ESM 263 Geographic Information Systems

Week 2 - Coordinate systems and map projections

Lecture

• slides: Coordinate Systems and Map Projections

• sample data: projections

• Links:
  • Prime_Meridian_original.kml
  • Why the Greenwich meridian moved

Reading

• Bolstad: ch 3: Geodesy, Datums, Projections, and Coordinate Systems
• A Gentle Introduction to GIS: ch 8: Coordinate Reference Systems

Videos

• Are you saying the map is wrong? (from “The West Wing”, season 2, episode 16)
  • Gall-Peters Projection in QGIS
  • Gall-Peters Wikipedia
  • proj CEA projection
• Why all world maps are wrong (from Vox’s Johnny Harris)
• Why The Prime Meridian Isn’t At 0º
• The Greenwich Meridian is not the Prime Meridian and we only just figured out why…

Reference

• An Album of Map Projections
• California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Projection and Datum Guidelines
• QGIS User Guide
  • 10. Working with Projections
  • 15.1.3. Symbology Properties
  • 19. Laying out the maps

Lab

• QGIS training data
• QGIS Training Manual:
  • 3. Module: Classifying Vector Data
    • Skip 3.2.4–3.2.8 and 3.3.3–3.3.5
  • 4. Module: Laying out the Maps
  • 6.1: Reprojecting and Transforming Data
• Using Style Files
  • Classifying data and creating nice symbols and colors can be a time consuming process. Generally when you put all that work in you want to keep that style for use on other data or you might try several iterations of a style before settling on one. Take a look at the link below to learn more about saving style!
  • Style Files

Recordings

• 2023-01-16_lecture
• lab1
• lab2