What is a coordinate system

and why is it so important?

Or
Why is my school map showing up
somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico?
 Ever have this happen? You bring in a map of your
state, try to overlay your city map and they just don’t
match up? Maybe your map view comes up looking
something like this one.

This should be

Here.
If your data is not overlaying
properly, its most likely due to data
that is stored in two different
coordinate systems.

So back to our first question, what

is a coordinate system? If you
have had a class in Algebra or
Geometry, this figure to the right
will look familiar.
Not all coordinate systems are alike. The two
most common coordinate systems used by EAST
students are the

Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) and the

Geographic coordinate systems.

 Y

The intersection of the Prime

Meridian and the Equator form the
axes of the geographic coordinate
(-x, +y) (+x, +y)
system. (West, North) (East, North)

“Flatten out” the axes and the

coordinate plane is like the one to Equator: X
the right. (-x, -y) (+x, -y)
(West, North) (East, South)

Longitude is the X coordinate.

Latitude is the Y coordinate. Prime Meridian: Y
Geographic coordinates may be written in one of the following ways:

Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (DMS) Example

Little Rock, Arkansas

X = Longitude: 92 degrees W 45’ 33”

Y = Latitude: 34 degrees N 32’ 52”

Decimal Degrees: Example

X = -92.2579 (-x, +y) (+x, +y)

(West, North) (East, North)
Y = 34.834

Equator: X

(-x, -y) (+x, -y)

(West, North) (East, South)

Prime Meridian: Y
The UTM coordinate system uses a “flat earth,” model and is
divided up into the zones as shown below.
The X axis is the Equator, and there is a different Y axis for each
zone.
This map illustrates the UTM
zone 15 North. The UTM
coordinate system uses only
one quadrant.

Rather than using degrees,

minutes, and seconds to
measure distance from the
axes, the UTM system is
measured in Meters.

The UTM coordinates Little

Rock, Arkansas are:

X= 559,713.08 Meters East

Y= 3,843,632.12 Meters North
Even though the following sets of
coordinate pairs represent the
same geographic location, notice
how different the numbers are.

X = -92.2579
Y = 34.834

X= 559,713.08
Meters East Little Rock
Y= 3,843,632.12
Meters North

If you tried to place features

stored in two different coordinate
systems in the same map you
might end up with something like
this.