I’m making this topic because the area I observe things in has a VERY outdated map, I know iNaturalist just uses Google Maps, but I do want to talk about this anyways as it’s still frustrating.
It’s roughly outdated by 8-10 years, one of the bridges in my town was decommissioned and destroyed back then, it’s fully gone now, but it’s still present in the map. A lot has happened since then that has dramatically altered the terrain and wilderness. Massive wild fires, mud slides, flooding, increased urbanization, so many areas on the map including entire forests and towns don’t exist right now.
So, is there anything I, or iNaturalist, can or should do?
Yeah, the satellite map you see when you hit ‘upload’ or ‘explore’ on the app.
I don’t know how much the geography has changed considering it’s so outdated, because I’m in the middle of nowhere in Canada (no cell service/internet/etc. when hiking), the location data for the photos I take are often skewed or missing entirely, and I have to manually input or correct them. Having a map that isn’t properly representing the areas I’m hiking in leads to a lot of confusion, or having to alter/fix locations on old uploads that are incorrect.
I know you can find old satellite images on Google Earth. I don’t know if there is anything newer on there than what is on Google Maps. I used the old images in Google Earth to figure out where to put some really old observations. The landmarks I remember from when I took the photos are no longer there.
In general, Google Maps is probably about the best detailed satellite imagery available to the public for free. But you can also try looking at Bing Maps satellite imagery, which is usually different and could sometimes be newer. From the Bing Maps desktop browser interface, you can right click on a location to copy the exact coordinates, and then paste them into the search bar when browsing for the location on the iNat app or website (or paste them directly into the “Lat” and “Lon” fields when editing the observation’s location on the website).
Or if roads, trails, and landmarks are just as useful to you as satellite imagery, you can browse OpenStreetMap (OSM) and copy the coordinates from there. OSM could be missing some map features that haven’t been visited by one of their editors or traced from Bing satellite maps, but you might be surprised how extensive the coverage is. And if you find something wrong or missing, it’s possible (and encouraged) for you to edit it yourself and fix it.
GPS works on your phone without an internet connection. If you want it to be more reliable for photos, get an app like Gaia GPS or Avenza Maps (the former is better because it has a good basic topo map) and keep a track running all the time; this keeps your phone from having to re-acquire the location every time you take a photo. Or alternately, if you’re taking pictures on a separate camera, you can sync the pictures to the track with a program like GeoSetter.
I know of an area where google maps was out dated by over 20 years (until sometime in the last few months) and it’s not even particularly remote. It’s unreliable at best if you want a current view of the terrain.
I moved this to Nature Talk because there isn’t anything iNaturalist can do here when it comes to satellite images on the map tiles we’re served from Google or Apple Maps.
Also, @zee_z, it looks like you’re using the iOS app? If so, that app uses Apple Maps, not Google Maps. On iOS and Android, it’s free for an app to use the native maps for each operating system.
You might find apps like Geo Tracker or Natural Atlas to be useful. Geo Tracker (and other apps like it) will create a track that allows you to see where you’ve been. You can take it a step further and export a KML file and sync it with your photos so that your photos are accurately georeferenced before you upload them into iNat.
Annoyingly, the area I frequently work in was recently updated with a bunch of featureless snow-covered Google imagery. I’d rather have the older imagery back!
If you want to have an accurate and immediately available position for photos on a camera that doesn’t have GPS you could try what I have been doing for years. Download Handy GPS to your phone. Keep it running with the screen showing your position details (Lat. Long. Position accuracy, altitude etc.). Take your photo(s) and then photograph the GPS screen. Always take the GPS photo after the object photo(s). Store them together. I copy the coordinates and rename the photos to include them.
That’s a lot of work, especially if you’re taking hundreds of photos. If you’re doing more than a handful it’s easier to sync to a track; one click and all your photos are done.
Okay so, I just learned that there actually is a way to report outdated satellite imagery directly to Google. They don’t promise to do anything about it, but it might get the ball rolling. You do it by filling out this form:
Google has no general direct customer support contact, but they do make special contact forms available for certain specific types of requests - I didn’t expect this to be one of them, but there you go!
