coordinates-bar.md

Coordinates bar

Description

The coordinates bar groups the occurrences of a dataset in categories based on the quality of the provided coordinates. This functionality is mainly based on the geospatial issues assigned by GBIF as part of its occurrence processing. It allows the user to assess fitness for use and the data publisher to discover coordinate issues.

How we categorize

Valid coordinates (all in WGS84)

The occurrence does not fall into one of the other categories. Occurrences with the following issues are still considered having valid coordinates:

• GEODETIC_DATUM_ASSUMED_WGS84
• COORDINATE_REPROJECTED
• COORDINATE_ROUNDED to 5 decimals.
• PRESUMED_SWAPPED_COORDINATE
• PRESUMED_NEGATED_LATITUDE
• PRESUMED_NEGATED_LONGITUDE

Although the last 3 issues might be interesting to data publishers, the resulting coordinates are corrected by GBIF and valid/usable for users.

Coordinates with minor issues

The occurrence does not have major issues, but has one of the following issues:

• GEODETIC_DATUM_INVALID indicates that the publisher provided a datum that might be different from WGS84.
• COORDINATE_REPROJECTION_FAILED, in which case GBIF provides the original coordinates.
• COORDINATE_REPROJECTION_SUSPICIOUS

Coordinates with major issues

The occurrence has one of the following issues:

• COORDINATE_INVALID
• COORDINATE_OUT_OF_RANGE
• ZERO_COORDINATE
• COUNTRY_COORDINATE_MISMATCH, which is only raised for valid countries, so the issue is related to the coordinates, not the country.

The first two issues will result in empty decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude, but are categorised here since the publisher intended to provide coordinates.

Coordinates not provided

The occurrence has empty decimalLatitude or decimalLongitude: it is not provided by the publisher or populated by GBIF based on other geospatial fields.

Suggestions for improvement

For valid coordinates, calculate the precision (e.g. up to 1km, 100m, etc.) so the user can better assess the fitness for use.

Suggestions for GBIF

• hasCoordinate is always false in the download files. It is provided correctly via the API. This is probably a bug.
• hasGeospatialIssues is false for COORDINATE_INVALID. This is probably a bug.
• hasGeospatialIssues is false for COORDINATE_REPROJECTION_FAILED. Is this intentional?
• Provide more specific documentation regarding hasCoordinate. What is a valid latitude/longitude? What coordinate issues (e.g. ZERO_COORDINATE) make the coordinates invalid?
• Provide more specific documentation regarding hasGeospatialIssues. What coordinates issues are ignored (e.g. COORDINATE_ROUNDED)?