Part 1: EDCS Version 3.0 Documentation

Part 2: EDCS Version 2.9 Differences from EDCS Version 3.0

Part 3: Mapping Environmental Concepts to the EDCS Version 3.0

1. EDCS Version 2.9 to EDCS Version 3.0
2. FACC Edition 2.1 to EDCS Version 3.0

The following links provide additional information on the content and implementation of EDCS 3.0:

• Dictionaries:
  • EDCS Classification Dictionary
  • EDCS Attribute and Enumerant Dictionaries
  • EDCS Attribute Value Metadata Dictionary
  • EDCS Unit, Scale, and Unit Equivalence Class Dictionaries
  • EDCS Organization Schema and Group Dictionaries


• Function and Type Definitions:
  • EDCS Functions
  • EDCS Type Definitions

Although the EDCS Version 2.9 implements much of the functionality of EDCS Version 3.0, the capability provided by the EDCS Version 2.9 is less general, less complete, and is tied to specific legacy environmental data coding solutions. Major differences in Version 2.9 as compared to Version 3.0 are as follows:

• Definitions were less consistently stylized, and unstructured.
• The syntax of labels was different in relatively minor ways.
• Codes were previously implemented as strings (4 or 5 character) rather than integers.
• There were no reference types or references.
• Attribute value-types were C-language dependent.
• Attribute value metadata was handled inconsistently among the value-types (or in many cases, not at all)
• Units of measure were not SI-compliant, and were implemented as a C enumeration data type.
• Scales were embedded within units of measure.
• No concept of unit equivalence existed, and the value-conversion capability was limited.
• Organizational schemas, and groups, did not exist.

Concepts encoded using the EDCS Version 2.9 are encoded differently using the EDCS Version 3.0, however essentially all concepts supported by EDCS Version 2.9 are also supported by EDCS Version 3.0, albeit sometimes using a combination of several EDCS Version 3.0 "more primitive" concepts. For details on the mapping of concepts from EDCS Version 2.9 to Version 3.0, see EDCS Version 2.9 to EDCS Version 3.0

Concepts may be mapped from other environmental data coding systems to the EDCS Version 3.0, and vice versa. Several such mappings have been completed, and more are currently in development. Each consists of both a set of data files which declaratively specify how concepts from another environmental data coding system are individually expressed using concepts in the EDCS Version 3.0, and an associated functional API which allows application developers to integrate a standard implementation of those concept-to-concept mappings into their application.

The following subsections provide additional information on these environmental concept mappings.

• Mapping Index
• Concept Mapping
• Mapping API

• Mapping Index
• Concept Mapping
• Mapping API