Projections Part 1

Hello!

In this week's lab our objective was to be able to utilize the Project and Project Raster Tools in order to re-project data to a common Projected Coordinate System, recognize .prj file projection information as associated with GIS data files, properly work with and display multiple data frames in ArcMap, find the difference in area between data files displayed in different projected coordinate systems, and to be able to create a map with multiple data frames.

 

Here is my map outcome:

Map Summary:

This map shows the state of Florida projected with three different projection systems, which are the Albers Conical Equal Area projection, the NAD 1983 UTM Zone 16N projection, and the Florida State Plane North (HARN) projection. Each projection system held differing value quantities for the area of the counties, which is noted in the table below the maps. For this map, Albers is the choice selection for map projection since it accurately represents area across the whole planet, even though it distorts the shape. The other two projections are less accurate for this map projection because they only cover a small portion of the state of Florida. While this makes their covered areas more accurate, it leaves the uncovered areas outside of their boundaries less accurate. The projection with the worst distortion is the UTM Zone 16N projection, since it only accurately represents a small part of the state located in the panhandle.