparent and sustainable data
ingestion flow from Tuna RFMOs into a common Tuna
fisheries database.
Standard public access & discovery of Tuna regional and
global fishery geo-referenced datasets, annotated with
harmonized fisheries data vocabularies, through
complementary Geospatial (OGC) and Statistical
approaches
Enhanced Tuna fisheries data portal

24. Thanks for your
attention