Wikipedia:Obtaining geographic coordinates

There are various ways to obtain geographic coordinates. Note that regardless of the source of coordinates, it is a good practice to evaluate whether they appear reasonable at first glance.

Manually

• Using a GPS receiver with a clear view of the sky.
• Looking at a printed map or atlas, either those you own or at a library.

Public domain databases

• U.S. Board on Geographic Names – The United States Geological Survey public domain GNIS database contains a huge list of locations in the United States. It can be found on the Web at geonames.usgs.gov. Most of these coordinates use the NAD83 map datum, which is sufficiently close to WGS84 for use.
• US Census TIGER
• US Census Boundary and Annexation Survey

On the web

Wikipedia compatible geotagging metadata generators

List of services, directly providing Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons compatible geotagging metadata.

Currently preferred geotagging templates are: {{coord...}} for English Wikipedia and {{location...}} or {{location dec..}} for Wikimedia Commons.

Tool	Type	Metadata types	Coordinate parameters	Description	Licensing
GeoLocator (project page)	Google Maps based	{{coord}}, {{location}}, {{location dec}}, microformats, custom editable template	type, scale, region, heading	Coordinate picker and online metadata authoring tool. Features: visual heading (camera direction) picker, GeoTemplate/GeoHack compatibility, flexible coordinate parser, URL integration, configurable degree/arcsec precision. Metadata roundtrip support – pasting of existing geotag, updating its location or parameters and encoding new one.

Generic web based services

These services are web based, and provide on-line methods for obtaining co-ordinates.

Be sure to read the licensing information carefully so that data providers receive an appropriate attribution.

Tool	Type	Description	Licensing
GISWiki	Google Maps tool	The hjl_get_Coor tool has been developed, which takes the coordinates from a Google Map and builds the {{coord...}} or <geo>...</geo> markup. There is a version for the English Wikipedia available.	?
EarthTools	Global browser	Designed to give coordinates for places, sunrise and sunset times, local time zones elevation/height above sea level. It's extremely easy to use and has a very nice interface (takes Google Maps and adds more functions to it).	?
3maps	Maps	Allows you to paste the URL from many popular online mapping tools and get the current place and coordinates. Can search coordinates from a raw paragraph of text. The smart address search.	?
NASA World Wind	NASA World Wind	Open source 3D interactive world viewer. See also: Spoon.net for online version	NOSA
Bing Maps	Maps	Provides geographical coordinates of a location when a "Pushpin" has been created. Find the feature or the location you want to know the geographical coordinates of, either by manually using the map and zooming in, or by entering a place name or address into the search field. Right-click on the map at the site where you want the pushpin to appear. A pop-up tab will appear. Select Add a Pushpin and save it. Several icons are found to the lower left of the map, including a star for "My Places" and also an email icon. Click the Star to open "My Places". Select the most recent place which you have just saved. Click the email icon. The geographical coordinates are embedded in the email link which is then displayed. The coordinates are the two numbers displayed immediately after the letters "cp=". The latitude and longitude are separated by a tilde ( ~ ). The latitude is displayed first, and both coordinates are displayed in decimal degrees format. (in degrees only). Alternatively, any of the locations in My Places can be exported either as a KML file or GPX file, both of which embed the coordinates. Export is done by clicking the Actions tab at the top of the My Places box. The degrees-only geographical coordinates can be entered into Wikipedia's {{coord}} template. In the preview, click on the template and you will get to the Map sources page. There, the degrees-only geographical coordinates are converted into degrees-minutes-seconds anyway and displayed automatically at the top of the page, so you can still decide if you want to convert the degrees-only-geographical coordinates into the degree-minutes-seconds-format (alternatively, you can also use the website http://id.mind.net/~zona/mmts/trigonometryRealms/degMinSec/degMinSec.htm for the conversion from degrees-only into degree-minutes-seconds).	Proprietary EULA
WikiMapia	Global browser	The latitude and longitude of the crosshairs are given at the bottom left of the screen and are constantly updated as the map is moved. Clicking on them will bring up a dialog box from which they can be copied in decimal or deg/min/sec form.	Arieal imagery provided is from Google Earth Terms of use
Calculators	Conversion	Many scientific calculators (including the one that comes with Windows, use dms and inv dms) can convert coordinates.	http://gps-points-of-interest.com/
Web http://gps-points-of-interest.com/ page you can find the geographic coordinates of towns and villages around the world
The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names	Name search	Allows you to find coordinates with a place name search.	[1]
World Gazetteer	Name search	Provides geographic coordinates of many cities (select country – "cities" – city)	[2]
Geonet Names Server (GNS)	Name search	U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) maintains a comprehensive database of non-U.S. place data.
The Libre Map Project		The purpose of the project is to aggregate and make digital maps and related GIS data available for free.	CC-BY-SA 2.0
Microsoft Research Maps	Global browser	Free online repository of public domain aerial imagery and topographic maps provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
GPSies.com	Google Maps tool	Gives coordinates for places, names, elevation/height above sea level on Google Maps (reverse geocoding). You can download the coordinate as GPX Waypoint, PCX5 Waypoint, LOC Geocache or Google Earth KML.
GeocodeFarm	Address & coordinate search	Look up address by coordinates or coordinates by address. Forward and Reverse Geocoding Service. Web Form or API Available. API is free for 2,500 queries per day, more are paid. Web Form is free for unlimited queries. International Coverage in most countries.	[3]
Geocoder.us	Address search	Look up the coordinates of any location in the United States by its address or nearby intersection. Only works for US addresses.	[4]
Great Circle Mapper	Name search	Has geographic coordinates for airports, heliports, and other facilities which have an IATA or ICAO code. You can also search by location name.
JRC Fuzzy Gazetteer	Fuzzy name search	Spelling tolerant place name gazetteer, mostly based on GSN data, enriched with data collected from United Nations missions and European Commission services.
Plexscape WS	Google Maps tool – Coordinate converter	Online application to acquire coordinates for any place on Earth. Supports more than 3,000 coordinate systems and 400 datums worldwide. Place pushpins on the map and calculates automatically the coordinates in the selected coordinate system or datum. Perform transformation between coordinate systems and/or datums. Extended units list available for calculations (meters, feet etc.)

Coordinates also can be found in other sources, such as:

• Looking at a website built by GPS users, e.g., geourl.org, www.findu.com or www.geocaching.com
• Looking for GPS "Waypoint" files
• Looking at a wiki that uses map coordinates, e.g., susning.nu

Google tools

• Google Maps can be used to find coordinates 3 different ways, although many other sites make use of Google imagery with specialist overlays.
  • The simplest way to get coordinates from Google Maps is to right-click on the desired location and click "What's here?". The coordinates are now shown in the search box.
  • Another method is using the LatLng ToolTip from Google Maps. This feature is activated through Google Labs by entering its Google Maps Labs section here. The Tool Tip will display a box with coordinates that move as the mouse cursor is moved. Note that the upper left corner of the tooltip box actually becomes the precise point of the cursor whose coordinates are displayed in the box. There is also a related LatLng Marker tool which is useful because it makes it easy to copy and paste the coordinates.
  • Coordinates can also be extracted from generated links with the following procedure. First locate the place you require coordinates for, and double click on it to centre the map around that point. Then click "Link" at the top of the map, and the coordinates (in degrees and parts of a degree in decimals) appear in the address bar, e.g. "http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.455558,-2.605047&spn=0.032304,0.069523". In this case the latitude is 51.455558, and the longitude is -2.605047. The reverse is possible by entering the lat and long into the search bar, with a space between them. Based on Google Maps API and geocoder, this page simplifies the task by displaying directly the coordinates, including in one of Wikipedia formats (for English and French Wikipedias), and allowing quick finding of places either by moving the map or typing in postal addresses or place names. Informal research indicates that coordinates obtained in this way usually agree with precisely determined WGS84 coordinates to within about ten meters, or four decimal places in decimal degree notation.
  • Copying the coordinates from the URL can be made easier with a Javascript-supporting browser, by adding the following bookmarklet (create a new bookmark with this code as the URL):

    javascript:void(prompt('',"{{coord|" + gApplication.getMap().getCenter().lat() + "|" + gApplication.getMap().getCenter().lng() + "}}"));

    Centre the map on the point as previously, and then open the newly created bookmark. A coordinate template text will appear, ready to be pasted to Wikipedia. Alternatively, to format the coordinates directly into the template code for articles, with display next to the title, use the following code as a bookmarklet:
    

Caution: a previous version of this code was faulty. If you installed this Bookmarklet before June 15. 2009 please update it with the current version..

javascript:coord=[gApplication.getMap().getCenter().lat(),gApplication.getMap().getCenter().lng()];output='{{coord|';for(x in [0,1]){neg=(coord[x]<0);coord[x]=Math.abs(coord[x]);deg=Math.floor(coord[x]);minr=(coord[x]-deg)*60;min=Math.floor(minr);sec=Math.floor((minr - min)*60*100000)/100000;output+=deg+"|"+(min<10?'0':'')+min+"|"+(sec<10?'0':'')+sec.toFixed(2)+'|'+(x==0?(neg?'S|':'N|'):(neg?'W|':'E|')+"display=title}}");};void(prompt('Coordinates for Wikipedia',output));

• Googling for the city name together with "latitude", "longitude", which will give hits like http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001769.html
• Google Earth makes it easy to search for the coordinates of any location and zooming in on them. There are many ways to obtain coordinates:
  • Move the mouse cursor to where you want, and note the coordinates displayed in the lower left-hand corner of the earth display window. The display format can be changed in the Options. The numbers will have to be written from the screen manually, but this does let you choose an appropriately rounded value, without excess precision, for the location you're capturing.
  • Google Earth 4.1 and newer can make a Google Maps URL, from which you can copy the latitude and longitude in decimal format as mentioned above. Just center the screen on your location by double-clicking on it, and then use the "View in Google Maps" button at the top.
  • Create a placemark (probably in the "Temporary Places" folder). Right-click or control-click on the placemark; one of the options is "Copy". Copy the placemark and paste it back to a text editor. The result is a KML ("Keyhole Markup Language") description of the placemark, and since KML is XML, it's easily manipulable. Towards the bottom of the placemark is a tag <coordinates>...</coordinates> which contains the long/lat coordinates in decimal degrees. Note that the order of the coordinates is reversed from the lat/long you were expecting; you have to swap them when you extract them. Also note that the precision is ridiculously high; you'll probably want to trim it down.
  • Install the Google Earth version of the hjl_get_Coor tool: Ald-Hjl-Koord-en.kmz. Once it's installed, a crosshair icon appears in the middle of the Google Earth screen. Move the view so that the crosshair is on your desired location, and then click on it. There is a link to the hjl_get_Coor tool, which gives the coordinates back in your chosen wiki markup that can be copied and pasted to an article.
  • The Picasa application allows seamless integration with Google Earth to tag sets of images saved on the computer. Select the images to tag on Picasa, and then choose "Tools / Geotag / Geotag With Google Earth". Google Earth opens with first of the chosen images in the bottom right corner, and a crosshair in the middle of the screen. Move the view so that the crosshair is on top of the desired location, and click on the Geotag button. A placemark will be added to your Temporary Places folder, from where you can normally copy it in kml format as explained above. Clicking Done will return to Picasa, which can export the data in kmz at any later date.[5] [6]
  • The exported kml or kmz file can also be converted to templates using the kmlconvert tool.
• Various Google-based tools can be used to find latitude and longitude coordinates, such as the following: [7], [8], and [9].

OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap can be used; simply navigate to the desired point by double-clicking on it, select the "share" icon from the top-left toolbar, copy the "link" URL (N.B. not the shortlink) and extract the coordinate values from it.

For example, http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.54341&lon=-1.91035&zoom=15&layers=M includes a latitude of 52.54341 and a longitude of -1.91035.

World Wind

NASA World Wind can access a large online database of U.S. and global placenames (cities, villages and other geographic & anthropogenic features). Street addresses can be found using Yahoo and Virtual Earth geocoders (works for the US, Australia, UK, Japan... and maybe some other countries). (Offline search requires this pack http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki/Add-on:Classic_Placenames_cache_pack) Press Ctrl-F, enter the official place name, click Search, you will probably find the place you're looking for. Click Go. (of course you can navigate to the desired spot with your mouse; select View->Show Position to see the coordinates) Press Ctrl-C to copy the decimal coordinates. Paste it into Wikipedia. Example: For Tucson International Airport → worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=32.11611&lon=-110.94109&alt=24389"

Within Wikipedia

• Category:Lists of coordinates
• CatScan in the example with buildings in New York City with or without Coordinates.

Specific countries/places

• PlaceNames provides coordinates for locations and landmarks in the United States.
• For US coordinates, the USGS GNIS service is extremely extensive. It also provides linkouts to topozone and terraserver so that you can tweak the results to your liking.
• For US addresses, A2B provides you with the latitude and longitude of a US street address and returns nearest websites to that address. You can then add your own sites.
• Find Longitude and Latitude coordinates by US Zip Code
• For placenames in Antarctica, try Geographic Names Information System, Antarctica
• For Australian placenames, try Geoscience Australia Place Name Search
• For Canadian places Canadian Geographical Names Data Base (CGNDB) Querying Canadian Geographical Names
• For UK places, Streetmap.co.uk is very useful for clicking on a precise point to show the coordinates. Near the foot of a page displaying a map is a link "Click here to convert/measure coordinates" which takes you to a "Grid Conversion Results" page with the WGS84 latitude and longitude amongst other useful values.
• UK places and Irish places traditionally use grid references, and a latitude /longitude system tied to an OSGB36 datum. This gives a 112m difference. OStoWiki Tool will translate data from Commons tags, or Grid References into Wikipedia tags. Wikipedia's own output from GeoHack is broken: it does not take the different datum into account, and therefore returns Grid References which are wrong by about 100m. Note that List of United Kingdom locations already has coordinates and grid references for many places.
• Display UK Longitude and Latitude

Add to article

Finally, add the coordinates to the relevant article:

Quick how-to

To add 57°18′22″N 4°27′32″W to the top of an article, use {{Coord}}, thus:

{{Coord|57|18|22|N|4|27|32|W|display=title}}

These coordinates are in degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc.

"title" means that the coordinates will be displayed next to the article's title at the top of the page (in desktop view only; title coordinates do not display in mobile view) and before any other text or images. It also records the coordinates as the primary location of the page's subject in Wikipedia's geosearch API.

To add 44.1124°N 87.9130°W / 44.1124; -87.9130 to the top of an article, use either

{{Coord|44.1124|N|87.9130|W|display=title}}

(which does not require minutes or seconds but does require the user to specify north/ south and east/west) or

{{Coord|44.1124|-87.9130|display=title}}

(in which the north and east are presumed by positive values while the south and west are negative ones). These coordinates are in decimal degrees.

• Degrees, minutes and seconds, when used, must each be separated by a pipe ("|").
• Map datum must be WGS84 if possible (except for off-Earth bodies).
• Avoid excessive precision (0.0001° is <11 m, 1″ is <31 m).
• Maintain consistency of decimal places or minutes/seconds between latitude and longitude.
• Latitude (N/S) must appear before longitude (E/W).

Optional coordinate parameters follow the longitude and are separated by an underscore ("_"):

• dim: dim:N (viewing diameter in metres)
• region: region:R (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 or ISO 3166-2 code)
• type: type:T (landmark or city(30,000), for example)

Other optional parameters are separated by a pipe ("|"):

• display

  |display=inline (the default) to display in the body of the article only,

  |display=title to display at the top of the article only (in desktop view only; title coordinates do not display in mobile view), or

  |display=inline,title to display in both places.

• name

  name=X to label the place on maps (default is PAGENAME)

Thus: {{Coord|44.1172|-87.9135|dim:30_region:US-WI_type:event

|display=inline,title|name=accident site}}

Use |display=title (or |display=inline,title) once per article, for the subject of the article, where appropriate.

• Per WP:ORDER, the template is placed at the bottom of the article in the 'end matter', after any navigation templates, but before all categories, including the {{DEFAULTSORT}} template. The {{coord}} template may also be placed within an infobox, instead of at the bottom of the article.
• For full details, refer to {{Coord/doc}}.
• Additional guidance is available at obtaining coordinates and converting coordinates.

See also

• Geographic coordinate system
• List of geographic information systems software
• List of GIS data sources
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates