Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

quantitykind:Altitude vs Latitude, Longitude; related quantitykinds #379

Open
VladimirAlexiev opened this issue Apr 14, 2021 · 24 comments
Open

Comments

@VladimirAlexiev
Copy link

There is quantitykind:Altitude, a specialization of quantitykind:Length

quantitykind:Altitude
  qudt:hasDimensionVector <http://qudt.org/vocab/dimensionvector/A0E0L1I0M0H0T0D0> ;
  skos:broader quantitykind:Length ;

But there aren't Latitude, Longitude as specializations of Angle
I find this inconsistent. Please decide whether to create Latitude, Longitude or to drop Altitude.

Also, there aren't Speed of ascent, Speed of descent as specializations of Speed.
But I feel less strongly about this, because there'd be no end (we can then have "acceleration of descent", etc etc).

--

Are there any principles when to create quantitykind "specializations"?

I was surprised to find that the dimension vectors of some quantity kinds and their specializations are different, eg:

  • quantitykind:AbsoluteHumidity is A0E0L-3I0M1H0T0D0 (same as quantitykind:Density) but has applicableUnit unit:UNITLESS? I think that's wrong?
  • quantitykind:MassDensity and quantitykind:Density are both A0E0L-3I0M1H0T0D0 but there's no relation between them? Isn't one of them superfluous?
  • quantitykind:AmountOfSubstancePerUnitMass and quantitykind:AmountOfSubstancePerUnitVolume are both specializations of quantitykind:Concentration, but of course have different vectors, and so quantitykind:Concentration has no vector. This makes sense: quantitykind:Concentration is a conceptual (abstract) quantity kind.

In general, I think the following quantity kinds need to be examined:

  • pairs with the same dimension vector but no relation between them
  • pairs with a relation but different dimension vectors
  • kinds with no dimension vectors
@steveraysteveray
Copy link
Collaborator

@VladimirAlexiev, many good points, as usual.

  • I agree with your proposal for Latitude and Longitude.
  • We generally support the "crowdsourcing" philosophy of including quantity kind specializations when somebody asks for them (or submits them in a PR).
  • All quantity kinds in a given skos:broader hierarchy should have the same dimensionality, so any examples where they do not is an error.
  • I'm not seeing unit:UNITLESS for quantitykind:AbsoluteHumidity. What version of QUDT are you using?
  • Some quantity kinds with the same dimensionality are not necessarily related by skos:broader. See Note 2 here
  • You correctly understood why we do not have a dimensionality for the abstract term Concentration
  • Sometimes we retain a "commonly used" term like Density as well as the more precise term MassDensity, so that people can find what they are looking for. You are correct that strictly speaking it is redundant. There is an owl:sameAs relation between the two, although I am having second thoughts about using owl:sameAs because of constraint checks. We might move to something less formal like rdfs:seeAlso.
  • And finally, at last count, we still have 336 of the 848 quantity kinds that are missing dimension vectors, but only 204 of them are referred to by units. So much to do, so little time...

@dr-shorthair
Copy link
Contributor

dr-shorthair commented Apr 15, 2021

Altitude, latitude, longitude are not specializations of length, they are specializations of position. There is a datum (offset) and direction involved, whereas length is an absolute quantity.

Geometry is complicated. There are detailed standards available from OGC and ISO. For coordinate systems which are required for elevation/latitude/longitude/easting/northing etc - see ISO 19111:2018 (the link is to OGC version which is not paywalled).

@VladimirAlexiev
Copy link
Author

@dr-shorthair I was just about to write that if we introduce Latitude, Longitude, we should make them abstract quantitykinds, with two specializations:

  • LatitudeAngle, LongitudeAngle (same dimensionality as Angle)
  • Easting, Northing (same dimensionality as Length)

But this wouldn't express the origin:

  • afaik, Easting, Northing are always used with some local origin, which would be different eg in the UK vs China
  • apart from Earth, there are other celestial bodies. Eg Wikidata has a "data subproperty" "globe" to qualify the datatype Coordinates.

Converting between CRS'es is a complicated matter and I don't think QUDT wants to replicate all the CRS info and conversion algorithms collected by OGC.

Altitude, latitude, longitude are not specializations of length, they are specializations of position.

But there's no quantitykind Position and if there were, it would be extremely abstract because there are so many ways to position yourself in the universe.

@nicholascar what do you think?

@nicholascar
Copy link

I don’t thing QUDT should move into the spatial space, other than listing spastic UoMs.

I’ve urged OGC to look to signing up to the QUDT consortium to assist in maintaining QUDT and to influence its governance, but the expected way forward here is for QUDT to stick to metrology and for OGC to use QuDT for all units etc.

Perhaps, in the fullness of time, QUDT might become an OGC standard... It would not be the first time an externally-developed thing became a standard (think KML, GeoJSON, etc).

@dr-shorthair
Copy link
Contributor

@VladimirAlexiev yes, altitude/elevation/depth/latitude/longitude/easting/northing might be conceptualized as quantity-kinds, but we do need to be careful about confusing quantities and coordinates. I feel that QUDT should probably focus on scalar quantities, and leave coordinates to the more specialized communities that use those routinely. In the case of altitude/elevation/depth/latitude/longitude/easting/northing there is a respectable and rigorous organization that is doing this - OGC.

@VladimirAlexiev
Copy link
Author

@dr-shorthair @nicholascar So your opinion is to kill quantitykind:Altitude? I agree.

About OGC adoption: GS1 are hesitant to adopt QUDT because it's not vetted by a Standards-Developing Organization (SDO). At least they'll conform their developing list of 71 MeasurementTypes to QUDT's quantityKinds (see gs1/EPCIS#248), but I think will copy them to a gs1:QK- namespace, believing that will bring them more assurance and stability.

I tried to convince them that the best way to ensure QUDT stability and evolution is to contribute to it, not just copy from it. I tried to convince them to step in to fill the former role of NASA, but ...
I think that if OGC steps in, GS1 will follow suit, and we'll all have one big happy family.

@dr-shorthair
Copy link
Contributor

Yes - I think it would be best if QUDT removed quantitykind:Altitude - it is outside the scope of QUDT.

@nicholascar
Copy link

I agree with Simon

@steveraysteveray
Copy link
Collaborator

Very interesting discussion, and thanks to @nicholascar and @VladimirAlexiev for advocating for more direct involvement by OGC and GS1 to help QUDT remain a viable and sustainable infrastructure upon which others can build. We do in fact have infrastructure costs to keep QUDT going, which currently come out of our personal pockets, and none of us are paid to work on QUDT, so support by helping with contributions, or with cold hard cash makes a big difference!

To the subject at hand, if we remove quantitykind:Altitude, then by the same logic would we not also remove quantitykind:Temperature? It exhibits the same behavior - units are scales with a datum (Celsius,...) just like units of Altitude. Just looking for consistency here.

@JoelBender
Copy link

JoelBender commented Apr 18, 2021

DEG_C has a quantitykind Temperature but not a ThermodynamicTemperature. It also has a quantitykind CelsiusTemperature, but it's the only one that is, and I would have expected MilliDEG_C to have one.

@jhodgesatmb
Copy link
Collaborator

jhodgesatmb commented Apr 18, 2021 via email

@nicholascar
Copy link

To the subject at hand, if we remove quantitykind:Altitude, then by the same logic would we not also remove quantitykind:Temperature

The decision to include or remove a domain from QUDT is surely only related to scientific considerations. Surely the absence or presence of other, related, actors in the Semantic Web are important too, since multiple organizations have their parts to play in this networked information.

So here, the fact that the OGC (and even the ISO TC211) exist and are involved with Semantic Web things has bearing on QUDT's decisions around quantitykind:Altitude. Surely if Altitude and other spatial things are "adequately handled" from a Semantic Web viewpoint, then QUDT shouldn't move into that space. If not, then it should. Same for temperature: is there a standards or other organization with a good Semantic Web handling of temperature such that QUDT need not implement things?

My best guess is that QUDT should work with temperature and probably is already the Semantic Web's go-to place for temperature quantity kinds, units etc. but that QUDT should not work to replicate Semantic Web spatiality, given the OGC and other's long-time work in the field. As Simon's noted above, perhaps QUDT can stick to scalar values?

Current work with GeoSPARQL 1.1 is introducing a SpatialMeasure class and right this week I'm working on examples of QUT scalar measurements using SpatialMeasure alongside GeoSPARQL Geometry examples which, hopefully, both QUDT and OGC people can comment on. GeoSPARQL 1.1 will be out for full public review shortly, so please do weigh in officially on that draft.

@jhodgesatmb
Copy link
Collaborator

jhodgesatmb commented Apr 18, 2021 via email

@dr-shorthair
Copy link
Contributor

@jhodgesatmb Which 'altitude' do you mean?
The EPSG database (which is generally seen as the most up to date inventory of geodetic systems) has 220 distinct vertical reference systems.

@dr-shorthair
Copy link
Contributor

[Altitude] is a specialization of height which is a specialization of distance which is a specialization of length which is a quantity kind.

No - Altitude or elevation is not a specialization of length. It is a measure of offset in a specified direction from a specified reference level, which in turn varies according to lateral position.

@jhodgesatmb
Copy link
Collaborator

jhodgesatmb commented Apr 18, 2021 via email

@jhodgesatmb
Copy link
Collaborator

jhodgesatmb commented Apr 18, 2021 via email

@ralphtq
Copy link
Collaborator

ralphtq commented Apr 18, 2021 via email

@steveraysteveray
Copy link
Collaborator

In support of @jhodgesatmb's point about QUDT's goal of being inclusive, I'd suggest we keep Altitude in the vocabulary, with reference(s) to the OGC entities that correspond. Consistent with how we provide cross-references to other standards, we could invent a new property, something like qudt:ogcMatch (analogous to qudt:dbpediaMatch), or just use rdfs:seeAlso.

@dr-shorthair
Copy link
Contributor

dr-shorthair commented Apr 24, 2021

@jhodgesatmb You can think of altitude as a distance rather than a length, but distance is always measured from a location. For elevation or altitude this is in a specified direction from a reference level. The direction is vertical, i.e. parallel to the gravity vector, and measured positive upwards. The reference level or datum is usually a spheroid, defined by spherical harmonics (to order 300+), which is at different heights relative to the centre of the earth at different locations, to approximate 'the geoid', which is the surface corresponding to local sea-level.

But the main point here is that altitude or elevation is strictly not a quantity, it is a coordinate. It only feels like a simple quantity if you make assumptions about the reference level - probably 'mean sea level', and the direction - up (compare to 'down', which gives you depth rather than elevation/altitude). For many purposes that is 'good enough' but I don't think 'good enough' is the goal of QUDT. As I mentioned, the reference dataset for geodesy records more than 200 vertical reference systems in use around the world.

It is unhelpful to pretend it is simpler than that, particularly as there are recognised authorities for geodesy. (I don't accept the proposition that Wikipedia or the Merriam-Webster dictionary are a superior authority for geodetic concepts.)

@dr-shorthair
Copy link
Contributor

And yes @steveraysteveray Celsius and Fahrenheit scales do not measure quantities, they measure position on a temperature scale. As @JoelBender points out, ThermodynamicTemperature (the Kelvin scale) is a quantity, while the more familiar Temperature is not.

@VladimirAlexiev
Copy link
Author

@jhodgesatmb

  • Temperature is easy to define and convert using QUDT's Factor+Offset parameters
    • though I don't know of any other quantity kind using Offset, so even this small complication is a bit unsavory to me)
  • Latitude, Longitude (or Easting, Northing) are hard to define and convert, EPSG and OGC have collected at least 5k CRS and transformations between them. It makes no sense for QUDT to redo this work, so nobody has tried (never proposed as quantity kinds)
  • I thought Altitude is much simpler but as @dr-shorthair points out, there are 220 vertical CRS, and I'm sure they cannot be converted using merely Factor+Offset

@VladimirAlexiev
Copy link
Author

@dr-shorthair @nicholascar could you please weigh in on gs1/EPCIS#266 ?

@dr-shorthair
Copy link
Contributor

I'm sure they cannot be converted using merely Factor+Offset

Definitely not, since they are location dependent.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment
Labels
None yet
Projects
None yet
Development

No branches or pull requests

7 participants