Published: Dr Becek and the Survey Department

Our colleague Dr Becek is featured in this month's Coordinates, a " monthly magazine on positioning, navigation and associated technologies". The article refers to a previously published one, also in the same magazine, about the geocentric datum for Brunei Darussalam 2009. 


This latest article is very interesting because it not only features comments from Dr Becek himself, but also from his collaborator, Dr Adam Lyszkowicz, as well as responses to the earlier article from Brunei's very own Survey Department. 


You can view the full article here, but I've included some snippets below:

Some comments on the selected map projection - Conclusion

1. Based on the above, the Survey Department should be congratulated for the bold reform of the geodetic datum through the adoption of the geocentric datum – GDBD2009.

Survey Department responds: The move to geocentric datum has been thoroughly strategized and implemented according to the international standard and has taken into consideration all technical as well as legal aspects. So it is rather unwise to say that this reform is a BOLD reform.

3. The RSO map projection for Brunei Darussalam is not an appropriate one because the mapped territory (onshore and offshore) has a circular shape (does not have any prevailing direction). The RSO projection is used for mapping territories which are extended in a particular direction such as the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah taken together.

Survey Department responds: It is true when you are given the task to design a surveying and mapping system for a new country where the only consideration is to select the best map projection as normally described in the text book.