What Are The Different Types
Of Map Projections?
There are many different ways of display the geography of the
world, with the Robinson and Mercator projections amongst the
most popular.
A map of the our world.
SHARE
Map projections are a systematic transformation of longitudes and latitudes
of a location on the surface of the sphere. Map projections are important in
creating maps with map projections distorting the surface in some way. Some
of the distortions on the maps are acceptable while other distortions are not
acceptable depending on the purpose of the map. The map projection is
classified depending on the type of projection surface on which the globe is
projected conceptually. There are several map projections which preserve
some of the properties of the sphere at the expense of others.
Types of Map Projections
What are Some Different Types of Map Projections?
Some of the different types of map projections include cylindrical,
pseudocylindrical, conic, and pseudo conical.
Cylindrical
A cylindrical projection is any projection in which the meridians are mapped
to parallel spaced vertical lines and latitudes are mapped to horizontal lines.
The projections stretch from east to west according to their geometric
constructions and are the same at any chosen latitude. Cylindrical projections
are distinguished from each other by the north to south stretching denoted by
φ. The north to south stretching equals east to west but grows with latitude
faster than east to west stretching in the case of central cylindrical projection.
Mercator projection is an example of cylindrical projection which became a
standard map projection because of its ability to represent lines of steady
course. Mercator distorts the size of geographical objects because its linear
scale increases with the increase in latitude. The distortion caused by the
Mercator distorts the perception of the entire planet by exaggerating the areas
laying far from the equator.
Pseudocylindrical
Pseudocylindrical projections present the meridian as a straight line while
other parallels as sinusoidal curves which are longer than the central
meridian. The scaling of the pseudocylindrical projections are straight along
the central meridian and also along the parallels. On a pseudocylindrical
map, points further from the equator have higher latitudes than other points,
preserving the north-south relationship. Pseudocylindrical projections include
sinusoidal with same horizontal and vertical scales. The Robinson projection
was created to show the globe as a flat image readily. The projection is
neither equal-area nor conformal because of the compromise to show the
whole planet. The meridians of the Robinson projection curves are gently
stretching the poles into long lines.
Van der Grinten Projection
Van der Grinten is a compromised projection which is neither equal-area nor
conformal. It is an arbitrary scaled projection of the plane projecting the
entire earth into a circle. Van der Grinten projection preserves the image of
Mercator projection and reduces its distortion. However, the Polar Regions
can still be distorted by the Van der Grinten projection.
Conic Projection
Conic projections have meridians mapped to equally spaced parallels
originating from the top while the parallels are mapped to circular arcs which
are centered at the top. Two standard lines visualized as secant lines are
picked in the process of making a conic projection. When a single parallel
line has used the distance along the parallels is stretched. Examples of conic
maps include equidistant, Albers, and Lambert conformal conic.
Pseudoconic Projection
Pseudoconic Projections are projections with parallels which are circular arcs
with common central points. Unlike conic projections, the meridian is not
constrained to be a straight line. Examples of pseudoconic projections
include "bonne", which is an equal-area map projection. The maps are not
constrained to rectangles or discs. Pseudoconic projection is one of the oldest
map types and although they were used by Ptolemy, they are seldom seen
today.
Scale Distortions On Map Projections
Map projections without distortions would represent the correct distance,
direction, shapes, and areas on a map. However, map projections have
distortions which depend largely on the size of the area being mapped. Scale
distortions on maps are shown on the map by an ellipse of distortion or using
scale factor which is the ratio of the scale at a given point to the true scale.
Distortions on maps of countries or cities are not evident to the eye and can
only be identified when computing distances and areas.
What Are the Different Types of Map Projections?
Rank Map Projection Name Examples
1 Cylindrical Mercator, Cassini, Equirectangular
2 Pseudocylindrical Mollweide, Sinusoidal, Robinson
3 Conic Lambert conformal conic, Albers conic
4 Pseudoconical Bonne, Bottomley, Werner, American polyconic
Rank Map Projection Name Examples
5 Azimuthal Gnomonic, Lambert azimuthal equal-area, Stereographic
6 Polyhedral Authagraph, Octant projection, Cahill's Butterfly Map
7 Other GS50, Peirce quincuncial, Van der Grinten
