Compromise projections for world maps – an optimization approach using discrete global grid systems and principles from classical mechanics

Projections for world maps can only be a compromise between different requirements as it is impossible to construct a projection that preserves distances, areas, and angles. Accordingly, choosing a suitable projection is difficult – the wish list of requirements for such a projection is sometimes lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Franz-Benjamin Mocnik
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-08-01
Series:International Journal of Digital Earth
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17538947.2024.2369636
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Summary:Projections for world maps can only be a compromise between different requirements as it is impossible to construct a projection that preserves distances, areas, and angles. Accordingly, choosing a suitable projection is difficult – the wish list of requirements for such a projection is sometimes long and in most cases impossible to fulfil. This article presents a mechanism to translate such a wish list into a suitable compromise projection. For this purpose, an already known projection is initially selected and then subsequently optimized step by step, following principles of classical mechanics and using a discrete global grid system. This mechanism is effective and can, in principle, easily be adapted to other possible requirements for a map projection. In particular, this makes it possible to create projections that are optimized for the land areas and therefore exhibit less relevant distortion.
ISSN:1753-8947
1753-8955