GEOREFERENCING

This refers to the process of taking a digital image such as an aerial photograph, a scanned
geologic map, or a picture of a topographical map, and adding geographic information to the
image so that GIS or mapping software can place the image in its appropriate real-world
location. This process is completed by selecting pixels in the digital image and assigning
them geographic coordinates. Georeferencing plays an important role in the digitizing process
which involves converting geographic data from a scanned image into vector data by tracing
the features.
PROCEDURES
1. Adding the Raster Data
 Open ArcMap and click the add data button on the standard toolbar to add the
raster data.
 Navigate to where the data is and add.
 Click set to display.
 Display the Georeferencing toolbar by clicking the Customize menu
followed by clicking Toolbars and then Georeferencing.
 Right-click Table of Contents, select a target layer and click Zoom to Layer.
 On the Georeferencing toolbar, click the drop-down arrow and select the
raster layer to be georeferenced.
 Click Georeferencing followed by Fit To Display which will display the
raster dataset in the same area as the reference layer.
2. Adding the Control Points
 Identify at least four control points (x, y) on the map or data. The control
points are the locations that can accurately be identified on the raster dataset
and in the real-world coordinate.
 Pick the add control point tool to add your selected points.
 Click over the known point on the raster layer, then right click and select
Input X and Y (coordinates).
 Type in the (x, y) coordinates of the point.
 After having added at least four points, click the Link Table to examine the
root mean square (rms) error.
 You can delete the control points with the greatest residual errors and repeat
adding the control points. Once the registration is satisfactory, you can stop
entering links.
3. Saving the Georeferencing Information
 Click the Georeferencing drop-down menu and click either Update
Georeferencing or Rectify.
 Update Georeferencing will save the transformation information with the
raster and its auxiliary files.
 Rectify will create a new file with the georeferencing information.
Conclusively, Georeferencing raster data allows it to be viewed, queried, and analyzed with
other geographic data. But also, the selection of the control points is very important. They
should be spread across the image to be registered such as by selecting a control point near
each of the corners of the image and few throughout the interior.