Understanding Map Projections

This short book starts with an overview of geographic and projected coordinate systems then discusses geographic transformations. The remaining half of the book presents attributes of over sixty supported map projections in ArcGIS. While the introductions were good and very well illustrated, I would have appreciated more practical understanding of how to deal with projection problems that we all face; such as how to determine what datum a data set may be in; and how to choose between projections. Some actual examples of the order of magnitude of difference in drawn maps and derived distances, direction, and area between different projections at different scales would have been helpful (for example showing the United States with Lambert Conformal Conic and Mercator). For states like Kentucky or Florida that have their own state-specific projection, a reference to those parameters would have been useful. The included glossary and summary chart provide a useful summary.

This book is hard to rate. Where it is good, it gets a high score, but it cannot be rated 5-star in my opinion because of a serious lack of what I consider important information.First, the good part. The book is very attractive; most map projection books stick to black and white line drawings illustrating projections and geometric properties, but this book uses color in a very helpful way. It also provides its information in a well-organized manner; each of the projections it describes has a page devoted to it, with an illustration depicting the projection (usually a world map if the projection is well-adapted to that purpose, or a map of Antarctica if the projection is better suited to smaller areas), a list of some of the important properties of the projection, and some information on where it is used.My strongest negative criticism is related to the fact that the authors seem not to be sure how much mathematics the reader considers comfortable. Thus there are equations giving the transformation of coordinates from one geographic system to another, but not the equations that define the various projections; and I think these equations are really necessary in a book of this type.The other criticism that I have is that the computer program used to draw the illustrative maps of the projections has too low a resolution, at least in the case of the world maps. (The maps of Antarctica seem all right.) Thus a lot of the lines have the kind of jaggedness that comes from this insufficient resolution.I suppose "you get what you pay for" as this book is much less expensive than other map projection books, but I'm particularly disappointed because there are so many good things about this book.