Communicating GIS Lab 2

The area of interest I chose for our Lab 2 deliverable was the state of Texas. I used the custom projection NAD 1983 (2011) Texas Centric Mapping System Albers for the data. I chose this coordinate system due to the fact that Texas spans three UTM Zones and is broken up into five state planes. This central coordinate system is a conical projection with the standard parallels approximately 1/6 from the top and bottom of the state as well as the central median dividing the state equally. Other options were similar projections of an earlier year or used the Lambert projection instead. I chose to stick with the Albers projection to preserve the area of the state. Included on the product are reference grids in geographic coordinates and in projected coordinates. The two sets are show together on the map to compare the measurements and actual lines. 

Many products on the military side are represented in a similar way. For instance a 1:50,000 scale MGRS map used for land navigation and aerial planning has a reference grid labeled with the MGRS coordinates. In the background in a separate color there is also a reference grid for Latitude and Longitude so that the user can compare the two based on how they are navigating.