{ "model": { "rank": 2512, "code": "thing-q125465", "model_id": "vr.tr.sea-level", "name": "sea level", "purpose": "Let an agent explain sea level and how it is defined and measured, relay tidal, eustatic and past sea level concepts from geodesy, oceanography and geology references, describe sea level rise with findings attributed, and distinguish mean sea level from tide level, geoid and local datums.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q125465/", "tier": 2, "score": 104, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "tide level", "Past sea level", "Eustatic sea level" ], "aliasCount": 3, "merged": 3, "knownIn": 104, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q125465", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q125465", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T12:48:09Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q125465", "registryId": "vr.tr.sea-level", "name": "sea level", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q125465/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.sea-level", "name": "sea level", "purpose": "Let an agent explain sea level and how it is defined and measured, relay tidal, eustatic and past sea level concepts from geodesy, oceanography and geology references, describe sea level rise with findings attributed, and distinguish mean sea level from tide level, geoid and local datums.", "definition": "The average level of the ocean surface, used as a vertical datum for measuring elevation and depth, defined locally by tide gauges as mean sea level over a period and globally by satellite altimetry, varying with tides as tide level, with eustatic changes in the volume of the oceans over geological time, and reconstructed as past sea level from geological records; global mean sea level is rising as ice melts and oceans warm.", "what_it_is_for": "Reference for elevation and monitoring ocean change.", "affordances": [ "explain definitions", "relay measurement", "describe sea level change", "distinguish related concepts" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Vertical datum", "Tidal and long-term variation", "Global and local", "Climate indicator" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; the ocean surface as a reference.", "visual_identification": [ "Average level of the ocean surface", "Mean sea level, tide level, eustatic sea level, past sea level", "The geoid is a gravitational surface; local datums differ; tide level varies hourly" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "global mean rise since 1900", "typical_range": "about 20", "unit": "cm", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "current rate", "typical_range": "about 4", "unit": "mm per year", "note": "satellite era" }, { "quantity": "Last Glacial Maximum sea level", "typical_range": "about 120-130 m lower", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "mean sea level at tide gauges", "tide level and tidal datums", "global mean sea level from altimetry", "eustatic sea level", "relative sea level including land movement", "past sea level from geological records" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "vertical datum", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "water level", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "two-dimensional continuant fiat boundary", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "geoid", "why": "a gravitational equipotential surface" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "National vertical datum standards", "IPCC assessments of sea level change", "IHO tidal datum conventions" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing local and global sea level", "Ignoring land subsidence in relative sea level", "Partisan framing of sea level rise" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What sea level is.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is sea level, and how do mean sea level, tide level, eustatic sea level and the geoid differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the datum, tides, geology or climate change?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "measurement", "name": "Measurement", "description": "Measurement.", "findings": [ { "id": "measurement-finding", "name": "Measurement", "description": "Measurement.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is sea level measured by tide gauges and satellite altimetry?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which entry fits tide gauge?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "change", "name": "Change", "description": "Sea level change.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "rise", "name": "Rise", "description": "Current rise.", "findings": [ { "id": "rise-finding", "name": "Rise", "description": "Rise.", "questions": [ { "text": "How fast is global sea level rising, why, and what are projections, as assessments report?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "past", "name": "Past", "description": "Past sea level.", "findings": [ { "id": "past-finding", "name": "Past", "description": "Past.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has sea level changed over geological time, and how is past sea level reconstructed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "use", "name": "Use", "description": "Use as a datum.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "datums", "name": "Datums", "description": "Datums.", "findings": [ { "id": "datums-finding", "name": "Datums", "description": "Datums.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do national datums and chart datums relate to mean sea level?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits vertical datum?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mapping", "name": "Mapping", "description": "Mapping and navigation.", "findings": [ { "id": "mapping-finding", "name": "Mapping", "description": "Mapping.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are elevations and depths referenced to sea level in maps and charts?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits nautical chart?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Impacts and adaptation.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "impacts", "name": "Impacts", "description": "Impacts.", "findings": [ { "id": "impacts-finding", "name": "Impacts", "description": "Impacts.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does sea level rise affect coasts, cities and islands, with findings attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "adaptation", "name": "Adaptation", "description": "Adaptation.", "findings": [ { "id": "adaptation-finding", "name": "Adaptation", "description": "Adaptation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do communities adapt to rising seas?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits coastal management?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should sea level rise and tidal datum be separate primary entries?", "How should geodesy and climate sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming distinct concepts; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a sea level, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain sea level and how it is defined and measured, relay tidal, eustatic and past sea level concepts from geodesy, oceanography and geology references, describe sea level rise with findings attributed, and distinguish mean sea level from tide level, geoid and local datums.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: tide level, Past sea level, Eustatic sea level.", "3 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 104 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a sea level, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "tide level", "Past sea level", "Eustatic sea level" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 104 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 3 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one sea level from another, and a sea level from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a sea level, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a sea level, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a sea level is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a sea level, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a sea level, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a sea level is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a sea level sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a sea level, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a sea level, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a sea level is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a sea level from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a sea level, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a sea level, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a sea level is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a sea level passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a sea level between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a sea level, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a sea level, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a sea level is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a sea level, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a sea level is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a sea level, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a sea level, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a sea level is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What sea level is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of sea level are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is sea level operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of sea level and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of sea level?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as sea level?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a sea level came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a sea level and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a sea level, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a sea level, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a sea level is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a sea level is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a sea level, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a sea level, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a sea level is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }