Summary
There are several factors to consider in order to determine the coordinate system for a project.
- The common coordinate system among the data. This may produce the least amount of work.
- The agencies may conform to a standard projection, in which case there may not be a choice.
- Select a coordinate system based on the type of analysis being performed, as well as the scale of the data. For example, if it is a local county versus the entire country.
Procedure
The following scenarios model common situations requiring a combination of data from different sources. They may help to select the coordinate system that is best for a project.
In these scenarios, it is possible to substitute a projection for any of the example projections, such as UTM, State Plane, and Albers, but do not substitute a projection for the geographic coordinate system. The geographic coordinate system (DD) is not a projection. Most common scenarios involve the combination of both DD data and projected data, such as UTM, State Plane and Albers.