Several of the iNat “places” in South Korea appear to be inaccurate with errors in the way their administrative levels are depicted on the site. I assume this is due to incorrect borders supplied by GADM but hope that a solution can be found to increase the accuracy of maps on iNat.
One quick example is the Admin Level 2 location “Mokpo”.
On iNat: https://www.inaturalist.org/places/mokpo
The selected area does not include the city of Mokpo (which it should) and is instead centered on the island Aphaedo, which should be in the Admin Level 2 location “Sinan County”.
– Google Maps Link
– Wikipedia Link
Unfortunately, the city where I live (Uijeongbu) is also affected by this issue which means a decent-sized chunk of the observations I upload end up being misplaced and serve as a constant reminder of how the maps don’t reflect the actual administrative borders here.
Admin Level 2 Uijeongbu is a location within Admin Level 1 Gyeonggi that, for the most part, should look similar to this image from Google Maps: Google Maps Link
On iNat the majority of the northern half is assigned to the Admin Level 2 region Yangju, the northeastern corner is assigned to Admin Level 2 region Pocheon, and the northernmost portion of Admin Level 1 Seoul’s Admin Level 2 Dobong district is mistakenly assigned to Uijeongbu.
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Observation from inside what should be the Admin Level 2 area (Korea - Gyeonggi - Uijeongbu):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2468439
The address listed on iNat from Google is “358-36 Yijeongbudong, Yijeongbusi, Gyeonggi-do, KR”. iNat includes it under Korea - Gyeonggi - Yangju. -
Similarly:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/17149005
The address listed on iNat from Google is “Nagyang-dong, Uijeongbu-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea”. iNat includes it under Korea - Gyeonggi - Pocheon. -
Observation included within Korea - Gyeonggi - Uijeongbu that should not be placed there:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14532111
The address listed on iNat from Google is “Dobong-gu, Seoul, South Korea”. iNat includes it under Korea - Gyeonggi - Uijeongbu but it should be treated as Korea - Seoul - Dobong. In this case it’s not ‘just’ the Admin Level 2 but also the Admin Level 1 that is different than expected, presumably due to where GADM decided to place their boundaries.
I’ve posted on the Google Group twice about this issue. The first time it was suggested that I contact GADM myself but despite doing so I have never heard back from them. The second time was in this thread – iNat Google Group Link – but without receiving a reply after I clarified what was occurring. I hope that bringing it up here in a dedicated thread here will help generate some attention to the matter.
In all honesty, it’s a little embarrassing to encourage people in Korea to try out iNat knowing that the maps aren’t accurate. I still do recommend the site to everyone I can, but it would be great if our observations were mapped in the correct place.