[Nhcoll-l] Lack of latitude and longitude

[Vijay Barve]

Thank you so much Dakota, Carolyn and Doug.

It is very important to be aware of the uncertainty radii or
DwC:coordinateUncertaintyInMeters (
https://dwc.tdwg.org/terms/#dwc:coordinateUncertaintyInMeters) and I am of
the opinion* each data record needs to be shared (on platforms like GBIF)
and educate users about "fitness of use"*. In some cases the record
could be first for the state or county, and not sharing that, we might miss
out on important information. More data we have, the more power we have to
identify outliers.

Regards,

Vijay


On Mon, Sep 30, 2024 at 9:41 AM Douglas Yanega <dyanega at gmail.com> wrote:

> Assignment of arbitrary points is a balancing act. It is a recommended
> practice (e. g. , in the Darwin Core protocols) that every specimen-level
> database record with a georeference should include an uncertainty radius.
> There are lots of collections,
> 
>
> Assignment of arbitrary points is a balancing act.
>
> It is a recommended practice (e.g., in the Darwin Core protocols) that
> every specimen-level database record with a georeference *should include
> an uncertainty radius*. There are lots of collections, ours included,
> that follow this standard.
>
> The problem is that not everyone who USES specimen data makes use of this
> "error radius" information. As tempting as it is to say "Well, it's not our
> fault if people abuse our data", it does nonetheless represent a real
> concern, such that we might NOT want to put specimen data online if the
> error radius is exceptionally large.
>
> The use of centroids, common as it is, can have serious repercussions when
> dealing with assessments for T&E taxa. In my own experience, the datasets
> for various bumblebees are "contaminated" with so many such points that it
> has created problems, where very rare and geographically-limited species
> are mapping over much larger geographic areas than are realistic. This can
> keep a species in actual need of protection from BEING protected, and cause
> wasted resources when a species DOES get listed, and people spend millions
> of dollars doing surveys for the species *in places where they have never
> occurred*.
>
> The responsibility here is shared, ultimately, between data providers and
> data consumers. Providers shouldn't assume that all users will know to
> check for big error radii, and consumers shouldn't assume that the error
> radius is always zero. Sometimes, even though you might want to have a data
> point in your database, you either shouldn't assign one, or - if you do -
> you shouldn't share it online. Not to prolong or extend the discussion, but
> a similar issue occurs with respect to non-native plants or animals raised
> in gardens or quarantine facilities; if they are given a georeference for
> their "novel" location, this is *very* open to misinterpretation. We have
> thousands of record in our database of this nature, as we maintain a major
> insectary/quarantine facility, with thousands of voucher specimens, but
> those data are *not* put online *unless* the data being displayed are for
> the point of origin.
>
> Peace,
>
> --
> Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
> Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     office:951-827-8704
> FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
>              https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://faculty.ucr.edu/*heraty/yanega.html__;fg!!Ljrh0eb5atLX!t6s9KYuUQBJAbvrdku1PsFTzZrlD8HC9RU6F31coY3DKmFnk8uEEeBwTf-murvnO5KfGFdu1HNI$>
>   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
>         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l__;!!Ljrh0eb5atLX!t6s9KYuUQBJAbvrdku1PsFTzZrlD8HC9RU6F31coY3DKmFnk8uEEeBwTf-murvnO5KfGGSuINC8$
>
> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.spnhc.org__;!!Ljrh0eb5atLX!t6s9KYuUQBJAbvrdku1PsFTzZrlD8HC9RU6F31coY3DKmFnk8uEEeBwTf-murvnO5KfGc979RiU$
> for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20240930/77c2c3d2/attachment.html>