Map projections.
Data are rarely in th e same coord in ate system when you g et th em, noneth eless th e
softw are w ill often allow comb in ation of th e d ata. Th is w ill obv iously g ive you less
th an sensib le resu lts when datasets are comb in ed .
Consid er ag ain th e sources of data – gov t, priv ate comp an ies, self co llected ,
co lleagues, etc etc.
Th ese are all d ev elop ed under d ifferen t standards and d efau lts. For ex ample, on e d ata
source may use WGS84 when co llecting data using GPS, wh ile you are using AGD66
from o ld topograph ic maps. If th is is no t no ted , then you w ill h av e prob lems because
of th e offsets.
It is importan t th erefore to understand map pro jections and what th ey do to data (even
by th eir absen ce).
Maps are flat. Th e Ear th is no t. I t is more spheroid al, d escrib ed as a g eo id (for wh ich
a sphero id is a math ematical simp lif ication). We th erefore n eed to transform th e
information abou t th e Ear th’s surface from a sphero id al g eometr ic system in to a
nonsphero id al g eometr ic system if w e are to deal w ith th e d ata using maps. Wh ile
th is may in fact b e redundan t g iv en th e power of compu ters th ese d ays, th ere is th e
matter of scien tif ic in ertia to consid er, as w ell as th e fact th at most of our source d ata
is in th e form of 2D p aper maps.
How do we g et from the 3D sphero id to a 2D surface? Latitud e and Long itude.
Th ese d escrib e d egrees of ang le from referen ce po in ts, th e equator and Greenw ich ,
parallel and transv erse to th e ax is of th e Earth’s ro tation (th e po les). Consid er why
th ese are used…
Consid er what h appens to mapp ed coord in ates when latitud es are mapped w ith th e
equator at th e cen tre of th e map . Low latitudes are small relativ e to h igh latitud es.
Th is w ill g iv e an artif icially larg e size to some ob jects (and d ifferen t pro jections have
been used for po litical reasons, eg mak ing Britain app ear larger compared to its
co lon ies, or USSR larg er for scare tactics during the Co ld War etc.).
Th e effect of su ch ch anges in size on a map caused p eop le to consid er d ifferen t
approach es. Th ese g enerally invo lv e pro jecting th e Ear th’s surface on to a simp le
three d imension al ob ject, eg a cone or a cy linder, wh ich is aligned w ith some latitude
or long itude. Th is can then be easily “ro lled ou t” on to a 2D surface. These d iffering
shap es are all op tim ised for one (sometimes two) of th e properties distance, shape,
area o r direction, or any comb in ation of th ese. Those features no t optim ised are
d istorted .
Eg .
Mercator – cy lind er aligned north-sou th , g iv es true b earings for compass. Good for
marin e and aer ial n av ig ation .
Transverse Mercator. Same id ea as Mercator, bu t cy linder is ro tated 90 d egrees. Eg ,
UTM breaks th e world in to 6 d egree zones of long itud e (60 zones). Min imal
d istortion N-S b etw een 84°N and 80°S. Th e ISG system is an alogous, bu t uses 180
long itud in al zones of 3 degrees w id th .
Con ic – Good for mid-latitudes. Can in tersect the ear th at one or two po in ts, less
d istortion o ccurs n ear th e in tersections.
Azimu th al – Good for po lar v iews (eg look ing from above one of th e po les), bu t can
be aligned to anywhere. Th ink of circu lar maps.
Etc etc etc.
Th e n ex t step is to consider what h appens when you comb in e d atasets w ith d iffering
pro jections. G en erally they w ill b e d iffering shap es, and so w ill resu lt in d ifferen t
systems.
What h appens to raster data wh en it is pro jected ??????
We cou ld leav e it in transform (pro jection) sp ace, bu t resamp ling is n eed ed if we are
to bring it in to Car tesian space. N earest n eighbour, b ilin ear, cub ic convo lution .
Th ese all affect th e d ata in some w ay . You w ill no t h ave th e same d ata if you pro ject
raster d ata in to one pro jection , and th en back . Two steps of resamp ling w ill mak e a
mess of it.
References:
Th e Understand ing_map_pro jections.pdf file under th e ArcGIS books d irectory on th e
N : driv e g iv es a good introduction to th is top ic, and many of th e slid es used in th e
lecture are d eriv ed from it. Br ief coverag e is g iv en in Long ley et al., ch ap ter 4 .