Equidistant Cylindrical Projection

The Equidistant Cylindrical projection is also called Equidirectional or Equirectangular projection. This is a very simple map projection attributed to Marinus of Tyre, who Ptolemy claims invented the projection about AD 100.

The projection maps meridians to vertical straight lines of constant spacing for meridional intervals of constant spacing, and circles of latitude to horizontal straight lines of constant spacing for constant intervals of parallels. The projection is neither equal area nor conformal.

Because of the distortions introduced by this projection, it has little use in navigation or cadastral mapping and finds its main use in thematic mapping.

Equidistant Cylindrical Projection

Required Parameters

To convert coordinates using the Equidistant Cylindrical projection, the following parameters have to be set:

• False Northing;
• False Easting;
• Central Meridian;
• Latitude of Origin;
• Standard Parallel 1;