Locations
When adding a new deal to the database, the target country must be selected first.
This step is a mandatory prerequisite — no other deal-related data can be entered until the target country, i.e. the country where the land targeted by the deal is located, has been specified.
Selecting the target country activates the remaining input tabs and fields required to proceed with the data entry for the newly added deal.
The first data entry tab from the top is the Locations tab — it contains all the fields required for entering data on the spatial location of the deal.
Important notes
- A deal may have multiple locations, either because the land area of the deal consists of unconnected sub-areas (and a multi-polygon is not available or cannot be created) or because the deal is entered as a ‘subsumed deal‘ (see “Subsumed deals”).
- The spatial accuracy level indicates the precision of the provided latitude and longitude coordinates. For correct interpretation, this variable and its values must be considered together with the coordinates. Only at the ‘spatial accuracy levels’ ‘exact location’ and ‘coordinates’ it can be assumed that the coordinates precisely refer to the actual location(s) of the deal. For the other three ‘spatial accuracy levels’, the coordinates generally only point to the centre of the area of the administrative unit named as the location (if selected in the Location search field).
- Geodetic reference system: WGS84 (EPSG:4326), decimal degrees.
- The GeoJSON geometry type must be ‘MultiPolygon‘ regardless of whether it represents a single polygon or multiple polygons, that may or may not be connected, such as separate land parcels / fragmented areas.
Spatial accuracy level
A classification of the accuracy of the available spatial location information for each deal location, ranging from broad to highly precise.
- Country: Country level information (typical spatial accuracy upwards of 100 km)
- Administrative region: Sub-national regional level i.e. regions, provinces, districts, and big cities (typical spatial accuracy of 10 km - 100 km)
- Approximate location: Sub-regional/sub-city level i.e. villages, quarters (typical spatial accuracy of 1 km - 10 km)
- Exact location: Exact addresses, farm names, etc. (typical spatial accuracy of
- Coordinates: Exact coordinates of the location (typical spatial accuracy of less than 100 m).
Location
Name of the deal location.
Use this search field to select the correct location name from the auto-suggest list in the dropdown menu. The location pointer and corresponding coordinates will then be set automatically.
If the automatic suggestion list does not contain a suitable match, a location name of your choice can be entered manually. In this case, the location pointer and corresponding coordinates will not be set automatically, and you need to conduct an online search for its coordinates or an alternative location name. The following online tools may be useful:
https://data.apps.fao.org/?lang=en
If you are still unable to provide the coordinates, enter the name of the next broader spatial accuracy level for that location and adapt the accuracy level itself. However, be sure to include more specific details in the description or comment field.
Point
(longitude, latitude)
Coordinates of the deal location in decimal format. Important: The spatial accuracy level indicates the precision of the coordinates. For correct interpretation, both variables must be considered jointly.
Coordinates can be entered manually either by typing them in or by using the map pointer.
Description
A description of the location.
Facility name
The name of the facility, e.g. farm name, project name, mine name, dam name etc.
Comment
Any further comment on the deal location.
Production area / Contract area / Intended area:
Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Current (tick-option, mandatory for one box)
Type (Production area, Contract area, Intended area)
Source (free text)
If you have georeferenced polygons for the “Contract area”, the “Intended area”, and/or the “Production area”, you can upload them as GeoJSON files. Please provide, for each geometry, the data source as well as the date of the underlying satellite image.
You can also upload multiple GeoJSON files per area type to represent different points in time in the past.