From the course: Foundations of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
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Specifying location - GIS Tutorial
From the course: Foundations of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Specifying location
The magic behind geographic information systems, the thing that makes it is that every point, line, and polygon put into a GIS is tied to a real-world location on the Earth. Some things sit on top of the Earth like a cell tower. Other things sit underground like a sewer line or the bottom of an oil well, but they all have coordinates that specify their location. The best-known system for specifying location is the one that uses latitude and longitude. This is called the geographic coordinate system. Latitude and longitude are great for mapping location on a three-dimensional sphere or ellipse like a globe, but on a flat two-dimensional map, a different system is used to designate locations. These are projected coordinate systems. These systems allow you to flatten out the Earth onto a screen or a piece of paper, specifying location and distances in either feet or meters. To get you thinking about how the world is mapped, I want to discuss latitude and longitude. If you get excited…
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