Repatriation Process

Following is a rough outline of recommended steps to assimilate the georeferences into your working database. The same steps should be used for both the ORNIS and MBA georeferences.

1. Download the zip file(s) for your institution from the Table of ORNIS Georeferencing Results and Table of Mexican Bird Atlas Results.
2. Extract the text file from the zip file using the password provided.
3. Create a database table from the text file.
4. Create a database table from the locality-related fields from your working database.
5. Join the two tables by the CatalogNumber field.
6. Create a new field that is the a concatenation of all location-based fields in 5.
7. From 5), create a table of distinct variations of the combination of georeference localities and current working database localities (a "Locality Combo" table) with the field as in 6 as a unique key.
8. Add a field "Same" and a field "Checked" to the Locality Combo table. The goal is to check all records for "sameness." The "Same" field will be used to flag records where the georeference locality and the current locality from the working database are semantically the same. The "Checked" field will be used to flag when a record has been tested for "sameness."
9. For Localities that are the same character-by-character before and after georeferencing, set Same=Yes and Checked=Yes.
10. Check each record not having Checked=Yes to determine if the the localities before and after are semantically the same. If they are the same, set Same=Yes and Checked=Yes, otherwise set Same=No and Checked=Yes.
11. When all records in the Locality Combo table have Checked=Yes, use the key relating to occurrence records to join the georeferences with Same=Yes back to the occurrence records.
12. Update the records in your working database using the repatriated georeference fields.

To preserve the high quality of georeferences produced under the ORNIS Project and make these data fit for the widest possible range of uses, every effort should be made to retain data from all of the georeference fields (DecimalLatitude, DecimalLongitude, GeodeticDatum, CoordinateUncertaintyInMeters, VerbatimCoordinateSystem, GeoreferenceProtocol, GeoreferenceRemarks, GeoreferenceSources, GeoreferenceDate*, GeoreferencedBy, GeoreferenceVerificationStatus, NoGeorefBecause*). Full documentation of the meaning of the fields not marked with an asterisk can be found in the Darwin Core Quick Reference Guide (Darwin Core Task Group 2009).

The fields beginning with "Standard" are simply standardized versions of the values in the associated original fields. These standard versions were used in the georeferencing proces to assist automation using the batch processing mode of the BioGeomancer Workbench (BioGeomancer Consortium 2006).

The ADM_n fields are useful for checking your original data. The values in these fields are standards from the GADM datasets and were determined by the location of the DecimalLatitude and DecimalLongitude of the georeference. If your higher geographies do not match the values in these fields, it means either that the georeference is wrong, or that your geography information is incorrect, or that your geography information doesn't use standard values.

The EEZone field contains a value if the DecimalLatitude and DecimalLongitude of the georeference falls within an exclusive economic zone off of the coast rather than on land. If the occurrence record is for a terrestrial species, a value in this field suggests an incorrect georeference, or a correct georeference based on faulty locality information.