18 models

Google Earth: Benchmarking a Map of Walter Christaller
by Archimedes

Vertical benchmarks, with height in proportion to rank of city in a hierarchy created by Christaller, are used to align a map from 1941 (of unknown projection) with the Google Earth sphere. Thus, environmental texture is introduced into the original map. Based on an original article by Arlinghaus that appeared in Solstice: An Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics, Vol. XVII, No. 2, December, 2006, http://www.imagenet.org/. A direct link to that article is provided here: http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ecopyrght/image/solstice/win06/Germany/index.html Download the full .kmz of all benchmarks from the following link Link: http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ecopyrght/image/solstice/win06/Germany/Benchmarks.kmz or upload those associated with blue (highest) and red (secondary) levels of the hierarchy from the .skp files below. In addition, you will need also to have a copy of the map that is being benchmarked: Link: http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ecopyrght/image/solstice/win06/Germany/Poland,%201941%20Base%20Maps.kmz Also, consider the second article in this set which uses the benchmarked map in Google Earth only, to examine the problems associated with interpolating lower level (smaller) central places on the Google earth.

Updated Jul 12, 2007