Evaluation Procedure for Coordinate Transformation
Publication: Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 2
Abstract
With the use of the global positioning system, World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) [or The International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF)] has been widely accepted as a global geodetic reference system and adopted by many international and national organizations (e.g., the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization). However, most existing maps are based on different local datums (i.e., UK OS36 and HK80 datums). The transformation of station coordinates between WGS84 and local datums is frequently required. Because of the distortions of the existing classical geodetic network, it is impossible to develop one transformation that is optimal for all cases. Various algorithms have been developed for the transformation between different reference frames. Therefore, the selection of a transformation for a specific geodetic network has to be evaluated case by case. In this paper, a simple procedure is proposed to evaluate the performance of a transformation, based on several predefined quality indicators, such as precision, invertability, uniqueness, conformality, and extensibility. As an example, the performances of three different transformations are evaluated for the transformation between the Ireland mapping datum (Ireland 1975) and the European Terrestrial Reference Frame 1989 (ETRF89), using the quality indicators proposed in this paper.
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Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by Hong Kong RGC research grants: PolyU 5158/03E. I would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.
References
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Information
Published In
Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 2 • May 2005
Pages: 43 - 49
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 24, 2004
Accepted: Jun 23, 2004
Published online: May 1, 2005
Published in print: May 2005
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