ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on simplifying the concepts and explaining the broader decision-making process so that students can more easily, and confidently, select projections and explains the decision-making process. It addresses different approaches that have been developed to select a projection. Some of these approaches have been brief recommendations that match a specific map purpose to a projection property: thematic maps should be based on equal area projections. The chapter highlights the projection decision-making tool by Bojan Savric et al. called “Projection Wizard.” It discusses the projection’s overall shape, graticule arrangement, appearance of the poles, and interpretability. Geographic location, region size, and landmass shape are important factors to selecting the most appropriate projection. While inclusion of graticule isn’t a requirement for any map, its presence in the map design presents both an analytical and aesthetic consideration for projection choice. Some projections will show even stranger patterns in the graticule, such as the gnomonic projection.
