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Border Points

Border points are the type of Geographic Units used for Cross Border Trade data. This page covers the process for preparing and uploading border points to the FEWS NET Data Warehouse (FDW). For details on managing Cross Border Trade Data Series, see Cross Border Trade.

Prepare border point uploads

Pre-upload steps

In FDW, border points are attributed to a Data Source Document and Geographic Unit Set that are specific to border points for a given country.

For example, border points for Burundi are added to the following:

  • Data Source Document: Famine Early Warning Systems (FEWS NET), Burundi, Border Points

  • Geographic Unit Set: Burundi - Border point Geographic Unit Set

The Data Source Document must exist in FDW before uploading border points.

Add a Data Source Document

Use the following steps to create a Data Source Document:

  1. Go to Metadata Management > Warehouse > Source Documents.

  2. Use the Add Source Document option to add a new Source Document.

    1. Select Geographic Unit Set: Border Points for the document_type.

    2. Name the Source Document using the following naming convention: Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), [Country], Border Points.  

    3. See Source Organizations and Source Documents for more information on the available fields.

The Geographic Unit Set does not need to be set up prior to upload. FDW will use the Data Source Document name and country to create a new Geographic Unit Set if it does not yet exist upon upload of the border points. Learn about managing Geographic Unit Sets.

Border point data upload template

Border points are added to FDW using the columns specified below.

Name: The name of the border point.

Country: The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 two letter code for the country the border point is located in.

Unit_type: Use border_point.

Data_source_document: The Data Source Document listed here must match an existing Data Source Document in FDW.

Code: Assign a unique FEWS NET ID (FNID) to avoid issues with similarly named border points.

Latitude: The GPS coordinates of the border point (optional). If provided, a spatial Point feature is generated and attached to the border point.

Longitude: The GPS coordinates of the border point (optional). If provided, a spatial Point feature is generated and attached to the border point.

Description: A free-text field for any notes, historical context, or details about the border point (optional).

Aliases: A list of alternative spellings or other names the border point is known by (optional).

Upload border points

Use the following steps to add border points using a CSV file:

  1. Go to the main FDW toolbar and select Metadata management > Spatial > Geographic Units.

  2. Select Import Geographic Units.

  3. Use the Choose file button to select the spreadsheet.

  4. Select from the file format options.

  5. Click Submit.

Review border points

You can extract border points that have been uploaded to the FDW using the border point API endpoint: https://fdw.fews.net/api/borderpoint/.

To review the mapping of border points:

  1. Go to the FDE and select the Spatial topic page.

  2. Filter for the border points, e.g. by selecting the Country and the border point Unit type.

  3. Select the Geographic Unit Set Version from the Data Series table.

  4. Scroll down to the Customize and Preview section and select the Map tab.

  5. Use the zoom options and click on the border points to view details.

Edit border points

You can edit border points in bulk using the upload template described above. For example, you can add or edit the coordinates of existing border points. Upload the spreadsheet to Metadata management > Spatial > Geographic Units.