GIS 6005 - Coordinate Systems

Week 2 of GIS 6005 focused on Coordinate Systems. At this stage, coordinate systems are something that almost all GIS students are aware of, however, this module went into great detail. We went back to the basics, learning about the earth and earth coordinates, followed by getting a deeper understanding of scale, how it can be calculated and how it can be determined if the scale of a map is unknown. Lastly, we dove into projections, gaining an understanding of the various projections and their properties, including when they are most and least appropriate. As a result, we were tasked with deciding on an appropriate coordinate system for an area of interest of our choice. I chose the US state Tennessee. 

Map of Tennessee, USA,

The coordinate system I felt was best suited for Tennessee is NAD 1983 StatePlane Tennessee FIPS 4100 (US Feet). This projection is the most accurate projection for the State that encompasses the entire state. This meant that I did not have to choose a projection based on the UTM, which may have split the state into multiple parts and ultimately lead to distortion. This was also fortunate because using an alternative projection that applies to a general area, such as an Albers Conic projection, would also introduce distortion in areas that are not along the standard parallels or central meridian. 


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