Adding a Site
Each experiment is conducted at a unique site. In the context of BETY, the term 'site' refers to a specific location and it is common for many sites to be located within the same experimental station. By creating distinct records for multiple sites, it is possible to differentiate among independent studies.
Before adding a site, search to make sure that site is not already
entered in the database.
Search for the site given latitude and longitude
If an institution name or city and state are given, try to
locate the site on Google Maps
If a site name is given, try to locate the site using a
combination of Google and Google Maps
To use an existing site, click Edit for the site, and then select
current citation under Add Citation Relationships
If site does not exist, add a new site.
Interface for adding a new site:
Attributes of a site record
Do not enter a new site When plants (or seeds) are collected from multiple locations and then grown in the same location, this is called 'common garden experiment'. In this case, the location of the study is included as site information. Information about the seed source can be entered as a distinct cultivar.
Points can be added via the web interface; spatial geometries, e.g. a plot, site, or country boundary, must be entered via the PostgreSQL command line.
Point Locations
If latitude and longitude coordinates are not available, it is often possible to determine the site location based on the site name, city, and other information. One way to do this would be to look up a location name in and then locate it on the embedded map. Google Maps can provide decimal degrees if the LatLng feature is enabled, which can be done . Google Earth can be particularly useful in locating sites, along with their coordinates and elevation. Alternatively, the site website or address might be found through an internet search (e.g. Google).
Use Table \ref{tab:location_accuracy} to determine the number of significant digits to indicate the level of precision with which a study location is known.
Table \ref{tab:location_accuracy} \label{tab:location_accuracy} Level of accuracy to record in lat and lon fields.
A vector boundary must be obtained. Here is one way to obtain a site boundary using R:
A rectangular plot (with bounding box)
Here I set the bounding box for a plot by specifying the plot corners and elevation. Notice that it is necessary to specify the first point twice, once at the beginning and once at the end.
A country boundary:
Then import at the command line (can also copy / paste to terminal, but this boundary is long)
PostGIS ST_GeomFromText documentation:
