Georeferencing Workshop

University of the Western CapeCape Town, South Africa

04-08 Feb 2011

GEOLocate – Automated Georeferencing

Software & services for georeferencing of natural history collections data

Initially funded in 2002

locality description analysis

coordinate generation

batch processing

geographic visualization

data correction

error determinationcollaborative georeferencing

interoperable

multilingualkml export

google, bing, openstreet, wms

soap & rest api

Basic Georeferencing Process

• Data Inputo Data Correctiono Manual or file based data entry

• Coordinate Generationo Locality description parsing and analysis

• Coordinate Adjustmento Fine tuning the results on a visual map display

• Error Determinationo Assigning a maximum possible extent for a given

locality description

Coordinate Generation Pipeline

Navigable Waterway Query & Analysis

TRS Query & Analysis

Placenames Query & Analysis

Highway Name and Water body Name Query & Analysis

Water Body Query & Snapping

Standardize Locality String

Overview: Locality Visualization & Adjustment

Computed coordinates are displayed on digital maps

Manual verification of each record

Drag and drop correction of records

Caused by duplicate names, multiple names & multiple displacements

Results are ranked and most “accurate” result is recorded and used as primary result

All results are recorded and displayed as red arrows

Working on using specimen data to limit spread of results

Overview:Multiple Result Handling

Example

Eagle Lake, Warren County,Mississippi, USA

When a point just isn’t good enough…

Polygons within GEOLocate

Represented as a comma delimited array of vertices using latitude and longitude

User-defined maximum extent described as a polygon that a given locality description can represent

Next release will support auto-detection and generation of polygons

Multilingual Georeferencing• 3 millas al norte de Madrid• Extensible architecture for adding languages via

language libraries• Language libraries are text files that define various

locality types in a given language• Current support for:

o Spanisho Basqueo Catalano Galician

• May also be used to define custom locality types in English (example- adding alternative unit representations)

Taxonomic Footprint Validation

Taxa collected for a given locality

Uses point occurrence data from distributed museum databases to validate georeferenced data

Species A

Species B

Lepomis macrochirus

Notropis chrosomus

Notropis volucellus

Micropterus coosae

Lepomis cyanellus

Cottus carolinae

Hypentelium etowanum

Etheostoma ramseyi

Footprint for specimens collected at Little Schultz Creek, off Co. Rd. 26 (Schultz Spring Road), approx. 5 mi N of Centreville; Bibb County; White circles indicate results from automated georeferencing. Black circle indicates actual collection locality based on GPS. This sample was conducted using data from UAIC & TUMNH

www.museum.tulane.edu/taxonfootprint

www.museum.tulane.edu/taxonfootprint

-27.02033 32.302492

Barbus paludinosusMesobola brevianalis

Collaborative Georeferencing• Distributed community effort increases efficiency.• CoGe is a web-based portal/client for managing

multiple georeferencing communities each with multiple members.

• DiGIR / .CSV used for data input (other alternatives in development).

• Similar records from various institutions can be matched and georeferenced simultaneously.

• Georeferenced data can be returned to providers via portal (download as a comma delimited file).

• CoGe is entirely web-service based; can be plugged into any digitization workflow (e.g., TCN data management systems).

Collaborative Georeferencing

DiGIR Service

Record Processor

CoGe Client Application

(Desktop or Web)

Cache Update Web Service

CoGe Web Portal Application

Data Store

Georeferencing Web Service

Data Retrieval Web Service

Insert Correction Web Service

Remote Data Source

Users register for access with options for different levels of authority and privacy.

View Existing Communities

Create New Communities

Manage Community Data Sources

Shows data sources within Nelson’s test community, number of records and pace of correction of records.

Add new data sources via DiGIR or .CSV filesFour Steps

(Step 1)

Enter URL of DiGIR provider then click “Probe”.

Add new data source

(Step 2)

Select data source you would like to add then click “add”

Add new data source(Step 3)

Resolve conflicts in data schema.

Map them to default schema beforesource data added.

Add new data

source (Step 4)

Verify new concept mapping and approveit.

Update cache

Complete updateSync records

Alert data provider of data inconsistencies

1 possible duplicate record was skipped and emailed to data

provider.

Option to keep or drop records from

cache.

Save updated cache

A

Locality records automaticallygeoreferenced as they enter the data store.

System monitors progress of result verification/correction.

Collaborative aspect and record similarity matching maximizes efficiency of correction process.

View cache

Invite New Users to Join Community

Invite Sent

Invite Received

AdjustCommunity

Users Permissions

Manage Community Georeferencing assignments

Assign all records from Kenya toexperts on East African regions

Viewcorrections

Interoperability:

Questions?

University of the Western CapeCape Town, South Africa

04-08 Feb 2011