Geographical Information

Systems

Lecture 2
Georeferencing

Prepared by
Dr. Naglaa Fathy
naglaa_fathy@cis.asu.edu.eg
Image source: Westfield State University
 Agenda

• What is Georeferencing?

• Geographic Coordinate System

• Map Projections

• Map Types

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 What is Georeferencing
• It is the act of assigning physical location to objects on the earth
surface.
• Georeferencing is essential since Locations are the basis for
many of the benefits of GIS:
• The ability to map,
• To tie different kinds of information together because they refer to the
same place,
• To measure distances and areas.
• Without locations, data are said to be non-spatial and would
have no value at all within a geographic information system.

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 Georeferencing Systems
• Placenames
• Postal addresses and postal codes
• Latitude and longitude
• Map Projections
• The Global Positioning System

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 Latitude and longitude
• The most comprehensive and powerful method of georeferencing for
locating spatial features on the Earth’s surface.
• Latitude: is the angular distance, in degrees, minutes, and seconds of
a point north or south of the Equator.
• Longitude: is the angular distance, in degrees, minutes, and seconds,
of a point east or west of the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian.

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 The Earth’s Shape
• The Earth is slightly flattened, such that the distance
between the Poles is less than the diameter at the
Equator.
• The Earth is more accurately modeled as a spheroid
(ellipsoid) than a sphere.
• A spheroid is formed by rotating an ellipse about its
shorter axis.

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 The Earth’s Shape - Coordinate Systems
• Because the Earth is not shaped precisely as an ellipsoid, initially each
country felt free to adopt its own ellipsoid as the most accurate
approximation to its own part of the Earth.
• Without a single standard ellipsoid, the maps produced by different
countries using different ellipsoids could never be made to fit together.
• Today an international standard coordinate system has been
adopted known as WGS 84 (the World Geodesic System of 1984).

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 Map projection
• A map is a representation of all, or part of the Earth drawn on a
flat surface at a specific scale.
• Map projections refer to the methods and procedures that are
used to transform the spherical three-dimensional earth into
two-dimensional planar (flat) surfaces.
• Specifically, map projections are mathematical formulas that are used
to translate latitude and longitude on the surface of the earth to x and y
coordinates on a plane.
• There are many reasons to project the Earth’s surface onto a
plane, rather than deal with the curved surface:
➢The paper used to output GIS maps is flat
➢Flat maps are scanned and digitized to create GIS databases
➢It’s much easier to measure distance on a plane
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 Map projection
• Transformation from the
earth surface to a flat
surface always involves
distortion either in size,
shape or in relative
location and therefore no
map projection is perfect.
• Different map projections
have different properties
and are better suited for
different purposes.
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 Properties of Map projection

1. Conformality : correct representation of shapes.

2. Equidistance : correct representation of distances.
3. Equivalence : correct representation of areas (size).
4. Azimuthality: correct representation of direction

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Map projection properties
Conformality (shape) vs. Equivalence (size)

A cartographer has to decide if shape or size has to be

sacrificed. You can’t have both. It’s impossible. 11
 Main Types of Map projection
• Cylindrical - analogous to
wrapping a cylinder of paper
around the Earth, projecting
the Earth’s features onto it,
and then unwrapping the
cylinder
• Conical – analogous to
wrapping a sheet of paper
around the Earth in a cone
• Azimuthal or planar -
analogous to touching the
Earth with a sheet of flat
paper
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 Main Types of Map projection - Cylindrical
• The Mercator projection is the best-known cylindrical projection.
• the cylinder touches the earth at the equator; this projection
preserves the conformal property.
• At the equator there is zero distortion and distortion will increase away
from the equator

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 Main Types of Map projection - Cylindrical

The Universal Transverse Mercator

(UTM) Projection
• A type of cylindrical projection implemented as
an international standard coordinate system
• Transverse Mercator because the cylinder is
wrapped around the Poles, not the Equator

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 Main Types of Map projection - Conic
• Uses a cone to project into a
map.
• Conic projections touch the
earth at:
• a single latitude - these are
referred to as tangent conic
projections, or
• have two points of contact
(secant conic projections)

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 Main Types of Map projection - Azimuthal
• Have the property that directions from a central point are
preserved.
• The projection is based on projecting the earth onto a flat
plane that is tangent to the earth usually at one point.
• Azimuthal or planar projection are of three different types;
1. Polar (using either north or south pole)
2. Equatorial (using a point somewhere on the Equator)
3. Oblique (using any other point)

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Main Types of Map projection - Azimuthal projection types

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 Map Scale
• Map scale is the ratio of distance on the map to distance on the
Earth’s surface.
• Map scale can be represented by:
• text: (e.g., one inch represents one kilometer)
• representative fraction: e.g., 1:24 000 reduces everything on the Earth to one
24 000th of its real size.
• graphical representation: using a scale bar to provide a visual indication of
the actual distance between two points on a map, and the actual size of an
area.

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 Map Scale

• Map scales can also be described as either “small” or “large”,

depending on the amount of detail represented on the map:
• large-scale map shows more detail and less area,
• small-scale map shows more area but less detail.
• For instance, a map with an RF of 1:1,000 is considered a large-
scale map when compared to a map with an RF of 1:1,000,000
(i.e., 1:1,000 > 1:1,000,000)

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Map Types

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 Map Types - 1. Reference Maps

• Its primary purpose is to deliver location information to the

map user.
• Geographic features (i.e., political, physical, etc.) on a reference
map tend to be treated and represented equally
• No single aspect of a reference map takes precedent over any
other aspect.

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 Map Types - 1. Reference Maps
Political maps
• A world map showing
countries and major cities is
a political map
• They are often used for
teaching or display.

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 Map Types - 1. Reference Maps
Physical maps
• Illustrate the features of land
and water within an area.
• They highlight such physical
features as rivers, elevation
and water depth, deserts, and
such.
• These are used for teaching,
urban planning, and traveling.

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 Map Types - 1. Reference Maps

Road maps
• Highly detailed maps that
highlight roads and intersections.
• GIS technology can present maps
that change as we drive while a
voice tells us what direction to
turn.

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 Map Types – 2. Thematic Maps

• They are concerned with a particular theme or topic of interest.

• While reference maps emphasize the location of geographic
features, thematic maps are more concerned with how things
are distributed across space (i.e., literacy rates).
• Thematic mapping sits at the heart of GIS, which allows us to
use thematic maps to analyze and understand complex
interactions of data.

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 Map Types - 2. Thematic Maps
Weather Maps
• They display details (e.g.,
temperature, wind, etc.) of
weather across space.

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 Map Types - 2. Thematic Maps
Income maps
• They illustrate the distribution
of money earned.
• Mostly, these maps use the
median income for an area.
• Other measurements (such as
years of schooling or average
age) can be mapped in the same
way.
• Scholars, analysts use these
maps to better understand and
deliver services to people who
need them. 27
 Map Types – 3. Dynamic Maps
• An interactive map where the
user can freely:
• pan and zoom
• place some markers and to link
them with loaded data
• select which features or layers
to include or to remove from a
map (e.g., roads, imagery).
• Both reference and thematic
maps can be dynamic in
nature
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https://maps4news.com/help/what-is-a-dynamic-map/
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