GEOLocate

Georeferencing software for natural history collections.

Description

GEOLocate is a software tool that enables researchers to easily assign geographic coordinates to a descriptive string of locality information, visualize the location, and make corrections as necessary.1

Georeferencing begins by standardizing the locality description string into a common terms format. Once standardized the locality string is parsed into key geographic identifiers. Some example geographic identifiers used by GEOLocate include the occurrence of named places, navigable river miles, highway names, water body names, legal locations and displacement patterns. These identifiers within the string are used to determine geographic coordinates from database lookups and geographic calculations.  The resulting coordinates are ranked based on the type of information found within the string and plotted on the digital map display for user verification, correction and error determination.

Features2

• Drag and drop coordinate correction
• Batch georeferencing
• File input via .xml, .csv or delimited .txt
• Polygon error determination
• Multiple coordinate determination
• Supports most countries, including Australia (licence from Geoscience Australia required)
• Overview plotting of input datasets

Depending on the quality of the original locality data, georeferencing results can be improved by prior checks of misspelled, missing, incorrect, and/or ambiguous information within the locality dataset.

GEOLocate is funded by the National Science Foundation and developed by Tulane University's Museum of Natural History designed to facilitate the task of assigning geographic coordinates to the locality data associated with natural history collections.3

Function

• Data cleaning and manipulation
  • Georeferencing – applying latitude and longitude
• User interface
  • Personal and institutional use
  • Raw data and visual presentation

Why use this tool?

Traditional methods for georeferencing collection data from text descriptions are tedious and time consuming, typically involving finding the locality on either a hardcopy or digital maps, plotting the locality and determining the coordinates.  

GEOLocate considerably reduces the time required to georeference locality information.4

 Who will use this tool?

• Data capture
  • Curators – specimens, identification
• Data providers
  • Institutions
  • Private collections
  • Casual users
• No special skills required

 How will the tool be used?

• Manual input and file input
• File input via .xml, .csv or delimited .txt
• Desktop application
• Requires Windows, Microsoft .NET framework, web browser
• User input required or can run as a batch job.

 Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

• Data source

 When could this tool be used?

• Before data is made available to ALA

Availability

• GEOLocate: http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/
• Request a download: http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/order.aspx
• Manual: http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/support/docs.aspx
• Support: http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/support/
• Contact: support@museum.tulane.edu
• Version 2.15,   June 2005
• Licence: Non-transferable, not to be copied: 5

Comments

Requires a user licence from Geoscience Australia for Australian data.