# Commission Implementing Decision of 11 July 2011 concerning a site information format for Natura 2000 sites (notified under document C(2011) 4892) (2011/484/EU), Division 2.1: Site centre location

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

The geographical coordinates (longitude and latitude) of the centre of the site must be entered in Decimal Degrees. Longitudinal values west of the Greenwich Prime Meridian are given negative values while those to the east are given positive values (this can be confirmed with a + sign or taken as understood if there is no sign provided).
Where sites are composed of several distinct areas the coordinate of the most important sub-area should be entered (for practical purposes we suggest using the largest area). The coordinates entered for the site must be within the site. Care is needed in generating the centre coordinates automatically; in the following example a site consists of several polygons, the first image (a) shows where coordinates have been automatically created but note that the coordinate of the largest polygon is outside the polygon; in the second image (b) a single coordinate is generated for the largest site though it lies outside the site; in the third image (c) a coordinate is created for the largest site and the coordinate lies inside the polygon. Only the last example (c) is correct.
Conversion from Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (DMS) is straightforward. A DMS value is converted to decimal degrees using the formula (D + M/60 + S/3600) e.g. Longitude 9° 15′ 30″ WEST, Latitude 54° 36′ 30″ becomes Longitude – 9,2583, Latitude 54,6083.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2011/484/annex/division/NATURA/division/1/division/2/division/3/division/2/division/2.1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2011-484/annex/division-NATURA/division-1/division-2/division-3/division-2/division-2.1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.