SELECTING SUITABLE MAP PROJECTIONS IN MINIMIZING DISTANCE DISTORTIONS IN GIS-BASED APPLICATIONS: A CASE STUDY FROM TURKEY

摘要

Organizations responsible for transportation networks, energy transmission lines and waterways are increasingly using the Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to determine the planning and analysis objectives. In this respect, the accuracy of the right of way and alignment sheet used in GIS applications becomes highly important. Distance is another important concept for special needs required by mapping. The accuracy of the distance data affects the aim and cost of the project. The sensitivity of the distance data is directly related to the selection of the map projection. Particularly in countries such as Turkey, which lay from west to east and whose maps are produced based on Universal Transversal Mercator (UTM) zone, the selection of map projection becomes more important. This study aimed to discover which map projection type should be selected by investigating different deformation characteristics that exist in the ArcGIS software. The most suitable map projection was investigated for the GIS application which covers the area bounded by the geographical frontiers of Turkey. As a result, it was seen that equidistant map projection selection in the GIS application gave more sensitive results in terms of distance.