[Proj] Datum shift for Dutch maps 1850-2000
Jan Hartmann
j.l.h.hartmann at uva.nl
Tue Nov 25 11:42:55 EST 2008
This is not a question about the program PROJ, but perhaps there are
people on this list that can help me. I am georeferencing the first
topographical map of the Netherlands from about 1850. That map is in a
Bonne projection centered at 51.5N / 4.8838828E, and uses its own
ellipsoid, computed by the Dutch engineer Ackermans (semi-major axis
6376950.4m, inverse flattening 309.65m). Its PROJ-string is:
+proj=bonne +lat_1=51.5 +lon_0=4.8838828 +a=6376950.4 +rf=309.65
+units=m +no_defs
The present Dutch topograpical maps use a stereographic projection on
the Bessel ellipsoid, defined (without the WGS84 datum shift) as:
+proj=sterea +lat_0=52.15616055555555 +lon_0=5.38763888888889
+k=0.999908 +x_0=155000 +y_0=463000 +ellps=bessel +units=m +no_defs
We have the complete lists of triangulation points used for both maps,
1000 in 1850 and 5000 in 2006. Quite a few points are identical,
mostly church towers, so for these we have coordinates in both
projections. The lists also contain the lat-lon values for these
points. When I use cs2cs to reproject the old points into the
present system, I get a difference of about 650 meter, almost
exclusively in the Y-direction: the reprojected 1850 map lies about 650
meter to the north of the present map. This different is exactly the
same over the whole country, give or take a few meters that look random
to me (could be measurement errors, plus I am not sure they used the
same spot on the church towers in 1850 and the present).
This means I can get a reasonably accurate historical map by just doing
a linear shift of -10/-650 meters, but I am curious what happens here.
Of course the center of projection in 1850 could be actually 650m away
from its recorded position, but I am wondering if there are other
possibilities for such a shift. Am I doing something slightly wrong? Any
help would be appreciated.
Jan
Dr. J. Hartmann
Department of Geography
University of Amsterdam
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