230.en.adoc

Survey date and time

Why are survey date and time terms important?

Complete and accurate reporting of the temporal scope of a survey is crucial to asserting event structure and providing key contextual information about sampling conditions.

Event date and time terms

• Event date: Each event should have a reported date or date range in term:dwc[dwc:eventDate] regardless of its hierarchical level. Nested datasets should, at the parent event level, report a date range encompassing all survey dates.

• Event time and duration: If reported, note the time and duration of each event using term:dwc[dwc:eventTime] and the paired terms term:eco[eco:eventDurationValue] and term:eco[eco:eventDurationUnit].

Refer to GBIF’s technical documentation on Date and time interpretation for more guidance on reporting event dates and times.

Table 1. Event date and temporal scope terms, their recommended usage (status), and example data entries.

Status	Term	Example entry
Required	term:dwc[dwc:eventDate]	2018-08-29, 2007-03-01/2008-05-11
Recommended	term:dwc[dwc:eventTime]	08:00Z
	term:eco[eco:eventDurationValue]	1
	term:eco[eco:eventDurationUnit]	hour