# Extracting place polygons from iNaturalist

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extracting-place-polygons-from-inaturalist/2132>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [April 13, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extracting-place-polygons-from-inaturalist/2132 "2019-04-13T17:54:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extracting-place-polygons-from-inaturalist/2132/1 "2019-04-13T17:54:00Z")

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sometimes i see interesting place polgons in iNaturalist that i’d like to use and/or modify in a GIS application. it doesn’t look like there’s a way to download a KML or similar file from iNaturalist, but i figured out recently that you can use the iNaturalist API to get the place polygon coordinates ([https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/docs/#!/Places/get\_places\_id](https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/docs/#!/Places/get_places_id)), and then from there, you can parse those appropriately so that they can be loaded as polygons into your favorite GIS application.

it’s not difficult to do, but if anyone knows of an even easier way to do something like this, or if you know of some caveats or limitations, please share.

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**Author:** ![kiwifergus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/kiwifergus/32/1904_2.png) [@kiwifergus](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/kiwifergus)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 10:14am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extracting-place-polygons-from-inaturalist/2132/2 "2019-04-15T10:14:55Z")

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if you edit the place, underneath the map is an option to download the kml. This might just be for curators. I’m not sure, but if you try editing and can’t find the download kml link, you could ask a curator to download and send it to you.

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**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extracting-place-polygons-from-inaturalist/2132/3 "2019-04-15T13:24:07Z")

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hmmm… that doesn’t seem to be available for non-curators like me, except in places that i have created myself. it would be nice to be able to download KMLs for any place. but in the meantime, i can still get the place coordinates via the API, which just adds a little bit of extra work.

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**Author:** ![jwidness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jwidness](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jwidness)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extracting-place-polygons-from-inaturalist/2132/4 "2019-05-31T15:50:55Z")

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[now in tutorial format](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-get-kml-boundaries-for-inat-places-wiki/3750)

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**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extracting-place-polygons-from-inaturalist/2132/5 "2019-05-31T19:14:28Z")

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nice! thanks for tutorializing it. 💪

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**Author:** ![bouteloua](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/bouteloua/32/1180_2.png) [@bouteloua](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/bouteloua)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2021, 9:53pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extracting-place-polygons-from-inaturalist/2132/6 "2021-09-24T21:53:51Z")

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