[Imports] List of Lights, Data Import

[Malcolm Herring]

On 12/01/2011 02:36, Steve Singer wrote:
> Have you considered spatial matching? For each light you want to import
> check to see if there is already a light within x meters (say 10-20?) if so
> excluded the light from the import and leave it to be manually inspected?
>
Given that LoL positions are only specified to within 0.1', a duplicate 
search radius would have to be more like 300m to take into account 
positional inaccuracies of both. Within such a radius there would often 
be more than one other light, particularly in buoyed channels and on 
pierheads.

There is also the difficulty of identifying a duplicate. Matching of 
names would likely result in a high error rate. Other features such as 
buoy type or colour may also be problematic. Therefore framing and 
writing matching criteria rules would be a huge task.

Given that the duplicate problem would be concentrated in areas that are 
actively mapped, it might be easier to identify the mappers and 
circulate a notification and request them to re-visit & edit their 
previous mapped areas.