My data is currently in Lat-Long, but it will need to be projected. I think other people in doing research in my region often use the WGS84/UTM zones 37S projection, but I am going to need to do more research to see what will fit my project best since I am working on a very small island. EPSG also lists Arc 1960 UTM zone 37S as another probable projection to use. Both of these projections use cartesian coordinates. All of my data will likely not be in the same SRS, so I will have to reproject data to match.
Hi! Thanks to this module I realized that I was working with layers with different SRS! And that the mercator coordinate system is not he best choise for my data… I’ll be using lat-long in the future.
As for the SRS, I’ll ask my collegues for advice, since I have data from a very wide latitudinal range.
So far, I have just used the lat/long coordinates when recording points in the field. However, I have uploaded google maps to QGIS and this system uses EPSG:3857. I believe this is because it uses the most recent satellite data. I am not sure if I will change the SRS used, as everything that I will map will be in reference to google maps, however I may change when I have my own data
In the field when I am using a GPS to collect field data I am using Latitude-Longitude because it’s the only way that I have learned to do things. I am based in American Samoa which is just 953.49 mi (1,534.49 km) south of the equator, so I use the most commonly used geodetic system WGS84.
I usually use google map to mark down geographic features. So, I use Lat-long format. I won’t change it though as it’s very convenient to use and convert it to other formats.
Hello all!
I am also not currently working on any data collection projects, but the SRS I use going forward will depend on the project and location. I will most definitely be reaching out to local area experts before I decide on one. I learned that there are parameters to consider when choosing the best option, especially considering my data will most likely be collected much nearer to the north pole than I am used to.
GPS units will generally use a WGS84 CRS (Co-ordinate Reference System) but many have the ability to change this to the local area in which they will be used (eg a natinoal map projection of some sort or a more localised UTM Zone (UTM = Universal Tranverse Mercator), in which case the co-ordinates they capture may have been set to be from the local grid of whichever CRS has been chosen rather than Latitude, Longitude co-ordinates used normally with WGS84.
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I generally use WGS 84, although I’ll use a more local CRS if I am working on a smaller area. I once used a different reference system for the Cape Town area and it plotted my data with south at the top of the screen - I was so confused at first because everything was upside down.
At the moment, I am going to stick with WGS 84 since I am importing global oceanic datasets but I will definitely remember to take the SRS of what I’m working on in future into consideration.
Thank you, you explained quite well.
I’m a student with no practical experience of mapping and GIS, but am pleased to be learning the difference between CRS and SRS.
I’m currently not using any projection yet since I have not started with my field work but because I’m situated in the north part of San Jorge’s Gulf in Argentina the projection I would use is POSGAR 2007 / Argentina 3 EPSG: 5345.
QUite insightful but was confusing on my side
The data I am collecting at the moment is British National Grid. It’s being used since I am simply collecting data at known locations that were given in BNG — keeping things standardised is super helpful, as the lesson says, to avoid having to convert. I don’t think I will change things as keeping the SRS standard allows points to be easily compared with previous years.
For my field work, I am using a Garmin device which uses lat/long and then I believe that it uses WGS 84. Still not sure if I need to change that for my work in the Gulf of Mexico.
useful stuff some of us the newbies are learning. interesting stuff,I am trying to see if i can get the hang of WGS84 EPSG 4326 CRS,
Dear Misrak
Great,keep it up!
You did a fantastic job and good explanation of CRS used in field of Ethiopian wolf monitoring.
I haven’t done much with location data before this course, but the little I have done has used Latitude-Longitude - I didn’t even know there were other systems to use! So this module made me aware there are other SRS options so I may change which one I use if I have the opportunity to apply this knowledge in future 
We have been using WGS 84 as the CRS in my working area which is North of Kenya. Sometimes coordinates collected from the field are in UTM and we convert them to decimal degrees (lat, long) before performing any GIS analysis.
I don’t think we will change the system. We are comfortable with the current one.
I currently not handling any project and not much experience in handling different spatial reference system but it is a good refresh for me to recall back the practice that have done in my university. For the practice we done, taking Japan as the location for study, I do recalled that we are using the WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator. However, I believe that the SRS we use might change accordingly to our project site to suit our use
HI Amkonefa, As long as you have the correct projection specified for the Garmin device (eg. WGS84) then that will import correctly even if you are using a QGIS Project projection more local to the Gulf of Mexico. Once you have the data in QGIS, it might be useful to re-project or “save features as” but save the new layer with the Project CRS. This might be useful if you are analysing the field work in some way rather than just displaying and querying it.
The great thing about QGIS is it can take in lots of different data in different formats in different projections (but if different from the QGIS project CRS, each imported data set must have the correct CRS set to allow QGIS to convert it all on the same base).