Environmental Data Coding Specification (EDCS)

7 EDCS units

7.1 Introduction

7.1.1 Table of contents

Table 7.1 — Table of contents
7 EDCS units 7.1.2 Overview 7.4 EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary
7.1 Introduction 7.2 EDCS Unit Dictionary  
7.1.1 Table of contents 7.3 EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary  

Table 7.2 — Table of tables
Table 7.1 — Table of contents Table 7.7 — EUs not in the scope of SI Table 7.13 — EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary entry fields
Table 7.2 — Table of tables Table 7.8 — Non-SI EUs accepted for use with the SI Table 7.14 — EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary entries
Table 7.3 — EDCS Unit Dictionary entry fields Table 7.9 — Non-SI EUs not accepted for use with the SI Table 7.15 — EQs with labels beginning with A-I
Table 7.4 — EDCS Unit Dictionary tables Table 7.10 — EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary entry fields Table 7.16 — EQs with labels beginning with J-N
Table 7.5 — EUs with labels beginning with A-L Table 7.11 — Unit Scale Dictionary for powers of 10 Table 7.17 — EQs with labels beginning with O-Z
Table 7.6 — EUs with labels beginning with M-Z Table 7.12 — Unit Scale Dictionary for powers of 210  

7.1.2 Overview

This International Standard specifies EDCS units that characterize the values of physical quantities and may conform to the International System of Units (SI) as specified in ISO 80000. Within the EDCS Unit Dictionary, each EU has one or more quantities and is denoted by both a unique EUL and a unique EUC. Each quantity has a unique concept definition.

The EDCS Unit Dictionary is presented in four tables: two tables of EUs derived from the International System of Units (ordered alphabetically by EUL), one table of EUs outside the scope of the International System of Units, and one table of deprecated EUs. Within each table, the EUs are ordered alphabetically by the EUL.

This International Standard specifies EDCS unit scales that provide scaling information for use in conjunction with EUs. Within the EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary, each ES has a unique concept definition and is denoted by both a unique ESL and a unique ESC.

The EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary is presented in two tables with the ESs ordered by the value of the multiplicative constant (scale factor) in each table.

This International Standard specifies EDCS unit equivalence classes that are sets of units of measure that characterize the same physical quantity. Within the EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary, each EQ has a unique concept definition and is denoted by both a unique EQL and a unique EQC.

The EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary is presented in three tables ordered alphabetically by the EQL. Within each table, the EQs are ordered alphabetically by the EQL.

The concepts of EU, EQ, and ES are related as follows. Each instance of an EA whose EDCS attribute value type is REAL has:

  1. an EU (see 7.2) that belongs to the EQ (see 7.4) of that EA, and
  2. an ES (see 7.3) that specifies a power of ten or 210 that is a multiplicative scale factor for the value of the instance of that EA.

7.2 EDCS Unit Dictionary

The EDCS Unit Dictionary is presented in Table 7.5 through Table 7.9 and in A.6. The specification of each field of an EDCS Unit Dictionary entry is presented in Table 7.3. Units of measure whose use is deprecated are presented separately in A.6, Table 7.8, and Table 7.9. The reference type for each entry in the EDCS Unit Dictionary is PR except for those entries presented in Table 7.7, Table 7.8, and Table 7.9. Therefore the reference type field is omitted in Table 7.5, Table 7.6, and A.6.

An EU may have more than one quantity. When this is the case, the quantity, concept definition, reference type, reference, and supplemental references fields are repeated.

Table 7.3 — EDCS Unit Dictionary entry fields
Field Specification Location
Label The EUL (see 4.3.2). Clause 7 and Annex A
Symbol The symbol for this EU. If the EU has no symbol, "none" is entered in this field. Clause 7 and Annex A
Quantity A quantity associated with this EU; additional synonymous quantities may be included parenthetically. Clause 7 and Annex A
Concept definition The concept definition of the quantity, including an expression for the quantity in terms of SI base units if the value of the symbol field is not in terms of SI base units (see 4.3.1). Clause 7 and Annex A
EQ label The EQL (see 4.10). Clause 7 and Annex A
Code The EUC (see 4.3.3). Clause 7 and Annex A
Reference type The EDCS reference type of this reference (see 4.3.4.2). Clause 7
Reference The reference for this quantity (see 4.3.4.3). For EUs within the scope of SI, either this field contains a reference to the part of ISO 31 where this quantity is defined or this field contains an explanation of its derivation from quantities defined in ISO 31. Clause 7 and Annex A
Supplemental references The supplemental references for this quantity (see 4.3.4.4). Clause 7 and Annex A

In Table 7.5 through Table 7.9 and in A.6, the notation "re" means "referenced to." For example: "dB (re 1 µPa)" means "decibels referenced to one (1) microPascal."

Table 7.8 and Table 7.9 specify units that are in common usage but are not SI units. The use of these units is discouraged but are provided for compatibility with existing measures.

Table 7.4 — EDCS Unit Dictionary entries
Table 7.5 — EUs with labels beginning with A-L
Table 7.6 — EUs with labels beginning with M-Z
Table 7.7 — EUs not in the scope of SI
Table 7.8 — Non-SI EUs accepted for use with the SI
Table 7.9 — Non-SI EUs not accepted for use with the SI

7.3 EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary

The EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary is presented in Table 7.11 and Table 7.12 with its EDCS dictionary entries ordered by the value of the multiplicative constant (scale factor). The specification of each field of an EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary entry is presented in Table 7.10. The reference type for each entry in the EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary is PR, therefore the reference type, reference, and supplemental references fields are omitted.

Table 7.10 — EDCS Unit Scale Dictionary entry fields
Field Specification Location
Label The ESL (see 4.3.2). Clause 7
Symbol The symbol for this ES. Clause 7
Concept definition Either the multiple or the submultiple scale factor of the ES. Clause 7
Code The ESC (see 4.3.3). Clause 7

The reference type for each entry in Table 7.11 is PR. The reference for each entry in Table 7.11 is ISO 80000-1:2009, Table 4.

Table 7.11 — Unit Scale Dictionary for powers of 10
Label Symbol Concept definition Code
YOTTA Y 1024 1
ZETTA Z 1021 2
EXA E 1018 3
PETA P 1015 4
TERA T 1012 5
GIGA G 109 6
MEGA M 106 7
KILO k 103 8
HECTO h 102 9
DECA da 101 10
UNI 1 100 11
DECI d 10-1 12
CENTI c 10-2 13
MILLI m 10-3 14
MICRO µ 10-6 15
NANO n 10-9 16
PICO p 10-12 17
FEMTO f 10-15 18
ATTO a 10-18 19
ZEPTO z 10-21 20
YOCTO y 10-24 21

The reference type for each entry in Table 7.12 is PR. The reference for each entry in Table 7.12 is IEC 80000-13:2008, 4.

Table 7.12 — Unit Scale Dictionary for powers of 210
Label Symbol Concept definition Code
KIBI Ki 210 22
MEBI Mi 220 23
GIBI Gi 230 24
TEBI Ti 240 25
PEBI Pi 250 26
EXBI Ei 260 27
ZEBI Zi 270 28
YOBI Yi 280 29

7.4 EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary

The EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary is presented in Tables 7.15 through 7.17. The specification of each field of an EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary entry is presented in Table 7.13. No entry in the EDCS Unit Equivalence Dictionary has a reference type, reference, or supplemental references, therefore these fields are omitted.

Table 7.13 — EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary entry fields
Field Specification Location
Label The EQL (see 4.3.2). Clause 7
Concept definition The concept definition of the quantity of which the members of this EQ are called "quantities of the same kind" (see ISO 80000-1:2009, 3.2). Clause 7
Equivalence class membership The list of EULs of the EUs that are members of the EQ. The EULs of EUs that are part of the International System of Units are presented in bold. The EULs of EUs that are deprecated EDCS units (see A.6) are presented in italics. Clause 7
Code The EQC (see 4.3.3). Clause 7

Table 7.14 — EDCS Unit Equivalence Class Dictionary entries
Table 7.15 — EQs with labels beginning with A-I
Table 7.16 — EQs with labels beginning with J-N
Table 7.17 — EQs with labels beginning with O-Z
A.8 — Deprecated EQs