Metadata | FEWS NET Help Center

The metadata menu includes metadata categories that are not based on international standards.

Hazard Categories

Hazard Categories are types of hazards that may affect livelihoods, for example pests, flooding, or livestock disease.

Hazard Categories include the following fields:

Code: The primary identifier for the Hazard Category. This code should be unique.
Name (English): The name of the Hazard Category in English. This may be the same as the code.
Name (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Names for the Hazard Category in available languages.
Aliases: A list of alternate names for the Hazard Category.
Description (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Any extra information or detail that is relevant to the Hazard.
Ordering: The order to display the items in when sorting by this field.

Livelihood Systems

Primary Livelihood Systems classify Livelihood Zones by the primary activity or differentiating characteristic, such as Pastoral or Irrigation.

Livelihood Systems include the following fields:

Code: The primary identifier for the Livelihood System. This code should be unique.
Name (English): The name of the Livelihood System in English. This may be the same as the code.
Name (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Names for the Livelihood System in available languages.
Aliases: A list of alternate names for the Livelihood System.
Color: The color that will be used to represent this Livelihood System on Livelihood Explorer maps.
Description (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Any extra information or detail that is relevant to the Livelihood System.
Ordering: The order to display the items in when sorting by this field.

Seasons

In the Livelihood Explorer, Seasons are defined as a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and associated Livelihood Zone Activities for income generation. For the purposes of the database, the complete set of Seasons for a country must associate each month with exactly one season per purpose (see below).

Seasons are always associated with a specific Country. For countries with different weather patterns in different parts of the country, a complete set of Seasons may be specified for the different, named regions of the country.

Seasons include the following fields:

Country: The country associated with this Season.
Name (English): The name of the Season in English. The format of the Season Name is: Country Name, sub-geography for season set if applicable, Season Name, Season Type. For example, “Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eastern highlands, Season A, Harvest” or “Afghanistan, Milk Lean”
Name (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Names for the Season in available languages.
Aliases: A list of alternate names for the Season.
Description (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Any extra information or detail that is relevant to the Season.
Season Type: Refers to the classification of a specific time of year based on weather patterns, temperature, and other factors. Options include Harvest, Lean, Wet, Dry, Mild, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Monsoon.
Purpose: The Purpose allows the pipeline to apply a specific set of Seasons to a specific Livelihood Strategy Type. The complete set of Seasons assigned to a Purpose must include 12 months of the year with no duplication of month or season. If no Purpose is specified, the pipeline will use the default seasons. In practice, the specification of Purpose is only currently required for Milk Production and Butter Production. This means each country currently has a set of Seasons covering the entire consumption year for the Milk Production purpose, an identical set for the Butter Production purpose, and a likely different set with no purpose specified used as the default for all other Seasonal Activities.
Start Day: The first day of the Season.
End Day: The last day of the Season.
Year alignment: When a Season straddles two years (e.g. November to February), it may still be referred to with single year notation. A start aligned Season uses the start year and an end aligned Season uses the end year.
Example: Single year notation for a Season that runs November 2024 - February 2025, would be 2024 for a start aligned Season.
Ordering: The order to display the items in when sorting by this field.

Seasonal Activity Type

Seasonal Activity Types include events supporting Livelihood Strategies, such as planting, weeding, harvesting for crop production and heat, birth and milk production, and sales for livestock. It also includes other important periodic events such as typical periods of high food prices or flood risk.

Seasonal Activity Types are metadata containing the full set of standardized options available in the database. They are not associated with specific Baselines or Baseline data.

Seasonal Activity Types contain the following fields:

Code: This field should include a unique identifier for the Seasonal Activity Type. Often this is the same as the name, but not capitalized.
Name: The name of the Seasonal Activity Type. English is required, any other language is optional.
Activity category: The category of the Seasonal Activity Type, which includes climatology, stress periods, crops, livestock, fishing, employment and other income, and other.
Has product? If a Product is required for this Seasonal Activity Type, click the check box. For example, “Births” requires a livestock species (e.g., cattle, goats, or, if unidentified, live animals).
Key seasonal activity? Is this Seasonal Activity Type essential to the understanding of the livelihood system such that it must be displayed in the Livelihood Explorer? For example, a lean season is a key Seasonal Activity, but a typical period of low staple food prices is not.
Aliases: Any alternate names used for the Seasonal Activity Type.
Description: Any extra information or detail that is relevant to the Seasonal Activity Type.
Ordering: The order to display the items in when sorting by this field.

Wealth Categories

Wealth Categories allow for the comparison of the local definitions of Wealth Groups across all BSS. These are standardized from the BSS 'WB' worksheet in Column B and the 'Data' worksheet in Row 3. Wealth Categories include options such as Very poor, Poor, Medium, and Better off.

Wealth Categories, or Wealth Group Categories, include the following fields:

Code: The primary identifier for the Wealth Category. This code should be unique.
Name (English): The name of the Wealth Category in English. This may be the same as the code.
Name (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Names for the Wealth Category in available languages.
Aliases: A list of alternate names for the Wealth Category.
Description (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Any extra information or detail that is relevant to the Wealth Category.
Ordering: The order to display the items in when sorting by this field.

Characteristics Groups

A grouping for Wealth Characteristics, such as Population, Land, Crop, or Livestock.

Characteristic Groups include the following fields:

Code: The primary identifier for the Characteristic Group. This code should be unique.
Name (English): The name of the Characteristic Group in English. This may be the same as the code.
Name (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Names for the Characteristic Group in available languages.
Aliases: A list of alternate names for the Characteristic Group.
Description (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Any extra information or detail that is relevant to the Characteristic Group.
Ordering: The order to display the items in when sorting by this field.

Wealth Group Characteristics

A characteristic of a Wealth Group, such as Number of children at school, type of housing, or owning a computer. This set of metadata is standardized from descriptions in the BSS 'WB' worksheet in Column A.

Wealth Group Characteristics include the following fields:

Code: The primary identifier for the Wealth Group Characteristic. This code should be unique.
Variable type: Whether the field is numeric, string, boolean, etc.
Name (English): The name of the Wealth Group Characteristic in English. This may be the same as the code.
Name (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Names for the Wealth Group Characteristic in available languages.
Aliases: A list of alternate names for the Wealth Group Characteristic.
Description (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic): Any extra information or detail that is relevant to the Wealth Group Characteristic.
Characteristic group: Optional grouping for Characteristics using Characteristic Groups as described above.
Ordering: The order to display the items in when sorting by this field.