Extension(s): Crop Classification

[m-mohr]

@ivorbosloper wrote:

There are many crop classification systems, but there is not one to rule them all. The right classification system is the one that fits your purpose. Biologists use a taxonomy. Retailers look at how products end up on the shelf. Many European open datasets use a code list that fits the specific implementation of the CAP policy in a member state for a specific year. Earth Observation crop classes are designed so they can identified with high accuracy.

There are some international lists with authority (there’s probably more)

• EPPO https://www.eppo.int/RESOURCES/eppo_databases/eppo_codes
• FAO https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/ess/documents/world_census_of_agriculture/appendix3_r7.pdf

I think the best approach for harmonising data sets is to 1) always keep the original coding system of the source data in place, and then 2) add additional, more generic classifications.

The HCAT system works well for CAP-based open data sets. It seems like a good candidate, but to make it a standard it should be embedded in some institution, with change management procedures and version control. I’m not aware how well that’s organised currently.

And then again, within the fiboa standardisation system you don’t have to decide on a ‘single final’ classification. But for distributing harmonised data sets, it would be useful to pick a useful candidate. It’s quite some work transforming data sets.

[m-mohr]

Discussion points from yesterday:

• HCAT seems pretty good, especially as it is a hierarchy and thus allows different granularity. Should ideally be extended to worldwide, but it‘s a lot of work which seems out of scope for fiboa. Should we write a blog post around extending HCAT? Maybe get in touch with HCAT authors?
• Maybe we could map between HCAT / EPPO / FAO? They have different usecases though.
• Generally it seems not very fruitful to just create extensions without a dataset that implements it directly, so we may just wait for others to build extensions

[ivorbosloper]

We now have the crop extension that solves this issue. We've changed most of the converters to adopt this extension. If convert & publish the datasets again, the datasets will automatically implement this extension.

[ivorbosloper]

Additionally, I still would go for the HCAT extension as a generic coding scheme. Adopt HCAT, include some more crops outside of Europe in HCAT, and add it to every relevant dataset....