MIDS Element - 9. quantitativeLocation

[RBGE-Herbarium]

Information Element Name	quantitativeLocation
Modified	2023/12/14
Label	Quantitative Location
Definition	A term to describe where the specimen was collected. A quantitative measure that would include coordinate or shape data, an identifier, or data that can be easily converted into a quantitative measure. In combination with the qualitative term, Locality.
Purpose	To enable a person or machine to identify and/or map the geographical location in which the collection was made.
Applicable standard(s)/recommendation(s)	It is strongly recommended to follow the best practice in the Georeferencing Quick Reference Guide (Zermoglio PF, Chapman AD, Wieczorek JR, Luna MC & Bloom DA, 2020 https://doi.org/10.35035/e09p-h128). It is recommended to use an identifier for the most precise spatial region or named place, given information available with the specimen. If an identifier is not being used then the data should correspond to a recognised geographic standard (eg, OGC webservices, WFS, ISO 3166, Geonames, GADM)
Examples	-30.23713, 139.33683, WGS84; https://www.geonames.org/7839420/flinders-ranges.html; https://gadm.org/maps/AUS/southaustralia/flindersranges.html
Required	Yes (all)
Constraints
Element specification status	agreed
Notes	none

[emhaston]

Notes from discussion with Rob Cubey and Robyn Drinkwater:

Separation of Geography from Locality

Geography should be a mappable unit, placename on a recognised geographical schema. This would mean removing verbatimlocality and collection site latlong from the mapping. It would potentially map to the latlong of the mappable unit which may be a centroid or shape latlong. Locality would be the more precise information to enable someone to re-find the exact collecting location or map it to extract the site topographical/climate information. (For specimens with no precise information, Locality information may be the identical to the Geography information in a record). Locality would include the collection site latlong data. It would also map to verbatimlocality.

Where would these terms fit within the MIDS levels. If we say that Geography is included in MIDS-2, with a recommendation that it should be the most precise available, is this where a requirement is included that country is recorded. What if there is no country on the specimen? Are missing data allowed? Do we then include Locality in MIDS-2 as well? The MIDS-2 level aims to be the 'research-ready' level - would 'research-ready' require a mappable specimen? Should it contain the co-ordinates or just allow the co-ordinates to be calculated?

[emhaston]

Could include watersheds

[emhaston]

Update option below

MIDS information element	Geography / Location
Definition	A term to describe where the specimen was collected. A quantitative measure that would include coordinate or shape data, an identifier, or data that can be easily converted into a quantitative measure. In combination with the qualitative term, Locality.
Purpose	To enable a person or machine to identify and/or map the geographical location in which the collection was made.
Mapping	Maps broadly to: dwc:higherGeography; dwc:continent; dwc:country; dwc:countryCode; dwc:waterBody; dwc:islandGroup; dwc:island; dwc:stateProvince; dwc:county; dwc:municipality; potentially maps exactly to dc:Location (http://purl.org/dc/terms/Location)
Applicable standard(s)/recommendation(s)	It is strongly recommended to use an identifier for the most precise spatial region or named place, given information available with the specimen. If an identifier is not being used then the data should correspond to a recognised geographic standard (eg, OGC webservices, WFS, ISO 3166, Geonames, GADM)
Element identifier
Required	Yes (all)
Repeatable	Yes
Constraints
Examples	To be added
Element specification status	under discussion
Notes	none

[emhaston]

Wikidata mapping concept clarification from discussion

Maps to wikidata:Geoshape (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P3896)

[emhaston]

Updated MIDS element information based on discussion at meeting 18, 13 October.

[smrgeoinfo]

Where is the updated text? A quantitative location should be a numeric coordinate location, with an asserted coordinate reference system identifier (WGS 84, NADM83, IAU2000:49900.