Week 5 - Projections Part 1

GIS 4043 L

This week we discussed Projections.  The above map "Analysis of Florida Projections" was created to highlight to differences in projected coordinate systems.  Looking at the legend you can see the area in square miles for each county specified.  Depending upon the type of coordinate system used the county area is skewed and therefore displays a different area.  The Albers map above is the best coordinate system to use when analyzing the entire state of Florida.  The UTM projected coordinate system bisects the state of Florida, and areas farther East and West of the center will be more distorted.  Whereas, with the State Plane North projected coordinate system, the distortions will be greater further to the south of the state, such as Miami-Dade County due to its distance from the panhandle.  

This week we also discussed the difference between the Project tool and the Define Projection tool.  The differences between these two tools should not be overlooked.