Geographic Unit Relationships

Geographic unit relationships provide a path for the system to follow when comparing data across different administrative versions, e.g., ML_1983 to ML_2016.

Geographic unit relationships can be updated in three ways.

If you need to update a few relationships, this can be done individually within the FDW.
If you need to update many relationships, this is best done by uploading a relationship table.
When adding new Markets and IDP camps, their relationships to admin units can be specified by adding a parent column that contains the FNIDs to the file. FDW will automatically create the relationships upon upload.

Relationship types

Relationship Types include:

Boundaries stay the same and data can be aggregated both forward and backward in time
- Successor: This administrative unit did not change between geographic unit set versions.
- Equivalent: Two units are equivalent between different geographic unit sets and do not need to be the same unit type, e.g., population and crop production units that are equivalent.
- Seceded: Two units are equivalent between different geographic unit sets, are the same unit type, and can be part of separate countries, e.g., the admin 1 states of South Sudan seceded the admin 1 states of Sudan.
- Name change: Only the name has changed between geographic unit set versions.
- Promotion: An administrative unit becomes a higher-level administrative unit, e.g., Admin2 becomes Admin1.
- Demotion: An administrative unit becomes a lower-level administrative unit, e.g., Admin1 becomes Admin2.
Boundaries change
- Data can be aggregated forward in time
  - Merge: Parts of, or the whole of, two or more administrative units were joined together to create a new administrative unit version in the same geographic unit set.
  - Aggregate: Parts of, or the whole of, two or more administrative units were joined together to create a new administrative unit. However, unlike merge, this relationship doesn’t indicate anything about the relationship between the geographic unit sets.
- Data can be aggregated backward in time
  - Split: One administrative unit was divided to form two or more new administrative units.
  - Split_demotion: One administrative unit was divided to form two or more new administrative units and the new units are demoted to a lower admin level.
- Data can not be aggregated
  - Redistribute: Parts of more than one administrative unit were divided and redistributed into more than one new administrative unit.
Definition of one unit within another, e.g., admin1_0 indicates the unit is an admin1 within a specific admin 0.

Updating geographic unit relationships

To add individual unit relationships:

Go to Metadata Management > Spatial > Geographic Unit Relationships.
Click Add Geographic Unit Relationship.
Choose a From Unit and a To Unit. You can search for units by typing a unit's name into the drop-down menu.
Choose a Relationship Type.
Click one of the Save options.

Preparing and uploading relationship tables

Preparing tables

To prepare a relationship table for upload, you will need to copy the relationship data from one tab to another in the relevant spreadsheet.

The relationship table tab must be the first tab in the spreadsheet. Relationship tables should be completed before they are uploaded.

The relationship tab should be set up as follows:

from_unit_name	from_unit	relationship_type	to_unit_name	to_unit
	The FDW will also accept "from_fnid", "from fnid", "fromfnid", or "fnid_from_unit" as the column header.	The FDW will also accept “relationship type” or “relationship” as the column header.		The FDW will also accept "to_fnid", "to fnid", "tofnid", or "fnid_to_unit" as the column header.
This column should contain the name of the old geographic unit.	This column should contain the FNID of the old geographic unit.	This column should include the type of relationship between the old and new units. Use a type from the list at the beginning of this page.	This column should contain the name of the new geographic unit.	This column should contain the FNID of the new geographic unit.

To copy the information:

You will need to copy the appropriate information from the FlowChart tab to the Relationship Table tab.
Copy information by dataset.
If there are multiple relationship sets, copy the data for the oldest start year first so they are at the top of the sheet. When all relationships for that year are done, begin again for the next set. This ensures the data are ordered chronologically.
For cases where one start row splits into multiple rows in the FlowChart tab (e.g., when a unit splits or redistributes), copy over the starting information for each individual split.

FlowChart Split.png — Split rows in the *FlowChart* tab.

Split from FlowChart to RelationshipTable.png — Split rows copied into the *RelationshipTable* tab.

Split relationship type.png — Split rows once the from_name and from_fnid information has been added for the second row.

Example of a completed *RelationshipTable* tab.

Uploading relationship tables

Go to Metadata Management > Spatial > Geographic Unit Relationships.
Click Import Geographic Unit Relationships.
Click Choose File.
Choose a format from the dropdown menu. This will likely be xls(x).
Click Submit.
Confirm the import.