ABSTRACT
Let’s be honest, a poll of those who specialize in geospatial analysis would probably indicate that not many-perhaps as few as 20%—could give a hoot about projections. It’s not a general ignorance that fuels this apathy; it comes from the fact that the majority of those employed in geo are constantly creating maps and working with data that covers exactly the same geographic region, day in and day out. In these cases, the standard projection for the location has already been decided on-sometimes even legislated-and the geoprofessional therefore works with that projection without questioning it. Sometimes this is a reasonable approach as there are many areas that demand the geoprofessional’s attention other than choosing projections, and an assumption that someone else has already thoroughly investigated the issue to choose the best option is not entirely crazy. However, there are times when a much better projection could be used than that standard one, especially if the map purpose is clearly at odds with particular traits of the standard projection (see shaded box below). Furthermore, geoprofessionals who wish to expand into mapping regions that are outside their usual jurisdictions should, or rather must, obtain a basic understanding of projections, and most importantly, their relative strengths and weaknesses.
