Week 5 Introduction to Projections - Would you like your map as Albers, UTM, State Plane? Side of fries? Proper projections are important, allow time to wait when you place your order....

OOPS...I shoud have included Florida somewere in the title.  Always something.....

This week was our first foray into coordinate systems and projections.  The projections chosen for us to use did an amazing job illustrating the importance of choosing one appropriate for you subject area.  Having us create three data views as a side by side comparison was brilliant, allowing us to see the subtle and not so subtle changes from one to another.  It also showed how error can distribute the further you are from a zone/limit boundary of your projection choice.  The Albers did the best preserving area since it is, after all, an equal area projection. Since it is a conformal projection, UTM maintained the overal shapes but area and distance suffered.  The results within UTM 16N were also significantly worse the further away it was from its zone limit (panhadle area of FL.  Although NAD83 State Plane Florida North FIPS 0903 did a better job locally, there was still distortion outside of its zone as well (mainly the panhandle and a portion of northwest Fl fall in this zone).  The least affected by all of the projections was Escambia county since it fell within the localized areas for two zones and of course, Albers being global was good.