CSN Basic Rules

  CSDMS Standard Names — Basic Rules

• This section provides some basic rules but many additional rules and naming patterns are given in other sections as explained below.
  
  

• Every standard name has an object part that describes a particular object and a quantity part that describes a particular attribute of that object that can be quantified with a number. Numerous templates, patterns and rules for constructing object names and quantity names are provided on the CSDMS Quantity Templates and CSDMS Object Templates pages. Quantity names are sometimes constructed using one of the CSDMS Process Names.
  
  

• A standard name may have an optional operation prefix that ends with "_of". See the CSDMS Operation Templates page for more information.
  
  

• Standard names consist of lower-case letters and digits. They contain no blank spaces. Underscores are the only non-alphanumeric character that is allowed in a standard name. All hyphens are converted to underscores.
  
  

• A single underscore is used between separate words in either object names or quantity names. A double underscore is used between the object part and the quantity part of the name. (But this rule has not yet been used in the examples.)
  
  

• The rightmost word in an object name is the base object to which the quantity applies. If the rightmost word in a quantity name is a quantity suffix, then the base quantity is the last two words in the quantity name. Otherwise, the base quantity is the last word. See the CSDMS Quantity Templates for an explanation of "quantity suffix".
  
  

• There are several short reserved words such as of, in, on (or and?), at and to. These are used within patterns that deal with various issues as described in the CSDMS Object Templates, CSDMS Quantity Templates and CSDMS Operation Templates.
  
  

• Many CSDMS Standard Names contain a person's last name. If the last name ends with the letter "s" — as in Burgers, Gibbs, Jones, Reynolds, Shields and Stokes — then it is retained. However, a possessive "s" is never added to the name, so we would use "newton" vs. "newtons" in a standard name.
  
  

• Approved acronyms may be included in standard names, but they are usually spelled out explicitly as in "counterclockwise" instead of "ccw". Standard symbols for the chemical elements (but lower-case, like "h" and "c") can be used in naming quantities like "bond_angle" that involve multiple atoms in a molecule. See Attributes of Molecules on the CSDMS Quantity Templates page. Other possible acronyms are: stp = standard temperature and pressure, toa = top of atmosphere (used in CF). The acronym "wrt" = "with respect to" is used in some operation templates.
  
  

• As explained at the top of the CSDMS Process Names page, the "ing" ending on process names such as "shearing" and "melting" is often dropped for quantities like "shear_stress" and "melt_rate" that use the Process_name + Quantity Pattern. However, the "ing" ending may be retained when the same word is used in a quantity like "melting_point_temperature" (vs. "melt_temperature").
  
  

• Word order in object names. An object name may contain (1) a single object, prepended by adjectives or modifiers or (2) multiple objects with some sort of "containment", such as parts of another object, a product of a company, or an organizational hierarchy or (3) multiple objects (usually two) that are required by the quantity (e.g. partial_pressure or concentration). In the first two cases the word order (for the objects) is from the general (container object) to the specific (contained object), going from left to right. In the third case, the same ordering applies to the individual object names, but a particular object_name or quantity_name pattern may further specify the ordering. For example, the "kinetic_friction_coefficient" associated with two objects that are in contact (e.g. rubber and pavement) doesn't imply an ordering, so the ordering is alphabetical in order to avoid multiple names for the same thing.
  
  

• Word order in quantity names. Starting with a base quantity (which could end with a quantity suffix), descriptive words are added to the left in an effort to construct an unambiguous and easily understood quantity name. Often, the addition of each new word produces a more restrictive or specific name from the previous name. For example:

conductivity
hydraulic_conductivity
saturated_hydraulic_conductivity   (which uses the "Saturated Quantity Rule)
effective_saturated_hydraulic_conductivity 

Note that for both object names and quantity names, adjectives or modifiers are usually added to the left to create a more specific name, as in "alaskan_black_bear". But sometimes they might be added as a pair, as in "black_widow_spider".

• Some cases will most likely require new rules to avoid ambiguity. For example, should we use:

channel_bed_shear_stress
channel_bed_water_shear_stress
channel_water_at_bed_shear_stress or
channel_water_bed_shear_stress

Similarly, should we use:

axial_tilt_angle or axis_tilt_angle ?
channel_water_flow_speed or channel_water_speed ?
forest_area_fraction or forested_area_fraction ?