Areas

I happened to read, yesterday evening, in reference 1, of projects by Google and other big tech companies to build huge knowledge databases, mainly by getting clever computer programs to roam around the Internet, knowledge databases which would be used, inter alia, to embellish the results of searches; the stuff which must be the source for home assignments given out by schools the world over. Not to mention blogs. I for one had not been aware of how much of this is now going on. See, for example, reference 3.

A development which is of some concern. Do we really want a for-profit company like Google being in charge of all the knowledge in the world, both of its content and its delivery?

So first thing this morning, I got to wondering where the areas of countries came from, areas which often figure in aforesaid embellishments, usually without attribution or qualification.

What about areas in dispute, like the Kashmir or parts of Palestine? Or the Falklands Islands? I associate both to the Greeks getting very cross about the name of the Macedonian flavoured country to their north and to the Wikipedians who get hate mail concerning their coverage of such matters.

What about coast lines? Does one use the high water line as the boundary? Which high water? What about estuaries? I wonder about the fact that high water is at different times in different parts of the world, so one cannot speak of the areas of the countries of the world at a point in time. Not if one is being picky.

What about inland water? Is Thirlmere (in the Lake District) in, but Lake Superior (in North America) out?

What about coastal ice? What if there is an ice sheet running over the coast line, itself below sea level? Do we allow coast lines which are underwater?

What about hills? Does one measure the area of the ground on the ground, as it were, or does one project that surface onto the global (near) sphere? It might make quite a big difference in a seriously hilly country like Nepal or Bhutan.

Essential Wikipedia gives no clues about these matters, but Wikipedia proper (at reference 4) has a long list of impressive looking references, reference 2 being one of them. Lots of footnotes about territorial disputes, but not much information about the other difficulties mentioned above. Is there some agency of the United Nations which rules on such matters? Some agency which is not the CIA, which is not part of the US, which last may have axes to grind? Or which is not part of China for that matter, although I dare say these last would pay well for the privilege.

The notes to both the Wikipedia entry and the UN document suggest that the raw information mainly derives from national sources. So, for example, we rely on the relevant Argentinian department of government for the area of Argentina.

But a bit of poking leads me to reference 5, from where I get to a substantial document called: 'Integrated Geospatial Information Framework: a strategic guide to develop and strengthen national geospatial information management'. Does the answer lie in there somewhere? Or should I be poking around in reference 6? Or reference 7, which yields the promising looking snap above? Which in turn leads to an Excel spreadsheet with 248 data rows which look to be about the area of countries, but which comes with no explanatory material. And in which Russia is well in the lead, with near double the area of that of the clutch of second runners, that is to say China, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Australia. After which India trails a long way behind.

Chamber's Encyclopaedia not very helpful. It is quite good at the technical business of measuring plane areas but I did not turn up anything which addresses the issues foregoing.

So who holds the definitive list of the countries of the world? Who is the political authority? Who is the technical authority for the measurement of land area?

Work in progress.

In any event, a branch of knowledge which is not exactly general knowledge: my general knowledge is probably better than average, but I would be hard pushed to say what the area of anywhere was, even our own garden. It is also the case that on most of the few occasions that I want to know about the population of countries, the statistical nitpicking above will be irrelevant. Contrariwise, I could say something about the populations, at least of some countries. And I could say something about the relative areas of some countries. But do we really want Google to be in charge by default?

Reference 1: The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding? – Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber – 2017.

Reference 2: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2012/Table03.pdf.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Graph.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area.

Reference 5: http://ggim.un.org/.

Reference 6: https://unstats.un.org/home/.

Reference 7: https://unstats-undesa.opendata.arcgis.com/.