File download field documentation

File download fields documentation

This page describes the fields used in the occurrence record files downloaded from FinBIF. See also instructions how to get the data correctly into Excel.

This documentation will be updated later to better describe the data. File format has not been finalized and will change in the future.

The uncompressed zip-file contains several text files:

• rows: This file contains basic information about the occurrences. If you are not using data collected by a research projects, it’s usually enough to use just this file.
• gathering_facts: Contains project-specific fields about gathering event (e.g. biotope or observation methods).
• unit_facts: Contains  project-specific fields about occurrence (e.g. characteristics of an individual).

Rows-file documentation

Data fields in this file are organized into three levels:

1. Document: Metadata about the record. A document contains one to multiple gatherings.
2. Gathering: Collecting event -related information about the record. A gathering contains one to multiple units.
3. Unit: Observation/individual -related information about the record.

This table describes the fields, gives their type (string, int, boolean or enum (= controlled vocabulary)). The last column shows whether the field contains an interpretation of the original data., made by FinBIF data warehouse.

Field	Description	Type	Interpreted?	Examples of enum values
Unit.UnitID	Persistent identifier for the unit	string
Unit.TaxonVerbatim	Verbatim taxon name entered by the user	string
Unit.Quality.Issue.Issue	(not usually used yet)
Unit.Quality.Issue.Source	(not usually used yet)
Unit.Quality.Issue.Message	(not usually used yet)
Unit.Quality.Taxon.Reliability	Quality rating for the identification	enum		RELIABLE, LIKELY, NEUTRAL, SUSPICIOUS, IMPOSSIBLE
Unit.Quality.Taxon.Source	Source of the identification quality rating	enum		COLLECTION_QUALITY_RATING, USER_ANNOTATION, ORIGINAL_OBSERVER
Unit.Quality.Taxon.Message	(not usually used yet)
Unit.ReportedTaxonConfidence	Confidence for identification in the original source	enum		SURE, UNSURE, SUBSPECIES_UNSURE
Taxon.ID	Persistent identifier of the taxon	string	TRUE
Taxon.ScientificName	Scientific name	string	TRUE
Taxon.FinnishName	Finnish name	string	TRUE
Taxon.EnglishName	English name	string	TRUE
Taxon.SwedishName	Swedish name	string	TRUE
Taxon.TaxonomicOrder	Integer for the taxonomic order of the taxon	int	TRUE
Unit.NameAccordingTo	(not usually used yet)
Unit.Abundance	Abundance description	string
Unit.Interpretations.AnnotatedTaxonId	Persistent identifier of the taxon, if the identification has changed based on an annotation	string	TRUE
Unit.Interpretations.IndividualCount	Number of individuals, interpreted automatically based on Unit.Abundance	int	TRUE
Unit.Interpretations.PairCount	(not usually used yet)
Unit.RecordBasis	Type of the record	enum		HUMAN_OBSERVATION_UNSPECIFIED, PRESERVED_SPECIMEN
Unit.DetailedRecordBasis	More detailed type of the record	enum
Unit.TypeSpecimen	Is the  record about a type specimen	boolean
Unit.Det	Person who made the identification (det). Free text from the source, usually Firstname, Lastname.	string
Unit.Sex	Sex/gender of the indiviudual(s)	enum
Unit.LifeStage	Life stage of the indiviudual(s)	enum
Unit.Wild	Is the individual wild or not	boolean
Unit.BreedingSite	Is the observation about a breeding site	boolean
Unit.IndividualID	(not usually used yet)
Unit.InvasiveControl	Control/eradication measures taken against invasive species	enum
Unit.Notes	Notes about the unit	string
Unit.AnnotationCount	Number od comments about the unit	int
Unit.MediaCount	Number of media files in the unit	int
Gathering.GatheringID	Persistent identifier for the gathering	string
Gathering.Quality.Issue.Issue	Problems which have been automatically detected in locality information.	enum	TRUE	COORDINATES_MUNICIPALITY_MISMATCH, INVALID_YKJ_COORDINATES, TOO_LARGE_AREA
Gathering.Quality.Issue.Source	Source of issues – where the locality problems have been detected	enum	TRUE	AUTOMATED_FINBIF_VALIDATION, ORIGINAL_DOCUMENT
Gathering.Quality.Issue.Message	Description of locality problems	string
Gathering.Date.Begin	Begin date	string
Gathering.Date.End	End date. If end date has not been given, this is same as begin date.	string
Gathering.HourBegin	Begin hour	int
Gathering.HourEnd	End hour. If end time has not been given, this is empty.	int
Gathering.DisplayDateTime	Dates and times as one string	string	TRUE	2019-08-02 [12:00] – 2019-08-04 [19:00]
Gathering.TeamMembers	List of observers, separated by semicolons Names are free text from the source, usually Firstname, Lastname.	string
Gathering.Conversions.WGS84.LatMin(N)	WGS84 bounding box coordinates	decimal	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.WGS84.LatMax(N)	WGS84 bounding box coordinates	decimal	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.WGS84.LonMin(E)	WGS84 bounding box coordinates	decimal	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.WGS84.LonMax(E)	WGS84 bounding box coordinates	decimal	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.WGS84CenterPoint.Lat(N)	WGS84 decimal degree center point	decimal	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.WGS84CenterPoint.Lon(E)	WGS84 decimal degree center point	decimal	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.YKJ.LatMin(N)	Finnish uniform grid coordinate bounding box	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.YKJ.LatMax(N)	Finnish uniform grid coordinate bounding box	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.YKJ.LonMin(E)	Finnish uniform grid coordinate bounding box	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.YKJ.LonMax(E)	Finnish uniform grid coordinate bounding box	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.EUREF.LatMin(N)	EUREF coordinate bounding box	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.EUREF.LatMax(N)	EUREF coordinate bounding box	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.EUREF.LonMin(E)	EUREF coordinate bounding box	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.EUREF.LonMax(E)	EUREF coordinate bounding box	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.YKJ_10KM.Lat(N)	Finnish uniform 10 km grid coordinate northing	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.YKJ_10KM.Lon(E)	Finnish uniform 10 km grid coordinate easting	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.YKJ_1KM.Lat(N)	Finnish uniform 1 km grid coordinate northing	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.YKJ_1KM.Lon(E)	Finnish uniform 1 km grid coordinate easting	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.Century	Century. If spans multiple, this is empty.	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.Decade	Decade. If spans multiple, this is empty.	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.Year	Year. If spans multiple, this is empty.	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.Month	Month. If spans multiple, this is empty.	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.Day	Day. If spans multiple, this is empty.	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.DayOfYearBegin	Begin date day of year.	int	TRUE
Gathering.Conversions.DayOfYearEnd	End date day of year.	int	TRUE
Gathering.Interpretations.CoordinateAccuracy	Coordinate accuracy estimate in meters	int	TRUE
Gathering.Interpretations.CoordinateSource	Source of the coordinates.	enum	TRUE	REPORTED_VALUE, FINNISH_MUNICIPALITY
Gathering.Interpretations.Country	Country	string	TRUE
Gathering.Interpretations.Bioprovince	Biogeographical province  (Eliömaakunta in Finnish)	string	TRUE
Gathering.Interpretations.Municipality	Municipality	string	TRUE
Gathering.Interpretations.CountrySource	Source of country name	string	TRUE	REPORTED_VALUE, COORDINATES, COORDINATE_CENTERPOINT
Gathering.Interpretations.BioProvinceSource	Source of biogeographical province name	string	TRUE
Gathering.Interpretations.MunicipalitySource	Source of municipality name	string	TRUE
Gathering.HigherGeographyVerbatim	Verbatim name from original source for higher region than country	string
Gathering.CountryVerbatim	Verbatim country name from original source	string
Gathering.MunicipalityVerbatim	Verbatim municipality name from original source	string
Gathering.BioProvinceVerbatim	Verbatim biogeographical province name from original source	string
Gathering.ProvinceVerbatim	Verbatim administrative province name from original source	string
Gathering.LocalityVerbatim	Verbatim locality name from original source	string
Gathering.Notes	Notes about the gathering	string
Gathering.MediaCount	Number of media files in the gathering	int
Document.DocumentID	Persistent identifier for the document that contains the record	string
Document.DataConcealment	Whether data is concealed. Always PUBLIC if data is downloaded through public channels.	enum		PUBLIC
Document.DataSecureLevel	Level of data concealment. Always NONE  if data is downloaded through public channels.	enum		NONE
Document.DataSecureReasons	Reason tha data is coarsened	enum
Document.PartialDocument	Whther part of the observations from the document have been concealed	boolean
Document.CollectionID	Persitent identifier of the collection that contains the record	string
Document.Quality.CollectionReliabilityRating	Reliability rating for the collection (1-5)	int
Document.Quality.Issue.Issue	(not usually used yet)
Document.Quality.Issue.Source	(not usually used yet)
Document.Quality.Issue.Message	(not usually used yet)
Document.SourceID	Persitent identifier of the primary information system where the record is from	string
Document.NamedPlaceID	Persistent identifier of the collecting locatlity, if such was used	string
Document.Keywords	Keywords for the document	string
Document.FirstLoadDate	Date the record was first loaded to FinBIF data warehouse	string
Document.LoadDate	Date the record was last loaded to FinBIF data warehouse	string
Document.Created	Date the record was originally created	string
Document.Modified	Date the record was last  modified	string
Document.Notes	Notes about the document	string
Document.MediaCount	Number of media files in the document	int