Georeferencing

In the context of BioGeomancer, georeferencing is providing geographic coordinates that

represent a textual location description. In other words, numbers (latitude and longitude)

are assigned to descriptions like "Between Point Reyes and Bodega Bay, California, USA".

The purpose is to allow for easy mapping and spatial analysis of the phenomena observed at

these locations.

BioGeomancer implements the point-radius method. This method returns a single point and

an circle of "uncertainty" around that point. Uncertainty depends on the quality of the locality

description and the quality of the data used to map it. The point-radius method is explained here and

more formally in this paper.

The BioGeomancer project has also developed this Guide to best practices for georeferencing