[Question] Handling effective date in Geographies schema

[bhargav-lime]

I had a couple of questions regarding the geographies schema.

In geographies schema, I noticed that, effective_date is not a mandatory field.

This is important to consider when reporting data to the agencies when they require data at a geography level and not at the lat/lng level.

Is there a particular reason why this was marked optional? How should we interpret regarding effective_from date - Should it be same as published_date or something else?

[schnuerle]

I think it's optional because it's meant to be effective and useable when published, unless you would like to set a future date with effective_date. For example, maybe you have a music festival that's happening one weekend, you could publish the geometry and let people know when it's going to be in effect and when it will end with retire_date. Or you may leave off effective_date if you are publishing, say, your operating area geometry.