The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires geolocation data to be provided using longitude and latitude coordinates with at least six decimal digits (see Article 2 (28) of the regulation text).

‍

Background

• The more decimal places in a set of coordinates, the more precise the coordinates.
• Longitude/latitude coordinates with a single decimal place can accurately identify a country, whereas two decimal places can locate a large city.
• The level of precision of six decimal places corresponds to a distance of approximately 11 cm.

Google Maps, for example, uses a standard of 7 decimal places to identify addresses (you can access the coordinates in the web link):

Here is the Google Maps location for the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin, including the long/lat coordinates:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Brandenburger+Tor/@52.5162746,13.3769638,552m/data=!3m2!1e3!5s0x47a851c6f6399a69:0xcda158542550640e!4m6!3m5!1s0x47a851c655f20989:0x26bbfb4e84674c63!8m2!3d52.5162746!4d13.3777041!16zL20vMDE0a2Y4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDUxMy4xIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDUzSAFQAw%3D%3D

‍

Geocoordinates with less than six decimal digits

You may have seen polygons mapped with 6 decimal places, where some coordinates have fewer decimal digits.

This is because some locations can be accurately represented with fewer than 6 decimal places. It doesn't necessarily mean that decimal places are missing or that the data was not mapped precisely enough.

In the picture below, you can see a polygon of a cacao farm which was mapped using six decimal digits, but one vertex has a coordinate with only 4 digits.

‍

‍

How the Information System handles geocoordinates

How does the Information System TRACES handle GeoJSON files that consist of a different number of digits than required?

When uploading geolocation files into TRACES, the system automatically adjusts the number of digits:

1. If less than six, it fills the remaining digits with zeroes, or
2. If more than six, it cuts the irrelevant digits to reduce the file size.

In the example highlighted above, TRACES would automatically add two zeros to the coordinates to fill the missing digits:

[-76.5345 ,-7.568055] --> [-76.534500,-7.568055]

‍