Chapter 2 — Question 13

In Figure 2.20, we presented an actual line, and its representation in the raster. Compute
the real length of the line (taking cell width as the unit). In rasters, when a GIS computes
√
a distance it uses 1 as the distance between two cells that share a side, and it uses 2
as the distance between two cells that share only a corner point. What would be the
computed length by the GIS of the line’s representation in Figure 2.20? What can be
said in general about the two lengths?

Answer
When computing with cell width√ as the unit, the real length of the line is the
length of the hypothenuse, so 102 + 32 . In a raster-based computation by √ the
GIS, it would traverse the raster cells in green and use the formula 9 + 2 2.
These formulæ, resp., lead to values 10.4403065 and 11.8284271. For straight
lines, the GIS computation provides always a value equal to or higher than the
actual length.

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