NECESSITY FOR GEOMETRIC CORRECTIONS OF DISTANCES IN WEB AND MOBILE MAPS Bashkim IDRIZI Assoc.Prof.Dr.Eg. Bashkim IDRIZI University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina” Geo-SEE Institute Skopje University “Mother Teresa” in Skopje Str. Djon Kenedy, 25/4-20, 1010 Skopje; North Macedonia +38975712998, bashkim.idrizi@yahoo.com Abstract In this paper, the necessity for geometrical corrections of calculated distances in web and mobile maps is elaborated. Based on performed research analyses, in case of long routes, differences between distances calculated by web and mobile maps and traveled distance measured by car odometer are evident. For this study, many lengths longer than 200km have been measured by car during travel by our side, meanwhile the lengths for same paths have been calculated in many web and mobile maps produced by some global manufacturers. Study resulted with two geometrical factors as potential generator of differences: 1. Geodesic distance over ellipsoidal height of route segments, and 2. Slope distances of route segments. In our case study, both corrections have been calculated, and the corrected lengths were calculated in order to eliminate the influence of both factors to distances calculated by web and mobile maps. Keywords: web map, mobile map, ellipsoidal height, geodesic distance, slope distance, geometric corrections INTRODUCTION The World Wide Web (WWW) is the most recent new medium to present and disseminate geospatial data, as virtually platform-independent, unrivalled in its capacity to reach many users at minimal costs and easy to update frequently. The common medium to access it is via navigation enabled by browsers. Web cartography is no different from cartography, but is restricted to the WWW as medium. Web maps are specific application-dependent context, influenced by the users, the providers, the viewing environments and the map contents, where the interaction among contexts defines the typical web map appearance (Kraak and Brown 2001), while the main purpose of web maps is to enable greater transparency in society (Degbelo and Kauppinen 2018). When it comes to the Web scale, these tools present drawbacks. First, they are designed for human visualization; hence they do not consider automatic processing, composition and reuse, thus hindering the automation of the process of creating, exchanging, combining and interpreting maps (Fionda etAll 2013). Furthermore, geo-media is also represented and includes such as maps produced by means of geographical information systems and web map mashups (Raber and Hurni 2019). Web mapping is the process of designing, implementing, generating and delivering maps on the WWW. While web mapping primarily deals with technological issues, web cartography additionally studies theoretic aspects: the use of web maps, the evaluation and optimization of techniques and workflows, the usability of web maps, social aspects, and more (Neumann 2008). This may be possible by applying the suitable generalization process which consists to simplify the objects of the map and may transform the topological relations between them into other ones in real-time (Brahim and Okba 2015). While laptops often are considered as mobile devices given their portability, smartphones and tablets present a new design context for cartographers and GIScientists given presumed mobility during use. Such mobile devices deliver maps and information as the user crosses the landscape, supporting navigation and providing local context while potentially splitting attention away from hazards in the environment (Roth 2018). Mobile phones and PDA’s are becoming increasingly powerful and provide more and more functionality to the user. However, the user interface (UI) is still severely limited due to the small form factor of these devices. In terms of interaction, the well-established key- based interfaces are robust enough to navigate maps, but allow only a limited set of discrete movements and generally restrict the user’s freedom (Winkler etAll 2007). Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS) have become quite popular even among the general public due to the success of web tools which allow street view navigation. Two great advantages are showcased with the development of an MMS based on the use of a smartphone – the much lower cost comparing with Proceedings Vol. 1, 8th International Conference on Cartography and GIS, 2020, Nessebar, Bulgaria ISSN: 1314-0604, Eds: Bandrova T., Konečný M., Marinova S. 462