Not-Detected Records

Not-detected records are negative observation records where a species was looked for but not found. These records contain much of the same information as a Presence record, but they designate where a species was not detected despite searching for it. These records are an important way to record monitoring and survey outcomes where species were not found. If multiple not-detected records are made for a species over time after treatment, it may indicate the species has been successfully eradicated.

It's preferable to submit these sites as polygon data, to document the area where you looked but did not find a species. If you submit points, we will buffer these by a small amount to create polygons.

Not-Detected Data

Required Fields

  • Scientific Name of species looked for but not found
  • Common Name of species looked for but not found
  • Search Date
    • if unknown, please provide a default or reasonable guess
    • please use a "Date" data type or format in MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD
  • Observer Name
    • if unknown, the submitter's name will be used
  • Organization Name
    • your agency or organization's name, or "None" if you are an independent observer
  • Location
    • if you are providing non-spatial data, please include the latitude/longitude or other X/Y coordinate information with your projection and datum.
    • if providing a GIS layer, include the projection
  • Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)
    • this allows your record to remain unique even when aggregated into the iMapInvasives dataset, or other shared datasets such as ODA WeedMapper. This will make future updates and sharing of your data much easier. For more information on how to generate a UUID, see this page.