Wikidata:Antarctica
This page summarises recommended properties for items located in Antarctica. Antarctica has an unusual political position - it is the only major landmass in the world not controlled by any single country. Instead, it is governed under the Antarctic Treaty, where countries work cooperatively to manage the continent and the surrounding ocean, and agree to suspend their existing territorial claims.
This means that the conventional ways of dealing with geographic items, using country (P17) subdivided with located in the administrative territorial entity (P131), does not work well - items do not exist in a "country" and there is no universal hierarchy of administrative areas. Wikidata has previously used continent (P30):Antarctica (Q51) on Antarctic items but this has not always worked well. Having a consistent system will allow Antarctic items to be described accurately without causing confusion for other uses. (A consensus still needs to be developed on how to deal with the existing P30 entries.)
- Geographic items
Following a discussion in 2016, consensus is that all geographic items south of 60°S parallel (60th parallel south (Q783987), the Treaty boundary) should have:
- country (P17):no value
- located in the administrative territorial entity (P131): Antarctic Treaty area (Q21590062)
- coordinate location (P625)
- GNIS Antarctica ID (P804) (if in GNIS - see mix-n-match)
- SCAR Composite Gazetteer place ID (P3230) (if known - make sure to use place-id not name-id)
Anything north of 60°S parallel is outside the Treaty area, and should use country (P17) and located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) in the normal way.
If there are items that, by geographically, crossing the 60°S parallel, please add qualifier applies to part (P518)Antarctica (Q51) to all the statements you added according to above, this is especially true for all meridian (Q32099) items.
- still need to work out - what to do with existing continent (P30) entries
- Bases, refuges, and other human infrastructure
These should have all of the above, plus:
- instance of (P31): one of:
- Antarctic research station (Q749622), for permanent sites
- Antarctic field camp (Q4771007), for seasonal field camps (ie not permanent facilities)
- aerodrome (Q62447), for sites which are maintained solely as an airfield, eg Sky Blu (Q626914) (if no seperate item, use has facility (P912):aerodrome (Q62447) on the main station) - "aerodrome" is preferable to "airport" as more generic
- shelter (Q7493941), for sites maintained solely as refuges
- warehouse (Q181623), for sites maintained solely as supply depots
- laboratory (Q483242), for colocated laboratories (eg Dallmann Laboratory (Q225923))
- human settlement (Q486972), for civilian settlements (eg Villa Las Estrellas (Q2745332))
- operator (P137): the organisation operating the site; use country if organisation not known or unclear; use multiple entries with dates as qualifiers if the station has been transferred between operators, eg Vernadsky Research station (Q1469808) UK 1947-96, Ukraine 1996 onwards
- inception (P571): year of first operation
- dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576): if closed, year of last operation
- OpenStreetMap relation ID (P402) (if it exists)
- has use (P366): year-round Antarctic facility (Q29826390), seasonal Antarctic facility (Q29826397), with qualifier dates if it has switched between them at various times
- located in/on physical feature (P706): local geographic region at the most detailed level possible, eg Barton Peninsula (Q2603732) for King Sejong Station (Q246364) or Dome C (Q3045552) for Concordia Station (Q403127)
- UN/LOCODE (P1937): if known
- Antarctic historic sites, specially managed areas, and specially protected areas
- heritage designation (P1435): Historic Site or Monument (Antarctica) (Q21013851), Antarctic Specially Protected Area (Q3031290), or Antarctic Specially Managed Area (Q3501464)
- catalog code (P528): eg HSM-15 or ASPA-129, with qualifier catalog (P972):Register of protected sites in Antarctica (Q22968928)
- Avoid using
- country (P17) - should not be any values other than "novalue"; use located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) for territorial claims and operator (P137) for countries operating a site
- Unless: if you're editing items that crossed 60°S (explained above)
- Territorial claims
There are eight territorial claims by seven countries. Three overlap, and around one sixth of Antarctica is not in any claim. These claims are, west to east
- Peter I Island (Q202780) - offshore at ~90.5°W
- Chilean Antarctic Territory (Q3626) - the sector 90°W to 53°W
- British Antarctic Territory (Q165783) - the sector 80°W to 20°W
- Argentine Antarctica (Ignálea) (Q646243) - the sector 74°W to 25°W
- Queen Maud Land (Q189999) - the sector 20°W to 40°E
- Australian Antarctic Territory (Q178994) - the sector 45°E to 160°E, except 136°E to 142°E
- Adélie Land (Q184319) - the sector 136°E to 142°E
- Ross Dependency (Q203073) - the sector 160°E to 150°W
- unclaimed - the sector 160°E to 150°W
Items for claims should have -
- continent (P30): Antarctica (Q51)
- country (P17): claimant country
- territory claimed by (P1336): claimant country
- ...as well as other values appropriate for an overseas territory, province, etc. as appropriate to the specific country
- Queries for maintenance
- Items with "continent" but not "administrative territorial area" (mostly non-geographic things imported from a Wikipedia category)