Map projection selection for country forest areas

In transferring from earth to the map plane, because of the lack of a geometric figure that properly represents the earth, geometric surfaces such as sphere and ellipsoid are considered as reference surfaces. Therefore, it is not possible to protect entirely the angle, direction and area features of the earth and transfer it to the map plane without distortion. Thus, in studies appropriate angle, direction and area features for the purpose of study are preserved in order to create maps. Conformal projections that are not very suitable for the area calculations are preferred in our country. Areas calculated by projection coordinates are not exact areas and must be reduced. Actual areas should be calculated on the ellipsoid surface with geographical coordinates. Within the scope of the thesis, forest parcel areas within the boundaries of Kütahya Forestry Regional Directorate and in the range of 300-3000 hectares; by calculating with conform UTM (3° and 6°) and six different equal-area projections in ArcGIS 10.3 software, only the deformations caused by the projection selection are examined. As a result, it was determined that the differences between the actual areas calculated by the Gillissen method and areas calculated by the Lambert azimuthal equal-area conic projection are less than 50 m2 in all 25 forest parcels up to 3000 hectares in the study area, 96% less than 30 m2, 6 of them can be used in m2 accuracy. Located in too much longitude in the West-East direction and Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection which has no effect and no precaution in terms of field deformation of getting away from center longitude, can be used as a map projection in forest areas in our country. In applications that deal with such large areas, coordinate data that directly affecting the end result care should be taken to achieve high levels of accuracy and precision using the facilities of today's technology in the best possible way.