The European Union Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR) requires accurate geolocation data to ensure products come from areas not subject to deforestation. An essential part of these regulations is the use of GeoJSON files, a standardized format for representing geographic information.
Recently, the European Commission published the latest version of this standard: “EUDR GeoJSON File Description v1.2” (date: July 4, 2024 ).
Basics of GeoJSON
GeoJSON is a geospatial data interchange format based on JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). It is used to represent geographical features, their properties and their spatial extent. GeoJSON supports various geometric shapes, such as points, lines, and polygons, each described by a set of coordinates.
GeoJSON uses the WGS 84 coordinate system (EPSG:4326), which is a global geodetic system. This means that all coordinates in GeoJSON files are represented as latitudes and longitudes.
The simplest example of a GeoJSON object is a point:
{
"type": "Point",
"coordinates": [-105.029865, 40.622831]
}
NOTE: coordinates are often written as [longitude, latitude], but the EUDR GeoJSON file format requires them the other way around, so: [latitude, longitude]!
Furthermore, the following geometric objects are possible:
- Multipoint - 2 or more separate points
- Polygon - At least 4 coordinate pairs indicating an enclosed area. The last point must be equal to the first point
- MultiPolygon - 2 or more “Polygon” definitions
- Feature - A feature contains a single GeoJSON object with the addition of additional properties, e.g
- ProducerName - Name of the producer
- ProducerCountry - Country of production in ISO2 notation (e.g. “NL”, “US”, “ES”, “FR” etc.)
- ProductionPlace - Name of the production location
- Area - This is for a point and is used to indicate geolocations with an area of up to 4 hectares.
- FeatureCollection - One or more features
- GeometryCollection - Two or more geometric objects
The “ProducerName”, “ProducerCountry” and “ProductionPlace” fields are optional. These fields help identify and group producers based on their geographic location. The EUDR GeoJSON standard therefore recommends using this, so that data can be grouped per producer.
Coordinates required in WGS 84
Most apps that you can download for your mobile phone or tablet to determine your location show the coordinates of your location in the so-called WGS 84 standard (EPSG:4326). For example, if you look up the coordinates of our office on Google Maps, you will find (52.19645,6.08990):
However, when collecting information for making our risk analyses, we all too often encounter coordinates in UTM format. These cannot be used in GeoJSON files!
EUDR GeoJSON file types
There are two main types of EUDR GeoJSON files: Type I and Type II.
Type I: This file type is used by the web services interface (API) and the producer-level UI import tool. It contains basic information about the production location and may contain optional fields such as “ProductionPlace” and “Area”. An example of a Type I file:
{
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"features": [
{
"type": "Feature",
"properties": { "ProductionPlace": "place 1" },
"geometry": {
"type": "Polygon",
"coordinates": [
[
[-105.029865, 40.622831],
[-105.029432, 40.622833],
[-105.029432, 40.622696],
[-105.029865, 40.622693],
[-105.029865, 40.622831]
]
]
}
}
]
}
Type II: This file type is used via the UI import tool at the commodity level. It contains multiple producers, grouped by “ProducerName” and “ProducerCountry”. It provides more detailed information and helps group producers. An example of a Type II file:
{
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"features": [
{
"type": "Feature",
"properties": {
"ProducerName": "Producer 1",
"ProducerCountry": "US",
"ProductionPlace": "place 1"
},
"geometry": {
"type": "Polygon",
"coordinates": [
[
[-105.029865, 40.622831],
[-105.029432, 40.622833],
[-105.029432, 40.622696],
[-105.029865, 40.622693],
[-105.029865, 40.622831]
]
]
}
}
]
}
Type II – Geocoordinates list – multiple producers Here “ProducerName” and “ProducerCountry” have been added:
{
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"features": [
{
"type": "Feature",
"properties": {
"ProducerName": "Producer 1",
"ProducerCountry": "US",
"ProductionPlace": "place 1"
},
"geometry": {
"type": "Polygon",
"coordinates": [
[
[-105.029865, 40.622831],
[-105.029432, 40.622833],
[-105.029432, 40.622696],
[-105.029865, 40.622693],
[-105.029865, 40.622831]
]
]
}
},
{
"type": "Feature",
"properties": {
"ProducerName": "Producer 2",
"ProducerCountry": "US",
"ProductionPlace": "place 2"
},
"geometry": {
"type": "Polygon",
"coordinates": [
[
[-105.138622, 40.623220],
[-105.138125, 40.623217],
[-105.137601, 40.623214],
[-105.137608, 40.622840],
[-105.138748, 40.622848],
[-105.138622, 40.623220]
]
]
}
}
]
}
UTM coordinates are not usable for GeoJSON
UTM, or Universal Transverse Mercator, is a coordinate system that divides the Earth into a series of zones. Each zone has its own projection, making it more accurate for describing smaller areas than global coordinate systems such as WGS 84.
Although UTM coordinates are commonly used in many countries for land management and other applications, they are not useful for GeoJSON files.
GeoJSON exclusively uses the WGS 84 coordinate system. This means that all coordinates in GeoJSON files are displayed in the known decimal latitudes and longitudes, not in UTM coordinates. If you receive UTM coordinates from your supplier, they must first be converted to WGS 84 before they can be used in a GeoJSON file.
UTM to WGS 84 converter
To assist you with converting UTM coordinates to WGS 84 format, we have developed the UTM to WGS84 converter below. It allows you to convert .CSV files with UTM coordinates to WGS 84 format. Furthermore, the converter also makes the polygon closed, that is, if the last coordinate is not equal to the first, the first coordinate is added at the bottom.
Simply upload a correct file below and you will immediately receive the converted file (also in .CSV). Note that the file name must end with “.csv”.
We cannot be held responsible for any problems arising from the use of this converter!
The CSV file has no header line and contains 1 or more lines with 3 fields, namely:
- Zone
- Easting (X coordinate)
- Northing (Y coordinate)
An example of the 4 corner points of our office in UTM format, as they should appear in the CSV file:
32U,301117,5786883 32U,301104,5786881 32U,301106,5786870 32U,301119,5786872
How do you test the converter?
- Download the .csv file with the UTM coordinates from our office: “ieb-utm.csv”
- Upload this file above by selecting it and clicking “Upload”.
- Copy/paste the coordinates one by one into Google Maps and verify that they correspond to the corner points of our office
