Why don't these observations show up in this project? - "Official" Topic

General
49

Hello I’m having a similar issue as others in this thread. I created a collection project that covers multiple “places” that I created in iNaturalist. I was out yesterday making observations with 2 other people but I was in a location that I hadn’t yet included in the project parameters. Is there an easy way to retroactively add observations made yesterday? I will need to instruct my collaborators how to manually check their observations were captured. Can this be done from both the mobile and desktop versions?

This morning I added the place where I was observing to the project and unchecked the “members only” box. For this project I hope to include 6-8 community gardens as observation areas. Is a collection project the best way to accomplish this? Here is the project page https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/manhattan-land-trust-biodiversity-survey

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50

If you add the new places to your project, all past and future observations in that place, that otherwise meet your other filters, will automatically be listed on the project page.

Probably, but keep in mind that any observations that have an “accuracy” radius that crosses the bounding box of the place won’t be included (example bounding box pictured in red outline here). That’s particularly common for very small places and those where GPS signal is poor, such as around tall buildings. You’ll have to be sure to check the observation to ensure that circle of precision is small enough. When you are making observations with your phone, it’s good practice to wait a few moments for the GPS to narrow in on your location - you can see this happening with the “accuracy” number reducing in number, usually down to 5-15 meters.

51

Thank you! I did later add the places and most of the observations were included in the project. I still have about 25% of my and other users observations that are not included in the project even after I edited the observation place to the same place as included in the project. Do you think this has to do with location accuracy? Is there anything else I can do to fix this?

If all else fails I can just filter the observations I need from my account and other users accounts that I want in this project.

When you are making observations with your phone, it’s good practice to wait a few moments for the GPS to narrow in on your location - you can see this happening with the “accuracy” number reducing in number, usually down to 5-15 meters.<

I’m on an Android phone but I know my project participants also have iPhones. The accuracy number shows up when you open the app or when you are capturing a photo? I don’t think I’ve noticed that before!

52

Sorry it’s hard for me to say without seeing examples - can you list some URLs of observations that you expect to appear in the project, but don’t?

Do you mean to download and look at outside of iNat? (Since it’s a collection project, it’s not possible to manually add specific observations to it. https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/managing-projects#types)

53

This observation is one example https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63499053

I changed the location to meet the parameters of this project but you can see it is still not included in my project

54

Yes download later.

55

Thanks - that observation fails to meet the criteria of the project because of this:

image

In green is the approximate outline of your place for Parque de Tranquildad, and in blue is the rough “bounding box” for that place. If you drag the orange circle around your point to fall within the blue bounding box, it will show up in your project (possibly after a short lag period).

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56

Thank you so much! I’ll try to edit the location of the observations to meet the project criteria.

Edit: It worked! I hope I’ll be able to batch edit locations

2 Likes
57

I created a new place and then a Collection Project. No observations are showing up, not even my own. How do I fix this?
Thank you for any help.

58

it looks like your place does not have any boundaries defined. you probably need to fix the place definition so that it has proper boundaries.

more precisely, it looks like you may have defined boundaries with longitudes that are >180 deg. that may cause problems similar to what’s noted in https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/place-longitude-must-be-greater-than-or-equal-to-180-error/8398.

this is what the kml file for your place (https://www.inaturalist.org/places/geometry/162864.kml) contained:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.1">
  
  <Document>
    <Placemark>
  <name>Como Lake Park, Coquitlam Border</name>
  <styleUrl>https://www.inaturalist.org/assets/index.kml#place</styleUrl>
<MultiGeometry><Polygon><outerBoundaryIs><LinearRing><coordinates>237.143379449844332,49.257778348779993 237.143293619155855,49.258968716737087 237.143594026565552,49.259570891944442 237.143615484237642,49.259850970932796 237.143465280532865,49.260117044499488 237.142220735549927,49.261895499394896 237.142242193222017,49.262553651493732 237.140032052993774,49.262567654634523 237.139956951141357,49.261811479346207 237.139924764633207,49.261685449004943 237.139345407485933,49.261643438819675 237.139302492141724,49.260803227603986 237.139581441879244,49.260803227603986 237.139517068862943,49.259934994319366 237.140117883682251,49.25989298264394 237.140160799026518,49.258982720895119 237.140847444534302,49.258898695887282 237.140783071517916,49.258422551474148 237.14192032814023,49.258464564401258 237.142349481582642,49.257932398015278 237.142499685287504,49.25776434428024 237.143379449844332,49.257778348779993</coordinates></LinearRing></outerBoundaryIs></Polygon></MultiGeometry></Placemark>

  </Document>
</kml>

it could be represented like this instead (by subtracting 360 from each of the longitudes):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.1">
  
  <Document>
    <Placemark>
  <name>Como Lake Park, Coquitlam Border</name>
  <styleUrl>https://www.inaturalist.org/assets/index.kml#place</styleUrl>
<MultiGeometry><Polygon><outerBoundaryIs><LinearRing><coordinates>-122.856620550156,49.257778348779993 -122.856706380845,49.258968716737087 -122.856405973435,49.259570891944442 -122.856384515763,49.259850970932796 -122.856534719468,49.260117044499488 -122.857779264451,49.261895499394896 -122.857757806778,49.262553651493732 -122.859967947007,49.262567654634523 -122.860043048859,49.261811479346207 -122.860075235367,49.261685449004943 -122.860654592515,49.261643438819675 -122.860697507859,49.260803227603986 -122.860418558121,49.260803227603986 -122.860482931138,49.259934994319366 -122.859882116318,49.25989298264394 -122.859839200974,49.258982720895119 -122.859152555466,49.258898695887282 -122.859216928483,49.258422551474148 -122.85807967186,49.258464564401258 -122.857650518418,49.257932398015278 -122.857500314713,49.25776434428024 -122.856620550156,49.257778348779993</coordinates></LinearRing></outerBoundaryIs></Polygon></MultiGeometry></Placemark>

  </Document>
</kml>

if you loaded the second version of the kml above, then your place probably would be created properly. if created properly, you should see the boundary of your place displayed in maps like so: image

61

(just posted this below, but mistakenly as a reply to another post)
I created a project for my class (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ucsb-193cs-2020-shelter-in-place-bioblitz) and in some cases the home page lists an observer as having 38 observations in the project, but when you go to look at the observations there are far fewer, as examples see observers adam_rebeca, and jessetcasey. The last one indicates 42 observations on the project page, but only 1 shows up under their observations for this project.

Screen Shot 2020-11-15 at 12.22.17 PM
Screen Shot 2020-11-15 at 12.22.17 PM2258×1124 218 KB

Seems odd the observation totals are listed on the project page, but fewer are actually showing up.
Please advise, thx

62

Hi @pataxte, when you say “but when you go to look at the observations there are far fewer, as examples see observers adam_rebeca, and jessetcasey”, can you specify which search URL(s) you are using? For example, I see 38 observations by rebeca_adam on the project’s Observers tab https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ucsb-193cs-2020-shelter-in-place-bioblitz?tab=observers
image

and then when I click the Observations tab, then “Search”
image

and use the filters to show only observations by rebeca_adam, I also see 38 observations.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=ucsb-193cs-2020-shelter-in-place-bioblitz&user_id=rebeca_adam&verifiable=any
image

If you’re going to search observations via the Explore page, rather than starting your search at your project, you’ll need to ensure you uncheck the box next to “Verifiable” in the filters, because your project is allowing Casual observations in addition to Needs ID and Research Grade ones.

image
image414×637 45.7 KB

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=ucsb-193cs-2020-shelter-in-place-bioblitz&user_id=jessetcasey&verifiable=any

1 Like
63

Thanks @bouteloua, that helps! But I am always confused about the casual classification which is occurring here probably because these are considered cultivated spp. I have often seen cultivated spp classed as research grade. Is this only because someone added another species level ID, even though the observation was never indicated as “Needs ID”?

1 Like
64

Each observation of cultivated plants needs to be marked as “captive/cultivated” (via a checkbox when uploading the observation), or it can be marked as “Organism is wild? No” in the Data Quality Assessment section after being uploaded. Unfortunately many observers do not know to do this, so some observations of cultivated organisms can reach research grade and are being displayed on range maps as if they were wild. Marking them as “not wild” is a big help!

2 Likes
65

So, any cultivated organism that is marked “captive/cultivated” or “Organism is wild? No” can never reach research grade?
And, if I have an observation of a cultivated species that is research grade bc someone else has verified its ID, if I go back and edit the observation marking it either “captive/cultivated” or “Organism is wild? No”, will it automatically be demoted to casual?

This has been confusing to me for a long time so sorting out the details is really helpful

66

Yes, whenever it’s marked captive/cultivated/not wild, it’ll be considered Casual (though there are feature requests to modify the system). More details about these categories here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#quality

67

What do you mean there are feature requests to modify the system? Is there any way to have subgroups that allow or even focus on community -IDed cultivated spp? A cultivated research-grade, or is this already happening? I know this was not the original intent of iNat

Thank you @bouteloua!

68

You’ve referred to “cultivated species” a few times. But on iNaturalist, the wild/not-wild, or captive/not captive designation refers not to the taxon but the individual organism being observed. A feral Felis catus would be considered wild, while a pet one in a house would be considered captive.

2 Likes
69

Right @tiwane, but if you are talking domesticated plants, then all individuals, even in centers of origin and diversity would be considered cultivated, right?

70

Can you please provide an example?