Date: November 7, 2025
Cartography and Map Reading
Practical exercise on coordinate systems and map Projections
Part One: Experimenting changes in the data under different coordinate systems
1. The World in Geographic Coordinates
Add the cshape data
Right click on the data frame
Select the Coordinate System tab. Under the Select a Coordinate System, look at current
coordinate System, write down the properties such as datum, spheroid, semi major and
semi minor axis, flattening of WGS84
See the shape of different continent as you will compare changes with another coordinate
system
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2. The World in Robinson Projection
The actual projection of the layer cshape is geographic, however these layers can be
viewed in using a common projected coordinate system for the World is the Robinson
projection.
Create new Data Frame, using Insert/New Data Frame. Select View/Data
Frame Properties, Select the General tab and name the data frame Robinson. Right click
on the cshape feature class in Layers, select Copy, then Right click on the Robinson data
frame and select Paste Layer. You will see the cshape feature class symbol appear in the
Robinson data frame. Activate to display the data in this frame
Right click on the Robinson data frame, and select the Coordinate System tab. Under the
Select a Coordinate System box, choose the Predefined folder. Then select Projected
Coordinate Systems/World/Robinson. Click OK. A warning may appear but we can
ignore it for our purposes, so just click yes. Ignore this message every time it appears
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throughout the exercise. You will see the World appear in a Robinson projection. The
files themselves have not been projected permanently but are only displayed in the new
projection.
3. Follow the same procedure as step 2 and change the projected coordinate system to
Mercator(world)
4. Follow the same procedure as step 2 and change the projected coordinate system to
Azimuthal equidistant (world)
5. Experiment other projected coordinate systems too
All projections create some distortion in the map, so when we choose a projection, we
should be aware of those distortions. We have already seen a change in shape when we went
from WGS to Robinson. What about area and distance, Getting the area is beyond the scope
of this exercise, but you should be aware that maintaining shape and area are mutually
exclusive. If you choose a projection that maintains the shape, area will change and vice
versa.
Question: what are the changes you noticed as you change the coordinate systems?
Part Two: Measuring Distance with different Projections
In this exercise you will need to project your data with GCS_WGS 1984 and at least three
projected coordinate system used to project the whole world.
1. Create and duplicate your dataset in separate data frames, naming each according to
the coordinate system used.
2. Measure the distance between the northernmost and southernmost tips of Ethiopia
(in kilometers or miles), and report the results for the four coordinate systems of your
choice.
3. To do this, use the Measure tool available in the Tools toolbar
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Part Three: Reprojecting your data
In this exercise, you explored how to modify map projections. It is important to understand that
this operation only re-projects the data on the fly, meaning it changes the display projection on
the screen without altering the original projection of the data layer itself.
If you wish to create a permanent copy of a data layer with a different projection, you can use
the Project Tool, located under the Projections and Transformations subtoolbox within the
Data Management Toolbox. This tool generates a new version of the dataset with the selected
projection.
When conducting spatial analyses, it is generally best to ensure that all data layers share the
same projection. You can use the Project Tool to prepare your data accordingly.