Glossary

Each word below means one concept in ODS. Schemas, fields, descriptions and these pages use a word only with the meaning given here (conventions, section 2). "Not" names a word that ODS does not use for the concept, or a concept that the word does not cover.

The standard

Term	Meaning	Not
ODS	Open Development Standards: an open format for the data behind an assessment of a development.	Not a database, a calculation engine, a GIS or a report template. ODS does not edit, analyse or serve spatial data: it records places and shapes with what a GIS needs to use them.
Development	Something that is built or run in a place, such as a wellsite, a road or a wind farm, and the work to build or run it.	Not "asset", "project" or "site".
Document	One ODS file: the root record that holds the four pillars.	Not "scene" or "model": a set of features and conditions for a calculation is a Document with only context and environment.
Package	A Document with the files of each run and a manifest of their hashes (.odspkg).
Record	An object in a document that a schema defines: an entity, a part or a datatype.
Schema	A JSON Schema file that defines one record shape.	Not "structure": a Structure is a built form.
Kind	What a schema is: document, pillar, entity, part, datatype or base.	Not used for data: a record's type field says what sort of thing it is.
Entity	A record that other records point at by id. Every entity has the fields of the Entity base.
Part	A record that its parent owns and embeds, with an id so that others can point at it.
Datatype	Data with no identity, such as a Value, an Interval or a Location. As in ISO 19103.	Not "value": a Value is one datatype.
Module	A domain's vocabularies and module schemas, such as ODS Acoustics. ODS Core is the module that every document uses.
Module schema	A stricter form of a Core schema that a module defines. A document that is valid against it is valid against Core.	Not "profile".
Vocabulary	A list of codes, each with a name and a description, that a field takes its values from.
Quantity	What an amount describes, such as frequency, air temperature, sound power level or ground type. Each module lists its quantities in its quantities vocabulary, with the unit and the valid range of each.
Code	One entry of a vocabulary or an enum, as a document writes it: lower snake_case.
Regulator profile	A framework written so that a program can run it: the framework with its criteria, periods and limits, the flows that check them, a publisher and a version. Its flows have no sealed steps.	Not a module schema. "Profile" is used only in this term.
Extension	A key that starts with x-. A producer adds it; a reader may ignore it.

Pillars

Each record lives in the one pillar that answers its question.

Term	Question	Holds
Risk	What risks must the development manage, and which rules manage them?	Frameworks, policies, criteria, controls, periods and limits. It holds rules, not risk scores.
Context	What is being assessed?	Stakeholders, jurisdictions, permits, projects, features (with their sources, structures and operating states) and instruments.
Environment	What conditions surround it?	Conditions: ambient, terrain, weather and hydrology.
Methodology	How is it assessed, and what was found?	Algorithms, flows, assumptions, evidence, traces and assessments.

Risk

Term	Meaning	Not
Framework	A set of rules for one domain, issued by a regulator, an industry body or an organization, such as AER Directive 038. It has an issuer, a jurisdiction, an edition and the dates it applies.
Policy	One risk that a framework manages, and how the framework addresses it.
Variable	A named Value or formula that criteria and steps refer to, such as a framework's limit or a method's parameter.
Criterion	One rule that must be checked: a metric, a comparison, a limit, the period it covers and what it applies to.	Not "condition" or "requirement".
Limit	The Value that a criterion compares a metric to.	Not "threshold".
Control	A check on how an evaluation is done, which a policy sets, such as "measurements use a Class 1 meter".	Not a mitigation: a barrier is a Structure, and a site's own limit is a criterion of its Permit.
Period	A window of time that repeats in local time, such as night-time from 22:00 to 07:00.	Not an Interval.

Context

Term	Meaning	Not
Stakeholder	A person or organization involved in a development: an operator, a consultant, a regulator, a resident.
Jurisdiction	An area under one legal authority, such as a country, a province or a municipality. It decides which frameworks apply.
Permit	A licence or approval that a regulator gives for a development, with its number, holder, dates, status and its own criteria.
Project	A piece of work on one or more features, with its activities and groups. It refers to features by id.	Not a development.
Feature	A natural or built object with a place and properties, such as a wellsite, a dwelling or a road. As in ISO 19101.	Not "site" or "asset".
Receptor	A feature where a framework judges effects, such as a dwelling or a school. It has a receptor class.	Not "receiver": a point where a result is calculated is the end of a Path or a cell of a grid.
Source	A part of a feature that emits, such as a compressor, an engine, a stack or an outfall. As in ISO 14224:2016, levels 6 to 8.	Not where data came from: that is an origin.
Operating state	A named way that a source runs, set by its operating properties (speed, load, flow rate, mode), such as "loaded at 1,800 RPM". "Off" is an operating state.	Not "condition".
Emission	What a source gives off in one operating state, such as sound power, a pollutant rate or a discharge.
Structure	A built form, such as a building, a wall or a barrier. As in IFC (ISO 16739).	Not a schema.
Activity	Work that happens over time, such as construction, drilling or operation, with the operating states it uses.
Allocation	Where and when an activity happens, and the operating states its sources run in there.
Group	Features that a project evaluates together as one unit.
Instrument	A device that measures, such as a sound level meter, with its calibration.
Calibration	A check of an instrument against a reference, with its date, its result and its certificate.

Environment

Term	Meaning	Not
Condition	A state of the surroundings over an area and a time: ambient, terrain, weather or hydrology.	Not a rule (a criterion) or a branch in a flow (when).

Methodology

Term	Meaning	Not
Algorithm	A published or versioned computation, such as ISO 9613-2:2024.
Flow	The steps of an evaluation and the links between them.
Step	One unit of work in a flow.
Edge	A link from one step to the next. Its when says when the flow takes it.	Not "condition".
Expression	A formula that a criterion, an edge or a variable evaluates. ODS has one expression language.
Assumption	A fact that an evaluation takes as true without evidence, such as an operating state or the weather, with its basis.
Evidence	One observation: what was observed, of which record, by which instrument or algorithm, over which interval, and the result. As in ISO 19156 (Observations and measurements).
Origin	Where evidence or data came from: a provider, a station, a model.	Not "source".
Trace	What one run of a flow or an algorithm did: what it used, each step, and what it made. Terms follow W3C PROV where they map.
Assessment	An evaluation of a development and its result: author, date, scope, framework, the traces and evidence it rests on, and its conclusions.	Not a Trace: a trace is one run.
Finding	A message about a record, such as a check result, a warning or an error, with a level and a status.
Comparison	Two results for the same thing, their difference, the tolerance and the verdict.
Verdict	The outcome of judging a result against a limit or a tolerance, such as pass or fail.

Data

Term	Meaning	Not
Value	An amount with its unit and uncertainty. A list amount can lie along axes.	Not the datatype kind.
Axis	One dimension of a Value's amount, such as frequency, time or height, with its coordinates and unit.
Bin	The range that one element of an axis stands for, such as a third-octave band or a wind speed bin.	Not "band" alone: a band is a bin on a frequency axis.
Statistic	How an amount sums up data: mean, energy mean, maximum, percentile, exceedance level.
Grid	A Value whose axes include two spatial axes, with a coordinate reference system, such as a noise map.	Not a separate schema.
Property	One fact about a record, such as a ground type or an operating hour count.
Path	A route from one place to another, with its line and ordered events, such as a sound path or a plume trajectory.
Event	A point where a path changes, such as a reflection or an edge.	Not a scheduled event: work over time is an Activity.
Location	One place: a point with its heights and its coordinate reference system. It can also state the place by geographic identifiers or a linear reference, and a place with no coordinates has only those.
Geometry	A shape: a GeoJSON geometry (RFC 7946) with its coordinate reference system. A shape with curves, surfaces or solids keeps its Original.
Crs	A coordinate reference system (ISO 19111): the horizontal system by a registry code or by its full definition (WKT 2 or PROJJSON), the vertical system, and the coordinate epoch.
Positioning	How a position was obtained and how accurate it is: the method, the time, the accuracy in metres (ISO 19157, positional accuracy) and what the position rests on.	Not an Origin: an origin is where evidence or a condition's data came from.
Geographic identifier	A place stated by a name or an id, not by coordinates: a legal land description, a parcel id, a civic address or a feature of a named dataset. As in ISO 19112.	Not an Identifier: an Identifier is a record's id in another system.
Linear reference	A place stated as a distance along a line, such as a kilometre post on a pipeline. As in ISO 19148.	Not a reference to a record, though it holds one: the id of the record that has the line.
Original	The dataset that a GeoJSON shape was converted from, with the layer and the feature in it, and what the conversion changed.	Not an Origin, and not "source": a Source is a part of a feature that emits.
Interval	One window of time: a start, an end or a duration.	Not a Period.
Identifier	An id that a record has in another system, with its scheme.	Not the record's own id.
Link	An open-ended link from one record to another, with its type and role.	Not a field that names its target, such as a trace's flow.
Citation	A published work that a record rests on: title, text, URL, section, edition.	Not "reference": a reference is an id that points at a record.
File	A file that a record points at, with its media type, URL and hash.	Not "asset" or "attachment".

Acoustics

Term	Meaning	Not
Sound emission	An Emission of sound power, in decibels: the Acoustics module schema for a source's sound.