Map Projection and Coordinate System

6th Semester 2080, Unit 3 BIT355

Prakash Neupane
 Outline
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Concepts of Longitude and Latitude
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Geographic and Projected Coordinate Systems
✔
Mathematical Model of Earth
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Geoid and Ellipsoids
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Horizontal and Vertical Datum
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Changing Projection and Coordinate Systems
✔
Types of Projection Systems
✔
Projection Parameters
✔
Working with Map Projection
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 WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS?

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Spatial data – related to certain location
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Globes are great for visualisation purposes, they are not practical for
many uses, one reason being that they are not very portable
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A round Earth does not fit without distortion on a flat piece of paper

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Concepts of Longitude and Latitude

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Concepts of Longitude and Latitude

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Concepts of Longitude and Latitude

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Concepts of Longitude and Latitude

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Concepts of Longitude and Latitude

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 Geographic and Projected Coordinate System

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A geographic coordinate system (GCS) uses a three-dimensional
spherical surface to define locations on the earth.
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A point is referenced by its longitude and latitude values.
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Longitude and latitude are angles measured from the earth's center to a
point on the earth's surface.
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The angles often are measured in degrees.

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 Geographic and Projected Coordinate System

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A projected coordinate system (PCS) is defined on a flat, two-dimensional
surface.
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Unlike a geographic coordinate system, a projected coordinate system
has constant lengths, angles, and areas across the two dimensions.
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A projected coordinate system is always based on a geographic
coordinate system that is based on a sphere or spheroid.

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Geographic and Projected Coordinate System

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Geographic and Projected Coordinate System

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Geographic and Projected Coordinate System

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Geographic and Projected Coordinate System

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Mathematical Model of Earth

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 Mathematical Model of Earth

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The shape of the Earth is represented as a sphere.
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It is also modelled more accurately as an oblate spheroid or an ellipsoid.
Earth's actual shape is closer to an oblate ellipsoid.
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A globe is a scaled down model of the Earth.
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A map projection is the transformation of Earth’s curved surface (or a
portion of) onto a two-dimensional flat surface by means of mathematical
equations.

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Mathematical Model of Earth

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 Mathematical Model of Earth

✔
During the transformation, the angular Geographic coordinates (latitude,
longitude) referencing positions on the surface of the Earth are converted to
Cartesian coordinates (x, y) representing position of points on a flat map.
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The creation of a map projection involves three steps:
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Selection of a model for the shape of the Earth (Sphere, Ellipsoid, Oblate
ellipsoid or Geoid).
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Transformation of Geographic coordinates (longitude and latitude) to Cartesian
(x, y) Projection.
✔
Reduce the scale

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 Mathematical Model of Earth

✔
Selection of a model for the shape of the Earth
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Spherical models are useful for small-scale maps such as world atlases and
globes
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The ellipsoidal model is commonly used to construct topographic maps and for
other large- and medium-scale maps that need to accurately depict the land
surface.
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A third model is the geoid, a more complex and accurate representation of
Earth's shape coincident with what mean sea lev

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 Mathematical Model of Earth

✔
Sphere
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A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical and circular object in three-
dimensional space that resembles the shape of a completely round ball.
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A sphere is defined mathematically as the set of points that are all the same
distance r from a given point in three- dimensional space.

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 Mathematical Model of Earth

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Ellipsoid
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An ellipsoid is a closed quadric surface that is a three- dimensional analogue
of an ellipse.

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 Mathematical Model of Earth

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Ellipsoid: There are four distinct cases of which one is degenerate:
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a>b>c = tri-axial or (rarely) scalene ellipsoid;
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a=b>c = oblate ellipsoid of revolution (oblate spheroid);
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a=b<c = prolate ellipsoid of revolution (prolate spheroid);
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a=b=c = the degenerate case of a sphere;

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 Mathematical Model of Earth

✔
Ellipsoid
✔
a=b>c = oblate ellipsoid of revolution
(oblate spheroid

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 Mathematical Model of Earth

✔
Geoid
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The geoid is the shape that the surface of the oceans would take under the
influence of Earth's gravitation and rotation alone, in the absence of other
influences such as winds and tides.

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Mathematical Model of Earth

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 Mathematical Model of Earth
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Believe that the Earth was a perfect sphere until of the seventeenth
century, when Newton advanced his theory of gravity.
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Newton said, if the Earth were rotating along an axis, the shape of the
Earth would tend to bulge along the equator and tend to be flattened at
the poles, due to the centrifugal force which confirmed by field
measurements of the Earth's surface, beginning in 1735, in Peru and
Lapland, and later in other areas (Snyder 1987).
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The shape of the Earth is thus referred to as an oblate ellipsoid or oblate
spheroid.
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There is a 20 km difference of the Earth's most northern point on this
spheroidal shape with where one would expect to find it on a perfect
sphere,.
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 Mathematical Model of Earth
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This difference can be described as the flattening ratio (f) and is
described by the relationship (a - b)la, where a is the equatorial radius
and b is the polar radius
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A further refinement and approximation of the Earth's shape can be
described with a geoid.
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A geoid attempts to reconcile Earth's local irregularities with the differing
gravitational forces that are caused by varying Earth densities.
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The shape of a geoid is irregular and approximates Earth's mean sea
level perpendicular to the forces of gravity.
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Once can define the Earth's shape and irregularities, a control system is
needed on which to base the approximate locations of landscape
features.
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 Horizontal and Vertical Datum

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A datum is a mathematical model of the Earth,
which serves as the reference or base for
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calculating the geographic coordinates in the
case of a horizontal datum and
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calculating elevations in the case of a vertical
datum.
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 Horizontal and Vertical Datum

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The definition of a horizontal datum consists of the longitude and latitude
of an initial point (origin), an ellipsoid, and the separation of the ellipsoid
and the Earth at the origin.
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Datum and ellipsoid are therefore closely related.

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Horizontal and Vertical Datum

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Horizontal and Vertical Datum

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 Horizontal and Vertical Datum

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For example, if the shift is 98 meters to the east and 26 meters to the
north.
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The horizontal shift is, therefore, 101.4 meters [√(982+ 262)]. With this kind
of datum shift, it is clear that digital layers based on different datums will
not register correctly.
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To attain a better fit of the Earth locally, many countries developed their
own datums in the past. Among these local datums are the European
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Datum, the Australian Geodetic Datum, the Tokyo Datum, and the Indian
Datum (for India and several adjacent countries).
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 Changing Projection and Coordinate Systems

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Map and GIS users are mostly confronted in their work with
transformations from one two-dimensional coordinate system to another.
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This includes the transformation of polar coordinates delivered by the
surveyor into Cartesian map coordinates or the transformation from one
2D Cartesian (x,y) system of a specific map projection into another 2D
Cartesian (x,y) system of a defined map projection.

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Changing Projection and Coordinate Systems

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A forward mapping equation
transforms the geographic
coordinates (Φ, λ) of a point on the
curved reference surface to a set
of planar Cartesian coordinates
(x,y), representing the position of
the same point on the map plane:

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Changing Projection and Coordinate Systems

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The corresponding inverse
mapping equation transforms
mathematically the planar
Cartesian coordinates (x,y) of a
point on the map plane to a set of
geographic coordinates (Φ, λ) on
the curved reference surface:

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Changing Projection and Coordinate Systems

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Changing Projection and Coordinate Systems

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Types of Projection Systems

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 Types of Projection Systems

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The three classes of map projections are cylindrical, conical and
azimuthal.
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The Earth's reference surface projected on a map wrapped around the
globe as a cylinder produces a cylindrical map projection.
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Projected on a map formed into a cone gives a conical map projection.
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When projected directly onto the mapping plane it produces an
azimuthal (or zenithal or planar) map projection.
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The figure above in previous slide shows the surfaces involved in these
three classes of projections.
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 Projection Parameters

✔
A map projection without distortions would correctly represent shapes, angles,
areas, distances and directions, everywhere on the map.
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Unfortunately, any map projection is associated with scale distortions.
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There is simply no way to flatten out a piece of ellipsoidal or spherical surface
without stretching some parts of the surface more than others
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Scale distortions on a map can also be shown by means of a scale factor (ratio of
the scale at a given point to the true scale).
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Since there is no map projection that maintains correct scale all over the map, it
may be important to know the extent to which the scale varies on a map

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Projection Parameters

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 Working with Map Projection
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Every map must begin, either consciously or unconsciously, with the choice of a map
projection and its parameters.
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The cartographer's task is to ensure that the right type of projection is used for any
particular map.
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A well chosen map projection takes care that scale distortions remain within certain limits
and that map properties match to the purpose of the map.
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Generally, normal cylindrical projections are typically used to map the world in its entirety
(in particular areas near the equator are shown well).
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Conical projections are often used to map the different continents (the mid-latitudes
regions are shown well), while the polar azimuthal projections may be used to map the
polar areas.
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 References
1 P. Lo and Albert K.W. Yeung, Concepts and Techniques of Geographic Information Systems, Pearson
Prentice Hall
2 K. T. Chang, Introduction to geographic information systems. Ninth edition, Boston: McGraw-Hill.
3 Longley, P.A., Goodchild, M.F., Maguire, D.J. and Rhind, D.W., Geographic information systems and
science. John Wiley & Sons.
4 Huisman, Otto, and Rolf A. de By. "Principles of geographic information systems." ITC Educational
Textbook Series 1 (2009): 17.
5 Kerle, Norman, Lucas LF Janssen, and Gerrit C. Huurneman. Principles of remote sensing." ITC,
Educational textbook series 2 (2004): 250.
6 Burrough, P. A., McDonnell, R. A., & Lloyd, C. D. (2015). Principles of geographical information
systems. Oxford university press.
7 ESRI guide to GIS analysis Andy Mitchell, ESRI press, Red lands

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