Module 2 - Coordinate Systems

This week in Communicating GIS we learned about Coordinates systems, Scale and Projections.  For the map above we were tasked with selecting one US State other than Florida and creating a general reference map layout for that area of interest.  The layout should be in a coordinate system appropriate for the state.  Although State Plane and UTM projections are quite common in the US, not all states fit in a single zone of said projections.  Texas has 5 State Plane zones and 3 UTM zones.  Projections for UTM and State Plane are zone specific and as such neither of these would be appropriate for the state of Texas.  Fortunately there are several projections that are appropriate for the entire state.  I chose to use NAD 1983 (2011) Texas Centric Map System.  This projections is a Lambert Conic conformal map.  The central meridian is at -100.  The standard parallels are at 27.5 and 35.0.  This projections is specific for the state of Texas and conformal, retains shape, making it an appropriate projection for a general reference map for Texas.