flowchart TB
reg_s1["File the design"]
reg_s2["Validation review"]
reg_s3["Register the project version"]
reg_s1 --> reg_s2
reg_s2 --> reg_s3
NCGS Project Registration Workflow
A project manager files a project design in eight sections; the standards body’s validation review, seat open to any qualified reviewer who is not the author, samples the site assessments, consignments, sessions and care records the design rests on; an approved review registers the project version. A change of scope or monitoring period is a new design that supersedes the registered one, never an edit (ADR-0012, ADR-0017).
1. File the design
The eight sections are filed against an approved programme version; the design enters provisional with its content address.
Prerequisite checks
The programme version the design runs under is approved in the programme register
Smart function check.
Completion checks
AgentRoleShape
SHACL shape.
- An agent role carries only an agent IRI and a role. Names, contact details and other literals are personal data and belong in the people register, never in the graph (ADR-0007).
- An agent role must carry exactly one role from the NCGS stakeholder-roles scheme.
- An agent role must reference exactly one agent by IRI (ADR-0007: never a literal).
- Instance data must not use the standard’s namespace https://nova.org.za/ncgs/ (ADR-0002: instances are urn:uuid: IRIs).
DataHandlingSectionShape
SHACL shape.
- The personal-data section names the kinds of artifact kept off the graph, from the evidence types scheme (ADR-0007).
- The personal-data section states where names, registers and signed documents are kept; the graph carries identifiers and content addresses only (ADR-0007).
EvidenceItemShape
SHACL shape.
- A document tag is the UUID printed on the document’s QR sticker, at most one.
- An evidence item must carry exactly one content address. The anchor syntax is fixed by the platform binding profile in force.
- An evidence item must carry exactly one type from the NCGS evidence-types scheme.
- A photograph used as evidence must carry a geotag (photo latitude and longitude).
IdentitySectionShape
SHACL shape.
- A design names exactly one standard version it is designed against: a full release X.Y.Z, or on a pilot ledger the pre-release X.Y.Z-pilot.N; never a dev version (ADR-0017, ADR-0024).
- A design runs under exactly one programme version from the programme register, never a target (ADR-0008).
- A design supersedes at most one earlier project design.
- A design runs under an approved programme version; a provisional or withdrawn version cannot carry a project (ADR-0008).
IndicatorMethodologyPairShape
SHACL shape.
- A pair applies exactly one methodology from the NCGS methodology register.
- A pair names exactly one activity type; it narrows the indicator and methodology pickers.
- A pair targets exactly one indicator from the NCGS indicator register.
- The applied methodology and the targeted indicator must both be approved register entries.
- The applied methodology and the targeted indicator must both serve the pair’s activity type (ncgs:forActivityType).
- The applied methodology must serve the targeted indicator: the indicator is among the methodology’s meth:forIndicator values, by membership since a methodology serves several indicators (ADR-0015).
IndicatorsSectionShape
SHACL shape.
- The indicators section pairs each targeted indicator with the methodology that serves it (ADR-0015).
IntervalShape
SHACL shape.
- An interval has exactly one beginning date.
- An interval has exactly one end date.
- An interval ends on or after the day it begins.
MonitoringPlanShape
SHACL shape.
- A monitoring plan declares exactly one sampling design: census or sample.
- A monitoring plan declares its monitoring period as exactly one interval with a beginning and an end (ADR-0012).
- A monitoring plan declares its monitoring period as the number of days after planting it runs for (ADR-0012).
- A monitoring plan declares the horizons reached per stratum, at least for one stratum.
- A monitoring plan names the observer roles expected on its visits, from the observer roles scheme (ADR-0004).
- A sampled stratum comes from the strata scheme.
- Horizons are planned per stratum (ncgs:hasStratumPlan), never on the plan as a whole.
- A monitoring plan is the monitoring-plan section of exactly one project design; the planting activity references the design’s plan (ADR-0012, ADR-0016).
- A sample design names the strata it samples; a census names none.
- Every horizon planned for a stratum must be reachable inside the monitoring period: the horizon’s minimum offset in days must not exceed the period in days (ADR-0012).
- Instance data must not use the standard’s namespace https://nova.org.za/ncgs/ (ADR-0002: instances are urn:uuid: IRIs).
- No horizon is planned for the delivered-only stratum: a delivered-only tree supports output claims only (ADR-0003, ADR-0012).
- The monitoring period’s interval must be at least as long, in days, as its period in days after planting (ADR-0012).
PartiesSectionShape
SHACL shape.
- A party’s role comes from the stakeholder roles scheme: funder, implementing partner, MRV partner, standards body, government department, municipality, landowner, site manager or nursery.
- Every party is an agent role: an IRI and a role from the stakeholder roles scheme, nothing more (ADR-0007).
- The parties section names at least a funder, an implementing partner and a standards body; an MRV partner where one exists.
ProjectDesignShape
SHACL shape.
- A design’s instrument declaration names an instrument and its mapping’s content address.
- A project design carries exactly one approval status: provisional when filed, approved once registered, withdrawn once superseded.
- A project design carries exactly one project version identifier (ADR-0017).
- A project design carries exactly one title.
- A project design has exactly one identity section (ADR-0016).
- A project design has exactly one indicators-and-methodologies section (ADR-0016).
- A project design has exactly one monitoring plan section (ADR-0012, ADR-0016).
- A project design has exactly one objective-and-scope section (ADR-0016).
- A project design has exactly one parties section (ADR-0016).
- A project design has exactly one personal-data-handling section (ADR-0007, ADR-0016).
- A project design has exactly one safeguards-and-stakeholder-engagement section (ADR-0016).
- A project design has exactly one sites section (ADR-0016).
- A design supersedes only an earlier project design of the same title with a different project version identifier: a change of scope or monitoring period is a new version, never an edit (ADR-0012, ADR-0017).
- A planting site’s agreement status must be signed, or uncooperative, since the agreement is still in force, or agreed verbally at a site type the design’s sites section accepts verbal agreement for; a site whose agreement is not in force may be listed for delivery only (decision register D-3.5, ADR-0019, ADR-0030).
- A planting site’s latest filed suitability determination must be suitable or suitable with conditions; a site never assessed, or whose latest determination is withheld, unsuitable or deferred, may be listed for delivery only (ADR-0006).
- A project design is registered (approved) only while the latest validation review of its content address, under the validate-project-design requirement, records the outcome approved; a filed design is provisional (ADR-0013, ADR-0017).
- An indicator that is never a design target, such as unscheduled observations recorded, may not be targeted: it reports what was seen outside the plan (ADR-0020).
- An indicator whose data structure names the horizons it is measured at may be targeted only if the monitoring plan plans one of those horizons for some stratum: planting uptake needs the T0+ check itself, not a later visit (ADR-0012, ADR-0031).
- An indicator with an earliest horizon may be targeted only if the monitoring plan reaches that horizon, or a later one, for some stratum: a design cannot promise establishment, shade or carbon inside a period that never gets there (ADR-0012).
- An outcome-level or impact-level indicator may be targeted only when a monitored stratum, planted with monitoring or delivered with monitoring, that the indicator’s data structure admits has an indicative count above zero: a delivery-only project cannot design for survival or its consequences, nor a planting-only one for the uptake of handed-over trees (ADR-0003, ADR-0012, ADR-0031).
- Every activity type in the design’s scope is captured by a declared instrument.
- Every indicator-and-methodology pair’s activity type lies within the design’s scope: a methodology for an activity the project does not undertake is out of scope (ADR-0015).
- Instance data must not use the standard’s namespace https://nova.org.za/ncgs/ (ADR-0002: instances are urn:uuid: IRIs).
- Once a design is registered, the design it supersedes is withdrawn: one registered version per project at a time (ADR-0017).
- The design’s declared instruments supply every property its applied methodologies read: no measured variable of a methodology in the indicators section is left without a field of a declared instrument’s mapping, except a property the ledger derives (ADR-0023).
- The monitoring period lies inside the interval of the programme version the design runs under: a project cannot monitor outside the phase it belongs to (ADR-0008, ADR-0012).
SafeguardsSectionShape
SHACL shape.
- Engagement documents are evidence items by content address, never transcribed (ADR-0007).
- The safeguards section states how communities and site holders are engaged.
- The safeguards section states how the grassland and wetland safeguard is handled: what the project will not do (ADR-0006).
ScopeSectionShape
SHACL shape.
- The scope section carries its strata with indicative tree counts as instance data, never as a count in a concept (ADR-0003, ADR-0008).
- The scope section names at least one activity type from the glossary’s activity types.
- The scope section states the project’s objective in a sentence or more.
- Each stratum appears at most once in the scope.
SiteInclusionShape
SHACL shape.
- A site inclusion references exactly one site from the site register.
- A site inclusion says whether the site is a planting site (true) or a delivery-only site (false).
SitesSectionShape
SHACL shape.
- The design accepts verbal agreement only at named site types from the site-types scheme; without one, only a signed agreement counts (ADR-0030).
- The sites section lists at least one registered site, each flagged as a planting site or a delivery-only site.
- Each site appears at most once in the sites section.
StratumAllocationShape
SHACL shape.
- A stratum allocation carries exactly one indicative tree count, zero or more.
- A stratum allocation names exactly one stratum from the strata scheme (ADR-0003).
StratumHorizonPlanShape
SHACL shape.
- A stratum plan names exactly one stratum from the strata scheme.
- Planned horizons come from the observation-horizon scheme (ADR-0010).
SubmittedArtifactIdentityShape
SHACL shape.
- A submitted artifact version identifies at most one submission anchor topic. Its syntax is fixed by the platform binding profile in force.
- A submitted artifact version identifies at most one submission consensus timestamp.
- A submitted artifact version must identify exactly one Hedera topic ID in shard.realm.num form.
- A submitted artifact version must identify exactly one artifact author.
- A submitted artifact version must identify exactly one content CID.
- A submitted artifact version must identify exactly one submission consensus timestamp.
- A submitted artifact version must identify exactly one workflow subject.
Every instrument the design declares names a mapping by content address (whether the mapping is complete is check_mapping.py over that address, the platform’s to run)
Smart function check.
Step detail
Questions asked: NCGS project-design questions
2. Validation review
Seat: any reviewer meeting the KSR requirement for a validation review in every knowledge domain the design’s applied methodologies require, who is not the design’s author (ADR-0013).
Prerequisite checks
No validation review of the design is by its author (the reputation requirement per knowledge domain is the platform’s to enforce)
Smart function check.
Completion checks
The latest validation review of the design’s content address under validate-project-design is approved
Smart function check.
Step detail
No form is filled in at this step.
3. Register the project version
Terminal: the design’s status becomes approved and it is the project version conformance statements name; the design it supersedes, if any, becomes withdrawn.
Prerequisite checks
ReviewArtifactShape
SHACL shape.
- A review artifact is made under exactly one review requirement of the standard.
- The reviewer (the review’s author) is not the author of the artifact reviewed (ADR-0013).
ReviewedArtifactIdentityShape
SHACL shape.
A review artifact must carry exactly one outcome from the NCGS review outcome scheme.
A review artifact must identify the exact reviewed artifact content CID.
Completion checks
The design is approved with its latest validation approved, and the design it supersedes, if any, is withdrawn
Smart function check.
Step detail
No form is filled in at this step.
Review requirements
Validation of a project design
Every project design is validated before it becomes a registered project version (ADR-0016, ADR-0017). The reviewer checks the eight sections against the data requirement and its consistency conditionals, and samples the records the design rests on: the site assessments that clear its planting sites, the consignments handed over at its sites, the environmental education sessions and the stewardship care records, none of which is reviewed one by one (they point at this requirement). Required domains are derived from the design’s applied methodologies (their ncgs:requiresKnowledgeDomain values), each governed by a validation-review KSR rule. Seat open to any qualified reviewer who is not the design’s author (ADR-0013).
| review mandate | Validation |
| reviewed artifact type | project-design |
| seat policy | Open to any KSR-qualified reviewer |
| minimum reviewers | 1 |
| reviewer must not be author | yes |
| knowledge domains from applied methodology | yes |
| governed by KSR rule | Take a validation review seat (community engagement and education); Take a validation review seat (field survey and data capture); Take a validation review seat (impact evaluation and estimation); Take a validation review seat (site suitability assessment); Take a validation review seat (tree establishment and stewardship) |