Map Projection

3D 2D

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 Map Projection
• Mathematical expression using which the 3D
surface of earth is represented in a two
dimensional plane.

• The computer uses algorithms to translate

points on a sphere to a plane.

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 Map Projections

•A map projection is used to portray all or part of the round

Earth on a flat surface.
•Process of projection transforms the spherical Earth’s surface to
a plane
•This cannot be done without some distortion.
•There are limitless ways to project the image of the globe onto
paper
•Every projection has its own set of advantages and
disadvantages. There is no "best" projection.
•The mapmaker must select the one best suited to the needs,
reducing distortion of the most important features.
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 GLOBE
Directions—True; Distances—True
Shapes—True; Areas—True
Great circles—The shortest distance between any two points on the surface
of the Earth can be found quickly and easily along a great circle.
The scale factor at each point is the same in any direction.

Disadvantages:
•Even the largest globe has a
very small scale and shows
relatively little detail.
•Costly to reproduce and
update.
•Difficult to carry around.
•Bulky to store. 4
 Properties of Map Projections

1. Area
2. Shape
3. Distance
4. Direction
All these properties are correct for the spherical earth.
Once the Earth is transformed into a plane, only some of these
properties can be maintained.
Map projections have been designed to produce a network of
meridians and parallels that can achieve one or two of these
properties in the final map.

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• Projection results in distortion of one or more map
properties such as shape, size, area or direction.

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 Types of Map Projections

• It is impossible to flatten out a ellipsoid or

spheroid without stretching some parts
more than others.

• So we have different types of projection for

different regions and different purposes.

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Classification of Map Projections

Classified on the following criteria:

• Method of construction

• Development surface used

• Projection properties

• Position of light source

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 I. Method of Construction

1. Perspective Projections - shadow cast

2. Non Perspective Projections – mathematical

calculations

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Perspective Projections

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 II. Development Surface used
• Projection transforms the coordinates of earth on
to a surface that can be flattened to a plane called
development surface.

1. Cylindrical Projection

2. Conic Projection

3. Azimuthal/Zenithal Projection

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 CYLINDRICAL PROJECTION

•Cylinder circumscribes a transparent globe

marked with meridians and parallels
•Graticule of globe projected onto the cylinder
•Cylinder touches equator throughout its
circumference
•By cutting open cylinder along meridian and
unfolding it  a rectangular shaped
cylindrical projection

•Meridians are vertical and parallel straight lines, intersecting equator at

right angles and divide into 360 equal parts
•Parallels will be horizontal straight lines at some selected distance from
equator
Suitable for equatorial regions

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Cylindrical Projection……..
• A straight line between any two points on this projection follows a single
direction or bearing, called a Rhumb line. It is the line cutting meridians
with same angle. This feature makes the cylindrical projection useful in the
construction of navigation charts.

•Significant distortion occurs at the higher latitudes, where the

parallels become further apart, and the poles cannot be shown.
•The famous Mercator projection, is the best known example of this
class

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Aspects of cylindrical projection

Normal Transverse Oblique

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CONIC PROJECTION

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CONIC PROJECTIONS……..
• Projection surface is cone shaped
• Earth is projected onto a tangent or secant cone, which is then cut lengthwise
and laid flat
• Apex of cone exactly over polar axis
• Cone touches the globe along a parallel of latitude – STANDARD
PARALLEL
• Scale is correct and distortion is least along standard parallel
• Fan shaped map
• Meridians as straight lines radiating (equally spaced) from the vertex at equal
angles
• Parallels as concentric arcs of circles (with vertex as center).
Suitable for mid latitudes

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 Conical Projection………
•This type of projection is used for mapping mid-latitude regions, such as
Canada and the United States. The result is less overall shape distortion
of land and water areas.
•The Lambert Conformal Conic projection is a commonly used version
of the conic type.
•The polyconic projection, envelopes the globe with an infinite number
of cones, each with its own standard parallel. The parallels are non-
concentric, while the central meridian is straight.

•Scale is true along each

parallel and along the central
meridian.
AZIMUTHAL/ZENITHAL PROJECTION

Suitable for polar regions

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 Azimuthal Projections……
•Planar projections
•Plane touches the globe at north or south pole
•Polar Azimuthal projection
•Circular with meridians projected as straight lines radiating from center of the
circle (pole)
•Meridians spaced at true angles
•Parallels  complete circles centered at poles
•This projection shows true direction only between the centre point and other
locations on the map.
•Preserves direction, directions measurements made on map are the same as those
made on ground.
ie azimuths (angles from a point on a line to another point) are portrayed correctly
in all directions

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Aspects of zenithal projection

Equatorial Polar
Oblique Zenithal
Zenithal
Zenithal
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III. PROJECTION PROPERTIES

1. Conformal projection

2. Equal area projection

3. True scale or equidistant projections

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 Conformal/ Orthomorphic projection

• Maintain correct shape of spatial features represented

• A map projection is conformal when at any point the scale is
the same in every direction. Therefore, meridians and parallels
intersect at right angles and the shapes of very small areas
and angles with very short sides are preserved
• Scale along parallels and meridians same in both directions
• Topographic mapping and navigation purpose
• Need to retain shape distorts both area and distance
• Mercator projection
• Lambert conformal conic projection

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Conformal/ Orthomorphic projection…

•Area distortions
significant towards
polar region

•Angles shown
correctly

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 Equal-area or Equivalent Projection
•A map projection is equal area if every part, as well as the whole, has the
same area as the corresponding part on the Earth, at the same reduced scale.
•No flat map can be both equal area and conformal
•Shape, distance and angles will be distorted.
•Accomplished by distorting the shape of graticule.
•To show spatial distribution and relative sizes of spatial features:
Population, land use, land cover, soils, wetlands, wildlife habitats
natural resources
Albers Equal area conic projection, Lambert Azimuthal equal area
projection, Sinusoidal equal area projection.

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 Equal area projection….

Shape distortions are significant towards the

polar region
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 Equidistant Projection
•The distance between two points measured on the map is equal to
that between the same two points measured on the surface of the
Earth and scaled.
•Equidistant maps show true distances only from the center of the
projection or along a special set of lines.
•Area, shape and direction (to some extent) are distorted.
•By maintaining scale same along either meridians or parallels.
•Compromise between conformal and equal area projections.
Atlas maps
Azimuthal equidistant projection
Equidistant conic projection
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True scale or equidistant projections….

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Projected grid Scale Properties
of graticlue
Parallel Meridian Area Shape Distance Direction
 Aspects of map projection
• How the developable surface is placed relative to the globe.
1. Normal 2. Transverse 3. Oblique

• Normal aspect : Axis of cylinder/ cone coincident or parallel to polar axis

• Transverse aspect : 90 degree rotation
• Oblique : applied to mapping of areas that lie at an angle to the latitudes and
longitudes
• In Transverse and oblique aspects – certain desired properties may be
preserved for a particular area

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Aspects of Map Projections
CASES
Tangent - Developable surface touch the surface of the globe
Tangent cylinder, tangent cone, tangent plane

Secant - Developable surface cut

through the globe
Secant cylinder, secant cone, secant
plane.
To minimise the amount of
distortion that occurs away from the
standard parallel or the pole.
Secant Projections

Used to reduce errors

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Tangent Projections

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 IV. POSITION OF LIGHT SOURCE

1. Gnomonic •Source of light (view point)

in the centre of the globe
Projection •Navigation chart

•Source of light is placed at the

2. Stereographic periphery of the globe, diametrically
opposite to the point at which
Projection developable surface touches the globe
•Compromise projection

•Source of light is placed at infinity from

3. Orthographic the globe opposite to the point at which
developable surface touches the globe
Projection •Preserves areas locally

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Map projections with
different Viewpoints
 Map Projections
• Classification based on:

1. Method of construction • Perspective

• Non perspective

• Cylindrical
2. Development Surface • Conic
• Azimuthal/
Zenithal

3. Projection properties • Conformal

• Equal Area
• Equidistant

4. Position of light source • Gnomonic

• Stereographic
• Orthographic
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 MERCATOR PROJECTION
•Cylindrical map projection
•Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator, in 1569,
•.Like in all cylindrical projections, parallels and meridians are straight and
perpendicular to each other.
• Meridians are eqully spaced straight lines
• Parallels are unequally spaced straight lines ,with farther spacing as distance
from equator increases to produce a conformal projection.
•But the unavoidable east-west stretching away from the equator is here
accompanied by a corresponding north-south stretching, so that at every location
the east-west scale is the same as the north-south scale, making the projection
conformal.
•Scale is true along equator, great distortion of area away from equator
•Used widely for navigation.
 TRANSVERSE MERCATOR PROJECTION
•An adaptation of the Mercator projection.
•Both projections are cylindrical and conformal .
•However, in a Transverse Mercator projection, the cylinder is rotated 90°
(transverse) relative to the equator so that projected surface is aligned with a
meridian (or line of longitude) rather than the equator, as is the case with the
regular Mercator projection.
•Central meridian and equator are straight lines

•Other meridians and parallels are complex curves

•The central meridian can be mapped at true scale (Central Scale parameter =
1.0), or at a slightly reduced constant scale (for example, the value 0.9996 used in
the UTM system).

•Used for areas with larger north south extent than east west extent
• It is primarily used for large-scale (1:24,000 to 1:250,000) quadrangle maps.
 Map projection & Plane coordinate
System

Transverse Mercator
Projection
 CASSINI SOLDENER PROJECTION
• Cylindrical, tangential ,transverse and Equidistant

• Cylinder is tangential along the meridian centrally located

• Scale deteriorates away from the central meridian

• Greater the longitudinal extent of the area, the worse the distortion
becomes.

• Normally used in 70 km belt from central meridian as linear

distortion factor at 70km is1.00006

• Works best on long, narrow areas and worst on wide areas

• Used for old cadastral survey in India

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 LAMBERT CONFORMAL CONIC PROJECTIONS

• Conical, conformal

• Parallels are concentric arcs

• Meridians are straight lines cutting parallels at right angles

• Scale is true along the standard parallels, smaller between them,
and larger outside them.
• Area distortion is also relatively small between and near the
standard parallels.
• This projection therefore is particularly useful for mid-latitude
regions which are elongated in the east-west direction.
• Spacing of the parallels increases north and south from the band
defined by the standard parallels

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 POLYCONIC PROJECTIONS

• All parallels projected without any distortion

• Scale is exact along each parallel and central meridian

• But no parallel is standard parallel in the sense of having

conformity( correct angles) except central meridian

• Distortion is minimal

• Parallels are arcs of circles but not concentric

• Number of cones touching different locations and projected
piecewise.
• Result is a continuous polyconic projection

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False Northing and False Easting
• Calculating coordinates is easier if negative numbers are not involved
• Eg: Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates
• Expressed in coordinate units, not degrees

•Specifying an origin shift

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 UNIVERSAL TRANSVERSE MERCATOR
PROJECTION (UTM)
• The projection is applied repeatedly by using multiple cylinders that touch
the globe at 6 ° intervals, resulting in 60 projection zones each 6 ° of
longitude wide.
• To avoid the extreme distortions that occur in the polar areas, the projection
zones are limited at 84 ° N and 80 °S.
• Latitude origin : Equator
• Easting is measured from a zone’s central Meridian and Northing is
measured relative to the equator.
• Assumed (false) northing (y) : 0 m for Northern hemisphere;
10,000,000 m for southern hemisphere
• Assumed (false) easting (x) : 500,000 m
• Scale factor at central meridian= 0.9996

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Zones are numbered consecutively beginning with Zone 1, between 180° and
174° west longitude, and progressing eastward to Zone 60, between 174° and
180° east longitude.

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COMMON MAP PROJECTIONS, PROPERTIES & MAJOR USERS
COMMON MAP PROJECTIONS, PROPERTIES & MAJOR USERS
 CHOOSING A MAP PROJECTION
• Choice is made such that most accurate possible representation
of geographic information, given that some distortion is
inevitable.
• Choice depends on:
 Location
 shape
 Size of region to be mapped
 The theme or purpose of map etc

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 GEOREFERENCING
• The representation of location of real world features within the
spatial formwork of a particular coordinate system.
• To provide a rigid spatial framework by which the positions of
real world features are measured, computed, recorded and
analyzed.
• It involves a series of transformations that progressively
flattens the irregular surface of Earth.
• GIS- The ability to manipulate and analyze georeferenced
spatial data
• Fundamentals : concept of representing the physical shape of
earth by mathematical surface and realization of this concept.

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 ACQUISITION OF SPATIAL DATA
• Spatial data for topographic maps, the general purpose and
reference maps collected using :
 Land Surveying
 Areal and satellite photogrammetry
 Global Positioning system (GPS)

1. LAND SURVEYING:
To determine position of terrain features in the field
 Triangulation
 Traversing
 Offset
 Trilateration

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• GEODETIC SURVEYING
• EDM
• Total station
2. AREAL AND SATELLITE PHOTOGRAMMETRY
• LIDAR (light detection and ranging)
3.GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM

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