article

Cultural Heritage: Studying cartographic heritage: Analysis and visualization of geometric distortions

Authors:

Bernhard Jenny,

Lorenz HurniAuthors Info & Claims

Computers and Graphics, Volume 35, Issue 2

Pages 402 - 411

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2011.01.005

Published: 01 April 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Old maps are increasingly used as a source for historical research. This is a consequence of the increased availability of old maps in digital form, of the emergence of user-friendly Geographical Information Systems, and of a heightened awareness of the unique information stored in old maps. As with every source for historical studies, when old maps are georeferenced and information is extracted for historical research, the accuracy and reliability of the geometric and semantic information must be assessed. In this paper, a method based on a series of geometric transformations is presented, which transforms control points of a modern reference map to the coordinate system of an old map. Based on these transformed points, the planimetric and geodetic accuracy of the old map can be computationally analyzed and various visualizations of space deformation can be generated. The results are graphical representations of map distortion, such as distortion grids or displacement vectors, as well as statistical and geodetic measures describing the map geometry (e.g., map scale, rotation angle, and map projection). The visualizations help to assess the geometric accuracy of historical geographical information before using the data for geo-historical studies. The visualizations can also provide valuable information to the map historian about the history of a particular map and its creation.

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cover image Computers and Graphics

Computers and Graphics Volume 35, Issue 2

April, 2011

262 pages

ISSN:0097-8493

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © Elsevier Ltd © 2011.

Publisher

Pergamon Press, Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 April 2011

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJCMHS.2019070103
Duménieu BAbadie NPerret JHaddad HWainwright RChbeir R(2018)Assessing the planimetric accuracy of Paris atlases from the late 18th and 19th centuriesProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/3167132.3167228(876-883)Online publication date: 9-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3167132.3167228
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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3149858.3149866
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Budig B(2015)Efficient algorithms and user interaction for metadata extraction from historical mapsProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSPATIAL PhD Workshop10.1145/2855680.2855841(1-4)Online publication date: 3-Nov-2015
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