A new site can only be added on the Basic Information entry form. Click the + button on the navigator to open a new dialog:
First you can choose between a map reference (at this stage only possible for South Africa), a free-form identifier or a automatic consecutive number for your site identifier (SITE_ID_NR). This will allow different edit components to be accessible, which require additional information.
If you choose the free-form identifier then you may insert any number of characters (incl. number) up to 11, which should uniquely identify your site in this workspace/database. This would basically provide unlimited number/character combinations, taking into account that a SITE_ID_NR of ‘AB1’ and ‘AB11’ and ‘AB111’ are different, but also more difficult to search for. (Refer to the Quick and SQL Search section of the Help).
If you choose the Automatic consecutive number then in a new workspace this will be starting with ‘00000000001’. Otherwise any number above that will be selected from the last value in the invisible OGR_FID field, which automatically increases, + 1. This may not always work when mixing automatic numbers with other free-form Site Identifiers in the same database, as you may have chosen the automatic number manually already.
The SITE_ID_NR is a field with the “Unique” flag, meaning that there can only be one identifier of its kind in the “basicinf” table.
The map reference as first six characters of the SITE_ID_NR, on the other hand, has a long history and provides a reference to the 1:50000 topographic map on which the site is located. When using the map reference you have the option of adding another character at the 7th position which can be used as an addtional “intelligent” part of the SITE_ID_NR and could be used to identify a consultant, or a person or a location or any other information. It could also just be a zero and then would theoretically allow 99 999 sites on one map. With one of the 26 characters of the alphabet in 7th position you can have 259974 sites on one map.
Using the map reference also has the advantage that Aquabase automatically assigns the next number value on the particular map reference (+ additional character).
When dealing with South African LO coordinate systems one will also have the option of creating default coordinates in the middle of the 1 : 50000 map identified by the map reference by ticking the relevant checkbox.