Requirements for submitting SDG 14.4.1 data to GRSF¶
- Table of contents
- Requirements for submitting SDG 14.4.1 data to GRSF
1. Background information about SDG 14.4.1 and its data collection¶
With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, FAO was designated the United Nations custodian agency for 21 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators and the contributing agency for another three, covering around 10% of the entire SDG global indicator framework in total.
Four SDG 14 Life Below Water indicators are under FAO custodianship, including the Indicator SDG 14.4.1 Proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels, which measures the sustainability of the world's marine capture fisheries by their abundance. A fish stock whose abundance is at or greater than the level that can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) is classified as biologically sustainable. In contrast, when abundance falls below the MSY level, the stock is considered biologically unsustainable. Thus, the indicator requires, among other outputs, routine data collection systems of marine capture fisheries.
Since 1974, FAO has been periodically monitoring and reporting the state of marine fishery resources across FAO Major Fishing Areas based on a compilation of the formal stock assessments available, including the assessments carried out at the regional level and a finer scale by national institutions and scientific working groups.
Since 2019, data have begun to be collected at the country-level to enhance FAO monitoring of the progress towards more fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels. These data were collected via a questionnaire that was sent to all countries in November 2019.
The information on the stocks reported within the SDG 14.4.1 questionnaires are loaded into GRSF knowledge base (see Confidentiality conditions below) and are either merged with existing stock records, or are classified as a unique stock. The requirements and guidelines for submitting SDG fish stocks to GRSF are described here.
2. Mapping metadata between SDG 14.4.1 and GRSF¶
The first step in the process of incorporating SDG 14.4.1 stocks into GRSF is to map the metadata fields between the two data systems (Table 1). The conditions required for the SDG 14.4.1 responses are listed (‘Condition for Mapping’) and it is noted how these conditions influence the values represented by each metadata field (‘Mapped Value’) (see green columns in Table 1). Mandatory fields for GRSF and the questionnaire as required separately for the different data systems are marked. Variable dependencies of the fields are provided, i.e. either time or unit dependencies (see Table 2).
Table 1. Metadata mapping between GRSF Stocks and the SDG 14.4.1 Questionnaire (version 2019). Missing fields are indicated with an ‘NA’.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jFpUJq4x9Xz1W9ior9r_iLUXfIaBYsqAWaM2B6J_vwA/edit?usp=sharing
Table 2. Variable mapping between SDG 14.4.1 (version 2019) and GRSF.
Insert Table 2 here.
SDG 14.4.1 GRSF Stock
VariableDefinitionVariableDefinition
Assessment YearYear in which the assessment was performed and/or publishedReporting YearThe publication year of the main source of the information
Reference YearThe last year of input data (e.g. landings, cpue) that is used or considered in the stock assessment and/or fishery statusReference YearThe last year considered in the stock assessment and/or fishery status
YearThe year(s) included in the time series of e.g., landings, catches, cpue.
UnitThe unit associated with the value, e.g. tonnes for landing values
3. Minimum requirements for submission of SDG stock records to GRSF¶
Each individual SDG stock record that is submitted for consideration as a GRSF stock must at least include :
1) All mandatory GRSF fields (see Table 1 for mapping GRSF fields to SDG fields) :
- GRSF UUID,
- GRSF Semantic identifier,
- GRSF Name,
- Species scientific name,
- Assessment area,
- GRSF record type,
- Database source, and
- Data owner.
2) All mandatory SDG fields. Some SDG fields may be optional for GRSF (indicated by the purple fields in Table 1) :
- Stock name,
- Scientific name,
- Stock Jurisdictional distribution,
- ‘For shared stocks only, please list the exploiting countries’,
- FAO Major Fishing Area/ with sub-levels when appropriate,
- ‘Stock is considered as …’,’
- Landings (in tonnes)
- ‘Please indicate whether the stock is Assessed (Yes) or Unassessed (No)’,
- Current stock status,
- Overfished,
- Overfishing,
- Country,
- Questionnaire version (year),
- Source reference,
- Method of assessment
- Proportion of total national landings (excluding straddling stocks)
- Common name (English)
- Common name (local)
- Assessment availability
- Reliability
4. Criteria for publication of SDG records on GRSF¶
Quality assurance¶
1) Source content validation : SDG records must undergo a quality assessment review prior to submission to GRSF. As a matter of protocol, SDG stock records undergo two levels of quality assurance validation. In the first, the questionnaires are assessed according to their compliance to the guidelines in filling out the form, and the reliability of the content of the fields. This includes checks on the consistency of the fields to known stock information from published reports, as well as an assessment by regional experts. Issues with consistency will be reported back to data owners, or flagged to users if the issue cannot be resolved.
2) Scientific names: Scientific names must be compliant with ASFIS classification. WoRMS classification can be used when ASFIS classification is not possible.
Identify existing, new, or similar stocks¶
1) SDG stocks will be identified as either an assessment unit or a marine resource, as per GRSF standards (Table 1).
2) SDG stock records must then be checked to see if the record already exists on GRSF, with the following actions:
Existing: If the SDG record overlaps with an existing GRSF record, they are to be merged. The information that overlaps with GRSF mandatory fields will be kept and published. All the information from the different database sources is kept and collated in different fields. The SDG information that is in addition to the GRSF mandatory fields will only be published to the mapped GRSF fields (see Table 1) if that information is already publicly-available in the SDG source reference. All other SDG information is only accessible to authorised users, as per the confidentiality statement below.
Unique: SDG stocks that are identified as unique will be assigned a UUID.
Of these, those whose assessments are public will be published, but only with the mandatory GRSF fields. The SDG information that is in addition to the GRSF mandatory fields will only be published to the mapped GRSF fields (see Table 1) if that information is already publicly-available in the SDG source reference.Similar: If the SDG record is found to be partially overlapping, the GRSF proximity rules will be applied, as in Table 3. If assessment units are partially overlapping, these should be annotated in a comment (available in the GRSF including the downloads) warning the user and linking to the overlapping records. Hence the “Manage item” in the cms panel should contain an additional field for comments to users under selected categories (i.e. controlled terms: inconsistencies encountered; partial overlapping etc.). The development team should propose a narrow/broader indication and ranking system for similarities to further facilitate the validation process (i.e. based on the percentage of area overlapping, species vs. genus, gear categories). Therefore, in the Admin VRE, an interface highlighting groups of similar records should be made available to the validator. On the other hand, in the public GRSF VRE, a feature clearly marking partially overlapping records and archived records should be implemented. The catalogue should also offer the possibility to flag and browse records along the above proximities rules.
Table 3. Variable mapping between SDG 14.4.1 (version 2019) and GRSF.
Insert Table 3 here.
Confidentiality¶
In the FAO SDG 14-4-1 Questionnaire, under the FAO data use and dissemination section on the Cover Page, it is stated that:
National submissions at individual stock level (in sections 1, 2 and 3) will not be disseminated by FAO on its website but will be used for the FAO’s internal quality assurance purposes.
Therefore, all information reported by countries on individual stocks is confidential, including each country's reference list of stocks, and should not be published. These data will be included in the GRSF knowledge base and their confidentiality shall be maintained unless the following conditions apply:
1) The SDG stocks reported by countries are already existing GRSF records (i.e. the SDG reported stocks are merged with GRSF stocks), and by default are public. SDG information mapped to mandatory GRSF fields (Table 1) will be published, as well as all other publicly-available information mapped to GRSF fields (e.g. in the public stock assessment report).
2) Should the SDG stock be found to be partially overlapping with a GRSF record, only the GRSF mandatory fields will be published (see Table 1). SDG information mapped to mandatory GRSF fields (Table 1) will be published, as well as all other publicly-available information mapped to GRSF fields (e.g. in the public stock assessment report).
3) Should no existing GRSF record exist, the stock information is assessed against GRSF validation criteria to determine if the stock is unique. If so, it is assigned a UUID. Publicly-available SDG information mapped to mandatory and optional GRSF fields (Table 1) will be published.
In all other cases, it is not be possible for unauthorized users to access the SDG data. Authorized users may be entitled to view and manage these records. The list of UUIDs (only) by country may be published.
