Optimal map conic projection - a case study for the geographic territory of Serbia

Abstract

The article deals with finding the optimal map conic projection which, according to the criteria of the minimum of distortions, would be more appropriate than the available and, up to the present point in time, generally used conic map projections. Apart from the best map projection, the paper also describes other conic projections still used in the official cartography of Serbia. In the paper, the size of the deformations is analysed and shown in case of the Modified polyconic projection and the Lambert conic projection on the example of a geographical map at scale 1: 1000 000. Namely, the size of the linear deformations is analysed and shown in all cases. One of them, the fifth example of the Lambert conformal conic projection, is the most favourable in terms of size and distribution of the deformations upon the entire surface of mapping. Examples of real conformal conic projections are made with numerical procedures in the program package MATLAB.