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Chapter 9 Coordinate Systems

Implicit with any GIS data is a spatial reference system. It can consist of a simple arbitrary
reference system such as a 10 m x 10 m sampling grid in a wood lot or, the boundaries of a
soccer field or, it can consist of a geographic reference system, i.e. one where the spatial
features are mapped to an earth based reference system. The focus of this topic is on earth
reference systems which can be based on a Geographic Coordinate System (GCS) or a
Project Coordinate System (PCS).

9.1 Geographic Coordinate Systems

A geographic coordinate system is a reference system for identifying locations on the curved
surface of the earth. Locations on the earth’s surface are measured in angular units from the
center of the earth relative to two planes: the plane defined by the equator and the plane
defined by the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich England). A location is therefore
defined by two values: a latitudinal value and a longitudinal value.

Figure 9.1: Examples of latitudinal lines are shown on the left and examples of longitudinal
lines are shown on the right. The 0° degree reference lines for each are shown in red (equator
for latitudinal measurements and prime meridian for longitudinal measurements).

A latitude measures the angle from the equatorial plane to the location on the earth’s surface.
A longitude measures the angle between the prime meridian plane and the north-south plane
that intersects the location of interest. For example Colby College is located at around 45.56°

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North and 69.66° West. In a GIS system, the North-South and East-West directions are
encoded as signs. North and East are assigned a positive ( + ) sign and South and West are
assigned a negative ( - ) sign. Colby College’s location is therefore encoded as +45.56° and
-69.66°.

Figure 9.2: A slice of earth showing the latitude and longitude measurements.

A GCS is defined by an ellipsoid, geoid and datum. These elements are presented next.

9.1.1 Sphere and Ellipsoid

Assuming that the earth is a perfect sphere greatly simplifies mathematical calculations and
works well for small-scale maps (maps that show a large area of the earth). However, when
working at larger scales, an ellipsoid representation of earth may be desired if accurate
measurements are needed. An ellipsoid is defined by two radii: the semi-major axis (the
equatorial radius) and the semi-minor axis (the polar radius).

Semi-minor

Semi-major

The reason the earth has a slightly ellipsoidal shape has to do with its rotation which induces a
centripetal force along the equator. This results in an equatorial axis that is roughly 21 km

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longer than the polar axis.

Figure 9.3: The earth can be mathematically modeled as a simple sphere (left) or an ellipsoid
(right).

Our estimate of these radii is quite precise thanks to satellite and computational capabilities.
The semi-major axis is 6,378,137 meters and the semi-minor axis is 6,356,752 meters.

Differences in distance measurements along the surfaces of an ellipsoid vs. a sphere are small
but measurable (the difference can be as high as 20 km) as illustrated in the following lattice
plots.
−50 0 50 −50 0 50
90 90 90 90
0 45 90 180
20
0
−20
67.5 67.5 67.5 67.5
0 45 90 180
20
Difference in distances

0
−20
45 45 45 45
0 45 90 180
20
0
−20
22.5 22.5 22.5 22.5
0 45 90 180
20
0
−20
0 0 0 0
0 45 90 180
20
0
−20
−50 0 50 −50 0 50

Destination latitude
Figure 9.4: Differences in distance measurements between the surface of a sphere and an
ellipsoid. Each graphic plots the differences in distance measurements made from a single
point location along the 0° meridian identified by the green colored box (latitude value) to
various latitudinal locations along a longitude (whose value is listed in the bisque colored box).

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For example, the second plot from the top-left corner plot shows the differences in distance
measurements made from a location at 90° north (along the prime meridian) to a range of
latitudinal locations along the 45° meridian.

9.1.2 Geoid

Representing the earth’s true shape, the geoid, as a mathematical model is crucial for a GIS
environment. However, the earth’s shape is not a perfectly smooth surface. It has undulations
resulting from changes in gravitational pull across its surface. These undulations may not be
visible with the naked eye, but they are measurable and can influence locational
measurements. Note that we are not including mountains and ocean bottoms in our
discussion, instead we are focusing solely on the earth’s gravitational potential which can be
best visualized by imagining the earth’s surface completely immersed in water and measuring
the distance from the earth’s center to the water surface over the entire earth surface.

Figure 9.5: Earth’s geoid with gravitational field shown in rainbow colors. The ondulations
depicted in the graphics are exaggerated for visual effects. (source: NASA)

The earth’s gravitational field is dynamic and is tied to the flow of the earth’s hot and fluid core.
Hence its geoid is constantly changing, albeit at a large temporal scale.The measurement and
representation of the earth’s shape is at the heart of geodesy–a branch of applied
mathematics.

9.1.3 Datum

So how are we to reconcile our need to work with a (simple) mathematical model of the earth’s
shape with the ondulating nature of the earth’s surface (i.e. its geoid)? The solution is to align
the geoid with the ellipsoid (or sphere) representation of the earth and to map the earth’s

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surface features onto this ellipsoid/sphere. The alignment can be local where the ellipsoid
surface is closely fit to the geoid at a particular location on the earth’s surface (such as the
state of Kansas) or geocentric where the ellipsoid is aligned with the center of the earth. How
one chooses to align the ellipsoid to the geoid defines a datum.

9.1.3.1 Local Datum

Figure 9.6: A local datum couples a geoid with the ellipsoid at a location on each element’s
surface.

There are many local datums to choose from, some are old while others are more recently
defined. The choice of datum is largely driven by the location of interest. For example, when
working in the US, a popular local datum to choose from is the North American Datum of 1927
(or NAD27 for short). NAD27 works well for the US but it’s not well suited for other parts of the
world. For example, a far better local datum for Europe is the European Datum of 1950 (ED50
for short). Examples of common local datums are shown in the following table:

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Local datum Acronym Best for Comment

This is an old datum but still

North American Continental
NAD27 prevalent because of the wide use of
Datum of 1927 US
older maps.

Developed after World War II and still

European Datum of Western
ED50 quite popular today. Not used in the
1950 Europe
UK.

World Geodetic Developed by the Department of

WGS72 Global
System 1972 Defense.

9.1.3.2 Geocentric Datum

Figure 9.7: A geocentric datum couples a geoid with the ellipsoid at each element’s center of
mass.

Many of the modern datums use a geocentric alignment. These include the popular World
Geodetic Survey for 1984 (WGS84) and the North American Datums of 1983 (NAD83). Most of
the popular geocentric datums use the WGS84 ellipsoid or the GRS80 ellipsoid. These two
ellipsoids share nearly identical semi-major and semi-minor axes: 6,378,137 meters and
6,356,752 meters respectively. Examples of popular geocentric datums are shown in the
following table:

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Geocentric datum Acronym Best for Comment

This is one of the most popular

North American Continental
NAD83 modern datums for the contiguous
Datum of 1983 US
US.

European Terrestrial
Western This is the most popular modern
Reference System ETRS89
Europe datum for much of Europe.
1989

World Geodetic Developed by the Department of

WGS84 Global
System 1984 Defense.

9.1.4 Building the Geographic Coordinate System

A Geographic Coordinate System (GCS) is defined by the ellipsoid model and by the way this
ellipsoid is aligned with the geoid (defining the datum). It is important to know which GCS is
associated with a GIS file or a map document reference system. This is particularly true when
the overlapping layers are tied to different datums (and therefore GCS’). This is because a
location on the earth’s surface can take on different coordinate values. For example, a location
recorded in an NAD 1927 GCS having a coordinate pair of 44.56698° north and 69.65939°
west will register a coordinate value of 44.56704° north and 69.65888° west in a NAD83 GCS
and a coordinate value of 44.37465° north and -69.65888° west in a sphere based WGS84
GCS. If the coordinate systems for these point coordinate values were not properly defined,
then they could be misplaced on a map. This is analogous to recording temperature using
different units of measure (degrees Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin)–each unit of measure will
produce a different numeric value.

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Figure 9.8: Map of the Colby flagpole in two different geographic coordinate systems (GCS
NAD 1983 on the left and GCS NAD 1927 on the right). Note the offset in the 44.5639° line of
latitude relative to the flagpole. Also note the 0.0005° longitudinal offset between both
reference systems.

9.2 Projected Coordinate Systems

The surface of the earth is curved but maps are flat. A projected coordinate system (PCS) is a
reference system for identifying locations and measuring features on a flat (map) surface. It
consists of lines that intersect at right angles, forming a grid. Projected coordinate systems
(which are based on Cartesian coordinates) have an origin, an x axis, a y axis, and a linear
unit of measure. Going from a GCS to a PCS requires mathematical transformations. The
myriad of projection types can be aggregated into three groups: planar, cylindrical and
conical.

9.2.1 Planar Projections

A planar projection (aka Azimuthal projection) maps the earth surface features to a flat surface
that touches the earth’s surface at a point (tangent case),

Projected plane touches earth surface at a point

or along a line of tangency (a secant case).

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Projected surface touches globe along a circle

This projection is often used in mapping polar regions but can be used for any location on the
earth’s surface (in which case they are called oblique planar projections).

Orthographic Gnomonic Equidistant

Figure 9.9: Examples of three planar projections: orthographic (left), gnomonic (center) and
equidistant (right). Each covers a different spatial range (with the latter covering both northern
and southern hemispheres) and each preserves a unique set of spatial properties.

9.2.2 Cylindrical Projection

A cylindrical map projection maps the earth surface onto a map rolled into a cylinder (which
can then be flattened into a plane). The cylinder can touch the surface of the earth along a
single line of tangency (a tangent case),

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Projected plane touches earth surface along one circle

or along two lines of tangency (a secant case).

Projected plane touches earth surface along two circles

The cylinder can be tangent to the equator or it can be oblique. A special case is the
Transverse aspect which is tangent to lines of longitude. This is a popular projection used in
defining the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) and State Plane coordinate systems. The
UTM PCS covers the entire globe and is a popular coordinate system in the US. It’s important
to note that the UTM PCS is broken down into zones and therefore limits its extent to these
zones that are 6° wide. For example, the State of Maine (USA) uses the UTM coordinate
system (Zone 19 North) for most of its statewide GIS maps. Most USGS quad maps are also
presented in a UTM coordinate system. Popular datums tied to the UTM coordinate system in
the US include NAD27 and NAD83. There is also a WGS84 based UTM coordinate system.

Distortion is minimized along the tangent or secant lines and increases as the distance from
these lines increases.

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Mercator Cylindrical Equal-Area

Figure 9.10: Examples of two cylindrical projections: Mercator (preserves shape but distortes
area and distance) and equa-area (preserves area but distorts shape).

9.2.3 Conical Projection

A conical map projection maps the earth surface onto a map rolled into a cone. Like the
cylindrical projection, the cone can touch the surface of the earth along a single line of
tangency (a tangent case),

Projected plane touches earth surface along one circle

or along two lines of tangency (a secant case).

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Projected plane touches earth surface along two circles

Distortion is minimized along the tangent or secant lines and increases as the distance from
these lines increases. When distance or area measurements are needed for the contiguous 48
states, use one of the conical projections such as Equidistant Conic (distance preserving) or
Albers Equal Area Conic (area preserving).

Conical projections are also popular PCS’ in European maps such as Europe Albers Equal
Area Conic and Europe Lambert Conformal Conic.

Albers Equal Area Conic Equidistant Conic Lambers Conformal

Figure 9.11: Examples of three conical projections: Albers equal area (preserves area),
equidistant (preserves distance) and conformal (preserves shape).

9.3 Spatial Properties

All projections distort real-world geographic features to some degree. The four spatial
properties that are subject to distortion are: shape, area, distance and direction. A map that
preserves shape is called conformal; one that preserves area is called equal-area; one that
preserves distance is called equidistant; and one that preserves direction is called azimuthal.

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For most GIS applications (e.g. ArcGIS and QGIS), many of the built-in projections are
named after the spatial properties they preserve.

Each map projection is good at preserving only one or two of the four spatial properties. So
when working with small-scale (large area) maps and when multiple spatial properties are to
be preserved, it is best to break the analyses across different projections to minimize errors
associated with spatial distortion.

If you want to assess a projection’s spatial distortion across your study region, you can
generate Tissot indicatrix (TI) ellipses. The idea is to project a small circle (i.e. small enough
so that the distortion remains relatively uniform across the circle’s extent) and to measure its
distorted shape on the projected map. For example, in assessing the type of distortion one
could expect with a Mollweide projection across the continental US, a grid of circles could be
generated at regular latitudinal and longitudinal intervals.

Note the varying levels of distortion type and magnitude across the region. Let’s explore a
Tissot circle at 44.5°N and 69.5°W (near Waterville Maine):

The plot shows a perfect circle (displayed in a filled bisque color) that one would expect to see
if no distortion was at play. The blue distorted ellipse (the indicatrix) is the transformed circle

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for this particular projection and location. The green and red lines show the magnitude and
direction of the ellipse’s major and minor axes respectively. These lines can also be used to
assess scale distortion (note that scale distortion can vary as a function of bearing). The green
line shows maximum scale distortion and the red line shows minimum scale distortion–these
are sometimes referred to as the principal directions. In this working example, the principal
directions are 1.1293 and 0.8856. A scale value of 1 indicates no distortion. A value less than
1 indicates a smaller-than-true scale and a value greater than 1 indicates a greater-than-true
scale.

Projections can distort scale, but this does not necessarily mean that area is distorted. In fact,
for this particular projection, area is relatively well preserved despite distortion in principal
directions. Area distortion can easily be computed by taking the product of the two
aforementioned principal directions. In this working example, area distortion is 1.0001
(i.e. negligible).

The north-south dashed line in the graphic shows the orientation of the meridian. The east-
west dotted line shows the orientation of the parallel.

It’s important to recall that these distortions occur at the point where the TI is centered
and not necessarily across the region covered by the TI circle.

9.4 Geodesic geometries

The reason projected coordinate systems introduce errors in their geometric measurements
has to do with the nature of the projection whereby the distance between two points on a
sphere or ellipsoid will be difficult to replicate on a projected coordinate system unless these
points are relatively close to one another. In most cases, such errors can be tolerated if the
expected level of precision is met; many other sources of error in the spatial representation of
the features can often usurp any measurement errors made in a projected coordinate system.
However, if the scale of analysis is small (i.e. the spatial extent covers a large proportion of the
earth’s surface such as the North American continent), then the measurement errors
associated with a projected coordinate system may no longer be acceptable. A way to
circumvent projected coordinate system limitations is to adopt a geodesic solution. A geodesic
distance is the shortest distance between two points on an ellipsoid (or spheroid). Likewise, a
geodesic area measurement is one that is measured on an ellipsoid. Such measurements are

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independent of the underlying projected coordinate system. The Tissot circles presented in
figures from the last section were all generated using geodesic geometry.

If you are not convinced of the benefits afforded by geodesic geometry, compare the distances
measured between two points located on either sides of the Atlantic in the following map. The
blue solid line represents the shortest distance between the two points on a planar coordinate
system. The red dashed line represents the shortest distance between the two points as
measured on a spheroid.

At first glance, the geodesic distance may seem nonsensical given its curved appearance on
the projected map. However, this curvature is a byproduct of the current reference system’s
increasing distance distortion as one progresses poleward. If you are still not convinced, you
can display the geodesic and planar distance layers on a 3D globe (or a projection that mimics
the view of the 3D earth as viewed from space, centered on the mid-point of the geodesic line
segment).

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So if a geodesic measurement is more precise than a planar measurement, why not perform
all spatial operations using geodesic geometry? In many cases, a geodesic approach to spatial
operations can be perfectly acceptable and is even encouraged. The downside is in its
computational requirements. It’s far more computationally efficient to compute area/distance
on a plane than it is on a spheroid. This is because geodesic calculations have no simple
algebraic solutions and involve approximations that may require iterative solutions. So this
may be a computationally taxing approach if processing millions of line segments.

Note that not all geodesic measurement implementations are equal. Some more efficient
algorithms that minimize computation time may reduce precision in the process. Some of
ArcGIS’s functions offer the option to compute geodesic distances and areas. The data
analysis environment R has several packages that will compute geodesic measurements
including geosphere (which implements a well defined geodesic measurement algorithms
adopted from the authoritative set of GeographicLib libraries), lwgeom , and an implementation
of Google’s spherical measurement library called s2 .

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