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What is a Significant Event?

Stephen Epps edited this page Aug 9, 2016 · 1 revision

##What is a Significant Event?

As the world is in a state of constant change, Who's on First (WOF) records are constantly changing too. With most record changes, a simple property update and update to thewof:lastmodified property is sufficient. However, if a Significant Event takes place, additional work is needed.

You might be asking yourself... what exactly is a Significant Event?

Updates that qualify as a Significant Event:

  • Changes to the wof:placetype.
  • Changes to the geometry, where more than 50% (area or length) is added or removed.
  • Moving a feature's location more than (roughly) ten kilometers or five miles from it's original location.

Some things that are grey areas:

  • Changing the wof:parent_id (updating the hierarchy).
  • Disputed areas that are claimed by more than one parent id.
  • Geometry changes that are less than 50% (area or length).
  • Name changes that change the name, but not the spelling of the name.

If a WOF record is updated due to a Significant Event, a new record should be made and the following updates should be made:

#####Existing/Old Record

  • Update the old record's superseded_by property to include the new record's wof:id.
  • Add/update old record's the edtf_deprecated property with the date of the new record's creation (format: YYYY-MM-DD).

#####New Record

  • Update the new record's supersedes property to include the old record's wof:id.

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