Why are resolutions are defined in terms of 'minimum' separation?

[aisaac]

This is issue is both for spatial and temporal resolution. both are defined in terms of 'minimal separation'. But shouldn't it be 'maximal separation' instead?
For example at https://w3c.github.io/dxwg/dcat/#Property:dataset_spatial_resolution
"Minimum spatial separation resolvable in a dataset, measured in meters."

For me if a dataset has reports for points separated by one meter in some areas (e.g. in dense cities) and one kilometer in others (e.g. in remote places), then the resolution is not one meter. I'd rather say it's one kilometer, if I had to make a choice.

I'm marking this as editorial because there may be a chance that I'm simply misreading all these sentences about resolutions. Or maybe I can learn some official definition/practice that I've completely missed so far :-)

Maybe it's for future work, too

[smrgeoinfo]

The typical usage or 'resolution' for spatial data is related to numerical precision-- what is the smallest distance (in geographic space) between two points that can be asserted to be in different locations. Locations reported to the nearest km in that dataset would be reported with different accuracy or location uncertainty.

[aisaac]

Thanks @smrgeoinfo !
I'm still a bit puzzled that this practice would lead to indeed reporting the minimum distance as the resolution. But I'm ready to accept it. And your wording is more understandable than the efficient but less friendly "spatial separation resolvable"

Would it be similar for time? I.e. if one has a dataset with three observations, two that are one second apart and the third that is one year later than the other, would one say the temporal resolution is also one second?

[smrgeoinfo]

W.r.t. the time question, as long as the encoding scheme for temporal position has precision sufficient to resolve one second, yes.

[riccardoAlbertoni]

Labelled "future-work" as for discussion in the 2019-11-05 telecon and related resolution

[aisaac]

ok, thanks @smrgeoinfo !
@riccardoAlbertoni actually I think we can close this issue now, my questions are answered :-)

[riccardoAlbertoni]

Good, Thanks @aisaac and @smrgeoinfo!

ok, thanks @smrgeoinfo !
@riccardoAlbertoni actually I think we can close this issue now, my questions are answered :-)