DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR MARITIME AFFAIRS AND FISHERIES
MEDITERRANEAN AND BLACK SEA
Integrated Fisheries Data Management
Brussels, 10 January 2014
MARE.D.4/MA
Note for the file
Subject: Release of MDR Location codes Version 1.6
1. Introduction
The Master Data Register code list file Code-location v1.6, released 19/12/2013, contains ports, landing places (PLP) and other locations for use in the Electronic Reporting System framework (ERS). This list is compliant with UN/LOCODE list 2013-2.
2. File content
Field Commentary
ISO-3 Country Code ISO-3 Country code
LOCODE Code Unique location code as assigned by UN/LOCODE. Ports or Landing Places (PLP) not (yet) included in UN/LOCODE are given a provisional (EU internal) code.
Description Place name, as written in conformity with section 3.3 of the UN/LOCODE manual.[1]
Coordinates Text string with latitude and longitude in degrees and minutes, as taken from UN/LOCODE.
Latitude Decimal degrees, to 3 decimal places.
Longitude Decimal degrees, to 3 decimal places.
EU Fish port Denotes whether or not the entry is derived from MS ERS list.
LOCODE Y/N Confirms whether or not the entry exists in UN/LOCODE.
ERS DP/LP Defined Port or Landing Place: If the PLP can be defined as a port under UN/LOCODE Recommendation 16 then DP. If PLP can be justified as a port on the basis of some other existing (national) classification or relevant compilation then DP, equating to UN Function code 1. If PLP is a landing place, not a port, then LP.
UN Function Code and the section of the table in blue
The Function code string is taken from the current release of UN/LOCODE. This section converts UN Function code to a field per function layout.
3. Construction
The core of the MDR file was constructed from the listings provided by 22 Member States, containing some 6,000 ports and landing places and including 145 ports located in territories outside the European Union but identified as used by the Member States' fleets for ERS reporting. Textual and spatial matches were carried out between this global ERS list and the UN/LOCODE inventory to determine which ERS PLPs already existed as places with an assigned LOCODE. At this stage there are more than one thousand ERS places which do not form part of the UN/LOCODE list. In these cases "provisional" codes have been allocated collaboratively between DG MARE and the MS (see above).
As regards quality control, apart from obvious errors such as unidentifiable points (out at sea, on top of mountains or in the middle of remote forests) places and their labels were checked for conformity with the guidelines set out in the UN/LOCODE Manual, aided by reference to Google Earth and principally addressing:
· Validity/availability of proposed codes, avoiding duplicates and adapting to codes being introduced by other users/sources at each 6-monthly update of UN/LOCODE.
· Prior existence of a place and corresponding place name in the current version of UN/LOCODE.
· Precision of coordinates: Correcting errors and coarse rounding (degrees to 3 decimal places).
· Proliferation or inconsistent use of abbreviations: E.g. S, St, Ste, St-, Ste-, with or without ".", for Saint(e).
· Detection of duplication caused by alternative or similar spelling, including abbreviations as above, including use of accented characters and including misuse of converted characters; e.g. ü = u, not ue, Å = A, not Aa.
· Arbitrary use of "-" and "/" within place names.
· Misuse of "( )": Used for sub-places and/or regionalisation but reserved in UN/LOCODE for alternative spellings (bi/multi-lingual countries).
· Joined (multi) places: Splitting of "PlaceA-PlaceB-PlaceC" type entries, where these places exist as separate entries in UN/LOCODE.
· Elimination of non-compliant, generic entries or points covering a wide or undefined area.
· Addition of regional qualifiers to differentiate common place names, in order to avoid duplicates; "SameTownName, RegionA", "SameTownName, RegionB".
Added to the file is a selection of 17,000 other worldwide locations (including many in EU countries) covering places of more general interest and which have been reliably verified. The criterion for this selection is derived from the Status field of UN/LOCODE, where it contains the value AA; "Approved by competent national government agency".
4. next updates
Due to a review of operations at UNECE no major additions of ERS PLPs are foreseen in the medium term. Nevertheless, new UN/LOCODE entries detected as part of the 6-monthly update cycle will mean that a few codes used in this MDR list should need to be modified.
[1] http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/cefact/locode/unlocode_manual.pdf