UNIT-II

Introduction to GIS

 INTRODUCTION:
GIS stands for Geographical Information System. It is defined as an integrated tool,
capable of mapping, analysing, manipulating and storing geographical data or Spatial Data in
order to provide solutions to real world problems and help in planning for the future. GIS
deals with what and where components of occurrences.
For example, to regulate rapid transportation, government decides to build fly-over (what
component) in those areas of the city where traffic jams are common (where component).
GIS means differently to different people and therefore has different definitions. For
example, Burrough (1998) defined GIS as “ a powerful set of tools for collecting, storing,
retrieving at will, transforming and displaying spatial data from the real world for a particular
set of purposes”

Objectives of GIS
• Some of the major objectives of GIS are to
• Maximizing the efficiency of planning and decision making
• Integrating information from multiple sources
• Facilitating complex querying and analysis
• Eliminating redundant data and minimizing duplication

Components of a GIS
A GIS has following components:
1. Hardware : It consists of the equipments and support devices that are required to capture,
store process and visualize the geographic information. These include computer with hard
disk, digitizers, scanners, printers and plotters etc.

2. Software : Software is at the heart of a GIS system. The GIS software must have the basic
capabilities of data input, storage, transformation, analysis and providing desired outputs. The
interfaces could be different for different Softwares. The GIS softwares being used today
belong to either of the category –proprietary or open source. ArcGIS by ESRI is the widely
used proprietary GIS software. Others in the same category are MapInfo, MicroStation,
Geomedia etc. The development of open source GIS has provided us with freely available
desktop GIS such as Quantum, uDIG, GRASS, MapWindow GIS etc., GIS Softwares.
3. Data: The data is captured or collected from various sources (such as maps, field
observations, photography, satellite imagery etc) and is processed for analysis and
presentation.
Procedures : These include the methods or ways by which data has to be input in the system,
retrieved, processed, transformed and presented.

4. People : This component of GIS includes all those individuals (such as programmer,
database manager, GIS researcher etc.) who are making the GIS work, and also the
individuals who are at the user end using the GIS services, applications and tools.

 History of GIS
Mapmaking (representation of geographical information) has evidences to show independent
evolution of maps in different parts of the earth. The direct evidence of mapping comes from
Middle East in the form of Babylonian Clay Tablets as early as 1000 B.C which depicted
earth as a flat circular disk.
Around 200 B.C, Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of earth accurately. Later came,
Ptolemy and Al-Idrisi who made remarkable contributions in the field of cartography.
Following them were Mercator and Newton, their work paved way for the upcoming
cartographers and geographers to better understand the earth and the geographical
phenomenon.
Putting layers of data on series of base maps to analyse things geographically has been into
existence much longer than the introduction of computers to the geographical world.
The French cartographer Louis-Alexandre Berthier had drawn the maps of the Battle of
Yorktown (1781) that contained hinged overlays to show troop movements.
Superimposition of topography, geology, population and traffic flow on the same base map
has been shown in the Atlas to Accompany the Second report of the Irish Railway
Commissioners.
Dr. John Snow showed the locations of death by cholera on a map to track the source of
outbreak of cholera in Central London in September, 1854.
The introduction of computers in the field of geography was a positive step towards
understanding and learning the subject better. Change in cartographic analysis due to
improved graphics, development of theories of spatial processes in economic and social
geography, anthropology and regional science, increased social awareness and improvement
in education. The integrated transportation plans of Detroit, Chicago during the period of
1950s and 1960s used information on routes, origin, destination, and time to produce the
maps of traffic flow and volume is an example of integration of computer technology with
geographical data.

 GIS Applications in Real life

1. Mapping
GIS can be used to provide a visual interpretation of data. Google Maps is an excellent
example of a web-based GIS mapping solution that people use for everyday navigation
purposes. However, smart mapping technology has significantly advanced and is used in
products like Nobel’s GeoViewer, which gives cities, municipalities and private industry an
in-depth look at electric and water district assets in the field.
2. Telecom and Network Services
Organizations can incorporate geographic data into their complex network design,
optimization, planning, and maintenance activities. This data enhances telecom processes
through better customer-relationship management and location services.
3. Accident Analysis and Hot Spot Analysis
GIS data helps to identify accident locations, and road networks can be optimized using data
intelligence. This intelligence helps to improve road safety measures and allows better traffic
management.
4. Urban planning
GIS data analyzes urban growth and the direction of expansion. When appropriately applied,
it can discover new sites for further development, considering various factors that are
necessary for successful building.
5. Transportation Planning
GIS data is commonly used for managing transportation issues. With the addition of
environmental and topical data in a GIS platform, companies can plan for a new road or rail
route.
6. Environmental Impact Analysis
Data gathered via GIS applications is vital for conserving natural resources and protecting the
environment. Impact statements assess the magnitude of human impact on the environment,
which GIS integration helps indicate.
7. Agricultural Applications
GIS data helps create more efficient farming techniques, alongside analyzing soil data in an
advanced fashion. This can increase food production in different parts of the world.
8. Disaster Management and Mitigation
Efficient GIS systems protect the environment and are developed to assist risk and disaster
management.

9. Navigation
Web-based navigation maps use GIS data to provide the public with useful information. Web
maps are regularly updated per GIS information and are used consistently in everyday life.
10. Flood damage estimation
Governments use GIS data to map flood risk areas and can use the information to coordinate
relief efforts.
11. Natural Resources Management
With the help of GIS information, forests can be adequately maintained and managed. It is
especially crucial for the allocation and geographic distribution of water, one of the more
critical environmental constituents.
12. Banking
Banking has evolved to become market-driven, and a bank’s success depends mainly on its
ability to provide customer-driven services. GIS data plays an essential role in planning,
organizing, and decision making in the banking industry.
13. Taxation
GIS data helps solve taxation problems and maximize government income. It is used for
building permits and engineering and offers a system for managing property tax on a
geographic basis.
14. Surveying
Surveying involves measuring the location of objects on earth, and more organizations are
using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for this function. This data incorporated
into a GIS system can estimate area and prepare digital maps.
15. Geology
Geologists use GIS data to analyze soil, assess seismic information, and create 3D displays of
geographic features. It can also be used to analyze rock characteristics, and identify the best
location for different functions.
16. Assets Management and Maintenance
GIS data helps organizations become more efficient with finite resources. With an
understanding of the population at risk, planners can allocate resources more efficiently.
17. Planning and Community Development
GIS data helps us understand and meet global challenges. As GIS technology rapidly
advances, there are various innovative applications in the planning sector. GIS tools can be
used to integrate geographic intelligence into planning processes, and have the potential to
change how we think and behave.
18. Dairy Industry
The dairy industry uses GIS data for distribution, production, and identifying the location of
shops. It is a useful tool for planning in the field of dairy farm management and allows for
better decision making.
19. Irrigation Water Management
The availability of water directly affects crop production in a given region. GIS data can
identify significant crops and determine yield, involving efficient techniques for spatial and
time domain.
20. Pest Control and Management
Pest control is essential to agricultural production, and GIS technology plays a vital role in
mapping out infested areas. Organizations can consequently develop more effective pest
management plans.

 The Nature of Geographic Data

Geographic data link place, time, and attributes.
1. Place Place, or location, is essential in a geographic information system. Locations are the
basis for many of the benefits of geographic information systems: the ability to map, to link
different kinds of information because they refer to the same place, and to measure distances
and areas. Without locations, data are said to be "aspatial" and have no value at all within a
geographic information system.

2. Time: Time is an optional element. Many aspects of the earth's surface are slow to change
and can be thought of as unchanging. Height above sea level changes slowly because of
erosion and movements of the earth's crust, but these processes operate on scales of hundreds
or thousands of years, and for most applications (except geophysics) we can safely omit time
from the representation of elevation. On the other hand, atmospheric temperature changes
daily, and dramatic changes sometimes occur in minutes with the passage of a cold front or
thunderstorm, so time is distinctly important.

3. Attributes: Attributes refer to descriptive information. The range of attributes in

geographic information is vast. Some attributes are physical or environmental in nature (e.g.,
atmospheric temperature or elevation), while others are social or economic (e.g., population
or income). There are five main types of attributes: nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio, and
cyclic.

 Maps
• A map is a two dimensional representation of earth surface which uses graphics to convey
geographical information.
• It describes the geographical location of features and the relationship between them, Maps
are fundamental to society.
• Cartography refers to the art and science of map preparation. Though, the earliest of the
maps were technically not as impressive as they are today but they certainly highlighted
their role in communicating information about the location and spatial characteristics of
the natural world and of society and culture.
• The new discoveries in Science and Geography fortified maps with facts and technical
details.
• Improvements in the fields of Geodesy, Surveying and Cartography helped in bringing the
maps to their present form.
• The digital technology has altered the way of creating, presenting and distributing the
geographic information.
• The conventional cartography is now getting replaced by computer aided designs and
graphics, and the analog maps (paper maps) by digital maps.
• The growing field of technology promises to bring more advances to Cartography to
render maps and allied services that serve the society in a better manner.
 Types of Maps:
The maps can be classified on the following criteria:
Scale
Purpose
Scale is important for correct representation of geographical features and phenomenon.
Different features require different scales for their display. For example preparation of a
cadastral map of a village and the soil map of a state would use different scale for representing
the information. According to scale, maps can be classified as follows:

a. Cadastral : These maps register the ownership of land property. They are prepared by
government to realize tax and revenue. A village map is an example of cadastral map which is
drawn on a scale of 16 inches to the mile or 32 inches to the mile.

b. Topographical: Topographical maps are prepared on fairly large scale and are based on
precise survey. They don’t reveal land parcels but show topographic forms such as relief,
drainage, forest, village, towns etc. The scale of these maps varied conventionally from 1/4
inch to the mile to one inch to the mile. The topographical maps of different countries have
varying scales.
• Topographical survey map of British Ordnance Survey are one inch maps.
• The scale of European toposheets varies from 1:25000 to 1:100000.
• USA toposheets are drawn on the scale 1:62500 and 1:125000.
• The international map which is a uniform map of the world is produced on the scale of
1:1000000.

c. Chorographical/Atlas: Drawn on a very small scale, atlas maps give a generalized view of
physical, climatic and economic conditions of different regions of the world. The scale of atlas
map is generally greater than 1:1000, 000.

On the basis of Purpose or the content, the maps can be classified as follows:
a. Natural Maps: These maps represent natural features and the processes associated with
them. Given below is the list of some such maps:
Astronomical map : It refers to the cartographic representation of the heavenly bodies such as
galaxies, stars, planets, moon etc.
Geological map : A map that represents the distribution of different type of rocks and surficial
deposits on the Earth.
Relief map : A map that depicts the terrain and indicates the bulges and the depressions
present on the surface.
Climate map : A climate map is a depiction of prevailing weather patterns in a given area.
These maps can show daily weather conditions, average monthly or seasonal weather
conditions of an area.
Vegetation map : It shows the natural flora of an area.
Soil map : A soil map describes the soil cover present in an area.

b. Cultural Maps These maps tell about the cultural patterns designed over the surface of the
earth. They describe the activities of man and related processes. Given below is the list of such
maps:
Political map: A map that shows the boundaries of states, boundaries between different
political units of the world or of a particular country which mark the areas of respective
political jurisdiction.
Military map : A military map contains information about routes, points, security and battle
plans. Historical map : A map having historical events symbolized on it.
Social map : A map giving information about the tribes, languages and religions of an area.
Land-utilization map : A map describing the land and the ongoing activities on it.
Communication map : A map showing means of communication such as railways, road,
airways etc.
Population map : A map showing distribution of human beings over an area.
 Map scale
The size of earth is too big to be represented as it is on a map. To represent the whole earth or
part thereof on a small map, the concept of scale is used. The proportion chosen for a map is its
scale. It is the relationship between distance on map and distance on ground that tells what
distance on map corresponds to what distance on ground.
Representation of scale
There are three ways in which a scale can be depicted on a map: Expressed in words such as ‘2
centimetres to the kilometre’ which means two centimetres on the map represents one kilometre
on the ground. Though it is the simplest way of expressing a scale but it has the following
drawbacks associated with it:

1. Statement:
The fractional distances involve mathematical calculations Different countries have different
units of length, expressing a statement scale on a map may not be understood by the foreigners.

Figure 1: Map with scale in Statement

2. Representative fraction:
It is expressed in fraction. If the scale is 1:50000, it means that 1 unit of measurement on map
represents 50,000 units on ground. It is also known as numerical scale.
The distance on map and the distance on the ground must be in the same units of length. The
advantage of this scale is that- it can be read into different units of length. For example the map
with a scale 1:50,000 would mean that a distance of 1 cm on ground represents 50,000 cm on
the ground or it can also be said that a distance of 1 feet on ground represents 50,000 feet on
ground.

Figure 2:Map with scale in Representative fraction

3. Graphic:
The scale is shown in form of a strip, where the strip is divided into a number of equal parts and
is marked to show what these divisions represent on actual ground. It is also known as plain
scale or linear scale.

For example, the above scale represents that 1 division of a strip on map represents 10 km on
ground. The advantage of a graphic scale is that it is reduced or enlarged in the same proportion
in which the map is reduced or enlarged.
A qualitative nomenclature used to express the relative scale of a map consists of small or large
scale. The qualitative differences of these two scales are:
Large scale map Small scale map
Area covered is small Area covered is large
 Details are more, objects are seen as large Less details, objects are seen as small

 Map and Globe

• The word globe comes from the Latin word globus which means round mass or sphere.
• A terrestrial globe is a three dimensional scaled model of Earth.
• The fact that earth resembles a sphere was established by Greek astronomy in the third
century BC and the earliest globes came from that period.
• Unlike maps, the globe is a representation which is free from distortions (distortion in
shape, area).
• The modern globes have longitudes and latitudes marked over it so that one is able to tell
the approximate coordinates of a specific place.
• To make the illustration better, people have tried depicting variations of earth surface over
the globe.
• The relief raised globes allow a user to visualize the mountain ranges and plains as the
features are modelled using elevations and depressions.
• But the relief is not scaled rather exaggerated.
• The raised relief would be virtually invisible if a scale representation were attempted.

The map and the globe are similar in a manner that both of them represent earth (on particular
scales) but there also exist a few differences between them, which are enumerated below:

Globe Map

Three dimensional representation of earth in the Two dimensional representation of earth in the
form of a sphere form of a flat surface

Impossible to see all the countries of the world

All countries of the world can be seen on a
at a glance as only half of the globe can be seen
world map at a glance
at a time

The shape and size of geographical features is Due to projection there are distortions in shape
correctly represented. and size of geographical features

Accurate tracing of the maps is not possible due

Maps can be accurately traced
to the curvature of the globe

A part of earth can’t be separately represented A part of earth can be separately represented on
on the globe the map

Inconvenient to carry Easy to carry

 Coordinate System
A coordinate system is a reference system used for locating objects in a two or three
dimensional space.
Geographic Coordinate System A geographic coordinate system, also known as global or
spherical coordinate system is a reference system that uses a three-dimensional spherical
surface to determine locations on the earth. Any location on earth can be referenced by a
point with longitude and latitude. We must familiarize ourselves with the geographic terms
with respect to the Earth coordinate system in order to use the GIS technologies effectively.

Pole: The geographic pole of earth is defined as either of the two points where the axis of
rotation of the earth meets its surface. The North Pole lies 90º north of the equator and the
South Pole lies 90º south of the equator.

Latitude: Imaginary lines that run horizontally around the globe and are measured from 90º
north to 90º south. Also known as parallels, latitudes are equidistant from each other.

Equator: An imaginary line on the earth with zero degree latitude, divides the earth into two
halves–Northern and Southern Hemisphere. This parallel has the widest circumference.

Fig. Latitude and longitude measurements

Longitude: Imaginary lines that run vertically around the globe. Also known as meridians,
longitudes are measured from 180º east to 180º west. Longitudes meet at the poles and are
widest apart at the equator.

Prime meridian : Zero degree longitude which divides the earth into two halves–Eastern and
Western hemisphere. As it runs through the Royal Greenwich Observatory in Greenwich,
England it is also known as Greenwich meridian.

 Projected Coordinate system

A projected coordinate system is defined as two dimensional representation of the Earth. It is
based on a spheroid geographic coordinate system, but it uses linear units of measure for
coordinates. It is also known as Cartesian coordinate system.
In such a coordinate system the location of a point on the grid is identified by (x, y)
coordinate pair and the origin lies at the centre of grid. The x coordinate determines the
horizontal position and y coordinate determines the vertical position of the point.

Figure 7: Cartesian coordinate system

In such a coordinate system the location of a point on the grid is identified by (x, y)
coordinate pair and the origin lies at the centre of grid. The x coordinate determines the
horizontal position and y coordinate determines the vertical position of the point.
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3. Georeferencing and Projection

Map Projection

Map projection is a mathematical expression using which the three-dimensional surface of earth is represented in a
two dimensional plane. The process of projection results in distortion of one or more map properties such as shape,
size, area or direction.
A single projection system can never account for the correct representation of all map properties for all the regions
of the world. Therefore, hundreds of projection systems have been defined for accurate representation of a
particular map element for a particular region of the world.

Classification of Map Projections

Map projections are classified on the following criteria:

Method of construction
Development surface used
Projection properties
Position of light source

Method of Construction
The term map projection implies projecting the graticule of the earth onto a flat surface with the help of shadow
cast. However, not all of the map projections are developed in this manner. Some projections are developed using
mathematical calculations only. Given below are the projections that are based on the method of construction:
Perspective Projections : These projections are made with the help of shadow cast from an illuminated globe on
to a developable surface
Non Perspective Projections :These projections do not use shadow cast from an illuminated globe on to a
developable surface. A developable surface is only assumed to be covering the globe and the construction of
projections is done using mathematical calculations.

Development Surface
Projection transforms the coordinates of earth on to a surface that can be flattened to a plane without distortion
(shearing or stretching). Such a surface is called a developable surface. The three basic projections are based on the
types of developable surface and are introduced below:

1. Cylindrical Projection

It can be visualized as a cylinder wrapped around the globe.

Once the graticule is projected onto the cylinder, the cylinder is opened to get a grid like pattern of latitudes
and longitudes.

The longitudes (meridians) and latitudes (parallels) appear as straight lines

Length of equator on the cylinder is equal to the length of the equator therefore is suitable for showing
equatorial regions.

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Aspects of cylindrical projection:

(a) (b) (c)

(a) Normal: when cylinder has line of tangency to the equator. It includes Equirectangular Projection, the Mercator
projection, Lambert's Cylindrical Equal Area, Gall's Stereographic Cylindrical, and Miller cylindrical projection.
(b) Transverse: when cylinder has line of tangency to the meridian. It includes the Cassini Projection, Transverse
Mercator, Transverse cylindrical Equal Area Projection, and Modified Transverse Mercator.
(c) Oblique: when cylinder has line of tangency to another point on the globe. It only consists of the Oblique
Mercator projection.

2. Conic Projection

It can be visualized as a cone placed on the globe, tangent to it at some parallel.

After projecting the graticule on to the cone, the cone is cut along one of the meridian and unfolded. Parallels
appear as arcs with a pole and meridians as straight lines that converge to the same point.

It can represent only one hemisphere, at a time, northern or southern.

Suitable for representing middle latitudes.

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Aspects of conic projection:

(a) Tangent: when the cone is tangent to only one of the parallel.
(b) Secant: when the cone is not big enough to cover the curvature of earth, it intersects the earth twice at two
parallels.

3. Azimuthal/Zenithal Projection

It can be visualized as a flat sheet of paper tangent to any point on the globe

The sheet will have the tangent point as the centre of the circular map, where meridians passing through the
centre are straight line and the parallels are seen as concentric circle.

Suitable for showing polar areas

Aspects of zenithal projection:

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(a) Equatorial zenithal: When the plane is tangent to a point on the equator.
(b) Oblique zenithal: when the plane is tangent to a point between a pole and the equator.
(c) Polar zenithal: when the plane is tangent to one of the poles.

Projection Properties

According to properties map projections can be classified as:

Equal area projection: Also known as homolographic projections. The areas of different parts of earth are
correctly represented by such projections.
True shape projection: Also known as orthomorphic projections. The shapes of different parts of earth are
correctly represented on these projections.
True scale or equidistant projections: Projections that maintain correct scale are called true scale projections.
However, no projection can maintain the correct scale throughout. Correct scale can only be maintained along some
parallel or meridian.

Position of light source

Placing light source illuminating the globe at different positions results in the development of different projections.
These projections are:
Gnomonic projection: when the source of light is placed at the centre of the globe
Stereographic Projection: when the source of light is placed at the periphery of the globe, diametrically opposite
to the point at which developable surface touches the globe
Orthographic Projection: when the source of light is placed at infinity from the globe opposite to the point at
which developable surface touches the globe

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3. Georeferencing and Projection

Transformation
The process of transformation, maps every point from one coordinate space to another. Using transforms, one can
rotate, translate and scale content freely in two-dimensional space.

Rotation

A rotation is a transformation that is performed by spinning the object around a fixed point known as the center of
rotation. It can be performed clockwise as well as counterclockwise. The angle by which the object is turned is called
the angle of rotation.

Figure 12 :Rotation (a) Clockwise (b) Counterclockwise

Translation

It is the process of moving each point of an object by the same distance in the same direction. It involves shifting the
origin of the current coordinate system horizontally and vertically by a specific amount.

Figure 13: Illustrating translation of (2, 1).

Scaling

Scaling changes the size of the grid. It lets the stretching and shrinking of the grid along the x and y axes
independently.

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Figure 14: Scaling

(Image Source: http://commons.oreilly.com/wiki/index.php/Image:SVG_Essentials_I_5_tt74.png )

It does not change the origin of the grid but makes the grid multiplied by a given value. The figure above shows
scaling transformation, which doubles the scale of both axes. The square maintains its origin at (10, 10) even after
scaling. Because the scale is made twice, therefore origin i.e. (10, 10) of the new grid lies at (20, 20) of the original
grid.

Changing Map Projections

To transform data from one coordinate system to another, forward and inverse equations are used. The inverse
equation of the source projection transforms the coordinates of source projection into geographic coordinates. Then,
the forward equation of the target projection is used to transform the geographic coordinates into the target
projection coordinates.

Cartesian coordinate Transformation

Two dimensional Cartesian coordinates (x, y) can be transformed from one coordinate system to another coordinate
system using three primary transformation methods which are:

Conformal Transformation : It is a linear transformation which changes one coordinate system into another by the
process of rotation, uniform scale change followed by translation

Affine Transformation : It is a linear transformation which changes one coordinate system into another by the
process of rotation , scale change in x and y direction, followed by translation.

The difference between the conformal and affine transformations could be understood by the figure given below.

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Figure 15 : Transformation (a) Conformal (b) Affine

(Image Source: http://kartoweb.itc.nl/geometrics/Coordinate%20transformations/coordtrans.html )

The shape of the original rectangular grid is maintained due to the uniform scale change in the case of conformal
transformation whereas in affine transformation the shape of the rectangular grid is changed due to the difference in
scale in x and y direction.

Polynomial Transformation : It is a non-linear transformation which relates two 2D Cartesian coordinate systems
through a translation, a rotation and a variable scale change

Datum transformation

Datum transformation is a transformation of a three dimensional coordinate system into another three dimensional
coordinate system. It is done when the source projection is based on a different datum than the target projection. The
transformation parameters are estimated on the basis of a set of selected points whose coordinates are known in both
datum systems.

Mathematically a datum transformation can be realized directly by relating the geographic coordinates of both datum
systems or indirectly by relating the geocentric coordinates of the datums.
Datum transformation via geographic coordinates

1. Geographic Offset
2. Molodensky and Abridged Molodensky transformation
3. Multiple regression transformation

Datum transformation via geocentric coordinates

1. Geocentric translation
2. Helmert 7-parameter transformations
3. Molodensky-Badekas 10-parameter transformation

For more information on the above click here

Copyright IIT Delhi © 2009-2011. All rights reserved.

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3. Georeferencing and Projection

Georeferencing
It is a process of locating an entity in real world coordinates. It aligns geographic data to a known coordinate system
representing earth defined through projection systems so it can be viewed, queried, and analyzed with other geographic data.
To georeference a geographic data, the positions of known points, called control points, are determined. The Ground Control
Points (GCPs) are defined as the points with known geographical location, whose positions on map correspond to their positions
on earth. GCPs are collected from fixed objects and are marked on the data to be georeferenced that define where the data is
on earth. The whole data adjusts itself according to these GCPs. At least three control points are required for georeferencing a
data. Additional control points help increasing the accuracy. Once the data is georeferenced, each point has a coordinate
associated to it which means the location of any object in the data (map) can now be determined

Figure 16 : Georeferencing an image

In brief, the process of georeferencing establishes control points; inputs the known geographic coordinates of these control
points, chooses the coordinate system and other projection parameters and then minimizes residuals. Residuals are the
difference between the actual coordinates of the control points and the coordinates predicted by the geographic model created
using the control points. The residuals help in determining the level of accuracy of the process. The quality of the rectification
depends on the number, accuracy, and distribution of the control points and the choice of transformation model.

Georeferencing Raster Data

The raster data occupy a raster space which is defined as a digital image of the arrangement of the pixels in a grid. The
computer reads the header of the data file and determines the dimension of the raster space. The position of a cell in the raster
space is referenced by row and column (row, column). This system of referencing the raster cells is called raster coordinate
system. The origin for this system lies at the upper left corner of the monitor because the computer monitor displays an image
from left to right and from top to bottom. The method of referencing positions in raster space is different from that on maps.
The origin of the map coordinate system is the lower left corner. To visualize raster data spatially raster data needs to be
transformed into a map coordinate system i.e. the raster coordinates (row, column) are transformed into corresponding ground
coordinates (East, West).
There are two approaches to georeferencing:

1. Image to Map rectification

2. Image to Image registration

Image to Map: rectification is the process by which geometry of an image is made planimetric. It involves the measurement
of the image coordinates of the reference cells (GCPs) and the corresponding ground coordinates to relate the image with the
real world. The two sets of coordinates are used to solve a set of polynomial equations whose order depends upon the amount
of geometric distortion in the raster image. Generally affine transformation is used for the purpose:

Where X and Y are the ground coordinates, and, x and y are the image coordinates.

A minimum of three GCPs are required to solve these equations, though greater the GCPs more accurate is the rectification. On
solving the equations we get the values of the six (a, b, c, d, e and f) coefficients. Any image coordinate can then be
substituted in the equations to get the corresponding ground position on the used map coordinate system. The positions of the
original grid cells will have to be interpolated in the mapping coordinate system.

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After the coordinate transformation the raster cells may have been oriented differently than the way they were originally in the
raster coordinate system. The attribute value is to be interpolated for the cells oriented to the new coordinate system. This is
called resampling. There are three common methods of resampling:

Nearest neighbor: In this method, the attribute value of the original cell nearest to a cell in the output raster layer is assigned
to the corresponding cell.

a. Bilinear interpolation: It assigns the value to a cell in the output raster layer by taking weighted average of the
surrounding four cells in the original grid nearest to it.

b. Cubic convolution: It assigns the value to a cell in the output raster layer by taking weighted average of the surrounding
sixteen cells in the original grid nearest to it.

Among these three the nearest neighbor is preferred because it doesn’t change the values of the original grid cells assigned to
the reoriented grid cells but it produces blocky images. The cubic convolution on the other side does change the values but it
generates smoother images.

The result of an image to map rectification is a geometrically correct grid of raster cells.

Image to Image registration is a method of georeferencing a raster layer with the help of another raster, which is already
georeferenced by the process of image to map rectification. The already georeferenced raster is used as a reference for the
raster which is to be rectified. Control points are selected from the two raster layers, the coordinate transformation and
resampling is then done in the similar manner as it is done for image to map rectification. Image to Image registration is used
to spatially match several raster layers to a single reference raster layer.

References

Singh, G 2004, Map work and practical geography, Vikas Publishing House, Uttar Pradesh.

European Commission Joint Research Centre 2001, Map projections for Europe: report, viewed 14 October 2011, www.ec-
gis.org/sdi/publist/pdfs/annoni-etal2003eur.pdf

http://mapref.org/index.html , viewed 12 October 2011

http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/TOC/cartTOC.html viewed 12 October 2011

Copyright IIT Delhi © 2009-2011. All rights reserved.

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