User:Ghowse/sandbox

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

I have found WIKIPEDIA extremely useful when examining sub-national data sets (for 300+ Districts in Afghanistan and 200+ Districts in Kazakhstan) and representing reported data for each District. The major problem is the need to convert Latitude/Longitude from DMS (Degrees, Minutes, Seconds) to a decimal format, especially if using Google Earth or Wikipedia as the source. Wikipedia/Google Earth would be even greater resources if all Latitude and Longitude coordinates were shown in digital format OR (when Wiki/Google display coordinates in DMS) there is a toggle option to display the decimal value. This would make the coordinate data even more accessible, rather than assume that user understands conversion is [D+(M+(S/60))/60] to arrive a the decimal value, and potential errors in copying data, and entering it for each locality.

Examples are available for Kazakhstan and Afghanistan (using the administrative "center" of District rather than the centroid), with a PIVOT table in Microsoft ACCESS to generate a cross-tab with output in Microsoft EXCEL. With digital latitude and longitude, cell values can show ratio or percentage "girls enrolled" and sub-national variations rather than the "national average" being reported in official Ministry or OECD UIS statistics. Capital cities and other major urban areas report well above-national average data while rural areas, especially remote districts, may be performing well below the national average.

A potential limitation in the reporting grid is that distance between meridians of Longitude decline with distance North (or South) of the Equator. From approximate parity at the Equator (about 111 km for one degree Latitude and one degree Longitude), at 30 degrees North, Longitude is approx 87% Latitidue,71% at 45 North, 50% at 60N.

Other examples available for Indonesian Districts (Kabupaten/Kota) along the Equator, and Bangladesh (Upazila) about the Tropic of Cancer. Afghanistan is mostly 30-35 degrees North, and Kazakstan 45-55 degrees North.