I am working with a local community in Vilnius, Lithuania, and we are planning to create a biodiversity project on iNaturalist for a natural area that includes Šeškinės Ozas and the Cedrono Aukštupio Landscape Reserve.
Our goal is to:
document biodiversity in this area,
involve the local community in observations,
and later use this data to better understand and communicate the ecological value of the territory.
I have already started setting up a Collection Project, but I understand that to properly define the project area, we need an iNaturalist Place.
We have prepared a KML file with the boundaries of the territory (based on real geographic features and local knowledge), but I do not have curator permissions to create a Place.
I would really appreciate guidance on:
What is the best way to proceed in this situation?
Should I request a Place via flags, or is it better to ask here first?
Are there any recommendations on how to define boundaries (e.g., buffer zones, minimum size, ecological logic)?
Would any curator be willing to help review or create this Place if I provide the KML?
The intention is to build a long-term, open community biodiversity dataset for this area.
You need to have at least 50 Research Grade observations under your name before you can create a place.
Your boundary should extend just beyond (by about 25 metres to 100 metres) the actual boundary of the site you wish to record in to ensure that all records for the area are captured.
How large is the area being encompassed by your boundary ?? Very large area impose a substantial processing hit on iNaturalist’s computer ??
If you wish to send me the .ml file (after you have checked the above comments) then I can create the place for you - I would need the full name of the place you require.
Awesome, thanks for clarification it seems I have 52 [Already allows to create project, but not Place yet], but probably not all are Research grade, will push it further then and continue. Thank you! If doesnt work the regular way I will contact you to help me set it up with all the details, thank you! :)
Think carefully about what you are creating and impose some standards on place and project names so that they are recognisable both in your own country and worldwide (e.g. using short names such as Holy Trinity Church is useless as there must be many such places across the world, it is better to have longer specific names such as Holy Trinity Church, Davidson Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK).
You may like to check out a couple of projects I have recently developed: