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Any advice on which map projection to use for a map of Russia?

I am trying to project my shapefile (WGS84) but not sure which one to select. I would like to maintain equal areas.

PolyGeo
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GCGM
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  • maintain equal area as in calculations anywhere on the map will be accurate? – ziggy Dec 04 '17 at 15:42
  • try this one: http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/guide-books/map-projections/cylindrical-equal-area.htm or even this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall%E2%80%93Peters_projection – ziggy Dec 04 '17 at 15:49
  • What are you going to use with that shapefile ? overlay with what ? – PROBERT Dec 04 '17 at 16:32
  • Just want to reproject my shapefile to produce a map showing my study area – GCGM Dec 05 '17 at 08:14

1 Answers1

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There is the Albers Equal Area Conic for Russia. It seems to be the projection used for scientific mapping for the entirety of Russia. It is probably the best equal area that balances distances and shape (that I have found or can think of).

http://spatialreference.org/ref/sr-org/albers-equal-area-russia/

Here is a soil map with that projection for an example.

Source

Any equal area projection will give you just that, equal areas, but depending on how much distortion of the other factors (distance, shape) you want to accept will change the projection.

Example for another is the Lambert cylindrical equal-area. Still equal area but the shape and distances are very distorted.

Source

RomaH
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  • Thanks for your detailed answer. Any advice on how to find this projection within QGIS to reproject my shapefile? – GCGM Dec 05 '17 at 08:43
  • Check this question and then use text from the Proj4 link in the first link I sent to you. That will define it for you, though beware the interface is for a slightly different version of QGIS. – RomaH Dec 05 '17 at 14:16
  • Do you know the center coordinates, Projection bounds, and WGS84 bounds of Albers Equal Area Conic for Russia SR-ORG:8568? – Hasan Jul 18 '23 at 09:53