planar measurement

Planar measurements are measurements made on a flat surface. When using geographic coordinates, planar measurements must cut through the curved surface of the earth, causing the measurement to be shorter than the true distance. This error becomes greater as the length of the line increases. If using a projected coordinate system, the properties of the underlying greatly influence the accuracy of measurements for a given area of the map. This type of measurement is in contrast to , which uses a curved (nonplanar) surface to model the earth.

Related terms

Your browser is no longer supported. Please upgrade your browser for the best experience. See our browser deprecation post for more details.

You can no longer sign into this site. Go to your ArcGIS portal or the ArcGIS Location Platform dashboard to perform management tasks.

Your ArcGIS portal

Create, manage, and access API keys and OAuth 2.0 developer credentials, hosted layers, and data services.

Your ArcGIS Location Platform dashboard

Manage billing, monitor service usage, and access additional resources.

Learn more about these changes in the What's new in Esri Developers June 2024 blog post.

Close