# Uncertainty radius crossing the project border - but still included in project

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/uncertainty-radius-crossing-the-project-border-but-still-included-in-project/60940>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [January 25, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/uncertainty-radius-crossing-the-project-border-but-still-included-in-project/60940 "2025-01-25T23:39:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![carnifex](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/carnifex/32/62_2.png) [@carnifex](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/carnifex)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/uncertainty-radius-crossing-the-project-border-but-still-included-in-project/60940/1 "2025-01-25T23:39:44Z")

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I previously thought that whenever the radius around an observation is going beyond the borders of a place, that this observation will not be included in a collection project using that place.

This seems not to be entirely true in all cases - see this screenshot where I overlayed the place border (in orange) and the observation radius

 ![grafik](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/d/8/d872f77302d1c89540f5d5aac4e84c62699cc54a.jpeg)

As can be seen, the map is very much zoomed in, with the observation radius about 2 meters outside of the place border.

Now I wonder, is there in **absolute value** (i.e. proportion of the observation radius) that needs to be within the place borders to count, or is this also _depending on the scale_ (zoom level), so that few meters do not count?

Not sure if that has ever been discussed, couldn’t find any topics dealing with it.

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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:** [January 25, 2025, 11:57pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/uncertainty-radius-crossing-the-project-border-but-still-included-in-project/60940/2 "2025-01-25T23:57:31Z")

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see [https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000169942-why-is-my-observation-not-showing-up-in-a-place-or-collection-project-i-know-i-observed-it-there-](https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000169942-why-is-my-observation-not-showing-up-in-a-place-or-collection-project-i-know-i-observed-it-there-)

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**Author:** ![carnifex](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/carnifex/32/62_2.png) [@carnifex](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/carnifex)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 10:16am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/uncertainty-radius-crossing-the-project-border-but-still-included-in-project/60940/3 "2025-01-27T10:16:45Z")

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For anyone interested, in pisum’s link to the help section it is described that every place has a rectangular bounding box along lateral/longitudinal lines, defined by the respective four extreme cardinal points.  
Thus, the accuracy circle of an observation _can_ cross the place borders, if the outer bounding box is not touched.

And, just to clarify, the center point of the observation needs to lie within the place borders

(@tiwane should this be mentioned on the help page, so that it is clear the observation cannot be located anywhere within the bounding box?)

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/uncertainty-radius-crossing-the-project-border-but-still-included-in-project/60940/4 "2025-03-28T10:17:22Z")

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Closed on March 28, 2025, 10:17am UTC

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