Fältdatum

Fältdatum is a term primarily used in Swedish-language research to denote the date on which fieldwork, data collection, or observations occurred. It provides a temporal marker that accompanies field records, samples, and observations to establish the chronological context and traceability of a dataset. The concept is used across disciplines such as ecology, archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography, and environmental science.

Typically fältdatum should be recorded as precisely as possible, using a standard date format such as ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) and, when relevant, time and time zone. In projects with multiple field visits, each visit may have its own fältdatum, or a date range can be reported if data were collected over several days. Where dates are uncertain, the uncertainty should be documented or an approximate date range noted.

It is commonly stored as part of data metadata alongside location, sampling method, and instrument details. In data workflows, fältdatum helps order observations, align field data with laboratory results, and support temporal analyses and reproducibility. Clear definition in a project data dictionary and consistent usage across datasets improve interoperability, especially when mapped to international standards such as Darwin Core's eventDate or similar fields in other schemas.

Fältdatum should not be confused with datum in the geodetic sense, which refers to a coordinate reference system. Here the term specifically denotes the calendar date of field activities.