esites Topic 29: When and how should you use a LocationId? [DECISION]

[rondlg]

DISCUSSION POINTS:

There are many duplicate localities in sites and also many with no lat.lon. There are an increasing number of internal and external initiatives to georeference specimens and departments to take advantage of them. In order to do so, especially if data is extracted and sent away we need to include a reference field to make sure that the information can correctly be repatriated and also de-duplicated wherever possible. What is the best way to do this? irns/UUIDs?

[rondlg]

DECISION(S):

We will assign a UUID to each site record and this, not the irn will become the locationID (sensu Darwin Core) for that record NOT for the site as a unique place on a map i.e. two or more locationIDs may refer to the exact same place. The UUID will always be set = No. If a georeferencing service returns a persistent identifier for a locality (eg from Getty) that can then be placed in the GUID grid with preferred = Yes. Records with matching GUIDs of the nature can then be merged. Audit will keep track of these replacements. See LocationID workflow and DwC structural changes.

See Location Record Identifiers Workflow

[rondlg]

DATA CHANGES: Data Changes Doc

Pre new development: None
Post development: