British Oceanographic Data Centre Parameter Usage Vocabulary

The BODC Parameter Dictionary has been completely overhauled during 2004 and now consists of integrated parameter usage and parameter discovery vocabularies. The BODC Parameter Usage Vocabulary may be used as a tool to label a measurement with information on what it is and how it was obtained. The scope and level of detail for this information differs significantly from term to term.

The vocabulary consists of a markup key (an 8-byte alphanumeric string) plus a descriptive term that has been constructed by the automatic concatenation of a large number of atomic items of information (‘semantic elements’) controlled by fixed vocabularies that make up the dictionary semantic model.

Recommendations for storage units and field formatting information are also held for each key, but these are intended primarily for BODC internal usage and should not be viewed as ‘standards’.

The vocabulary currently has over 17,000 entries covering physical, chemical, biological and geological oceanographic measurements. All of these have descriptions based on the semantic model, which is being physically implemented during 2005. However, all terms in the dictionary may be used with confidence: although term syntax may change, the semantics associated with any given key will in no way change.