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The contents of this column reflect the viewsof the author, who is responsible for the factsand accuracy of the data presented herein.The contents do not necessarily reflect theofficial views or policies of the AmericanSociety for Photogrammetry and RemoteSensing and/or the Louisiana State University.

Romnia is situated in central Eu-rope, in the northern part of the Bal-kan Peninsula. Its territory is markedby the Carpathian Mountains, thesouthern border is the Danube River,and the eastern border is the BlackSea. Bordering countries are Ukraineto the north, Moldova to the northeast,Bulgaria to the south, Yugoslavia tothe southwest, and Hungary to thenorthwest. The highest point isMoldoveanu at 2543 m (8,343 ft), thelowest point is at sea level. Traces ofhuman existance date back to theLower Paleolithic Period (approxi-mately two million years B.P.), andrelatively stable populations inRomnia were found beginning withthe Neolithic Period (7000 to 8000B.P.). Strabo, a famous geographer andhistorian in the age of Emperor Augus-tus, wrote that the Dacians have thesame language as the Getae; the basicdifference is that the former inhabitedthe mountains and Transylvania, whilethe latter settled in the Danube Rivervalley. The Romanians are the onlydescendants of the Eastern Romanstock, and their language is one of theromance languages. Romnia has beenreferred to as a Latin island in a seaof Slavs. Romnia, a Republic, iscomposed of the old principalities ofWallachia, Modovia, and Transylvania.Its latest constitution is dated Decem-ber 8, 1991.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire wassurveyed at a time when topographicsurveys were based partially on geom-etry and partially on art. The topogra-pher, more an artist than a surveyor,proudly made the map by himself.Therefore, the proverb: There areplenty of surveyors, but few topogra-phers. Maps are no longer produced

by ingenious topographer-artists, butby a team of specialists like those whoare members of ASPRS. The SecondTopographical Survey (in Romnia) ofthe Austro-Hungarian Empire was theFranziszeische Aufnahme of 1806 to1869 that utilized the Cassini-SoldnerGrid of Vizakna, Sibiu (Hermannstadt)Observatory for Transylvania, Rom-nia. The original coordinates of theCassini Grid origin used from 1817-1904 were fo = 45 50' 25.430" Northand lo = 41 46' 32.713" East of Ferro,geodetically determined from Vienna.As per the European geodetic conven-tion of the time, no false origin wasemployed and coordinates were com-puted with quadrant signs. This Gridwas cast on the von Zach 1812 ellip-soid where a = 6,376,385 m and 1/f= 310.

While still a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Constantin Barozzi(1833 to 1921) helped in the Viennesemeasurement of the Slobozia geodeticbase and in the triangulation chainthat connected Dobrogea to Transylva-nia. By 1870, Barozzi was appointedas the chief (and founder) of the Scien-tific War Dpt, the national militarymapping department of Romnia. Thethird topographic survey of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Neue Aufnahme)was conducted from 1869 to 1896 andwas based on the St. Anna Datum of1840, located in Arad, Romnia. Theorigin was at Arad South Base: Fo= 46 18' 47.63" North and L o= 39 06' 54.19" East of Ferro(geodetically determined fromVienna). This Datum was originallyreferenced to the Zach 1812 ellipsoid,but the Austrians introduced theBessel 1841 ellipsoid as a new stan-dard for the empire in 1869 where a= 6,377,397.155 m and 1/f = 299.1528.The defining azimuth to Kurtics wasdetermined astronomically, but the an-gular value was not published and isnow lost. The Arad 1840 Base length

was 8,767.578 m. The metric systemwas legally established in 1872, andthe 1:25,000 mapping scale was intro-duced along with the polyeder (poly-hedric) projection to eliminate incon-sistencies in map sheet lines.Remember that in past columns I havepointed out that the polyhedric projec-tion is mathematically equivalent tothe local space rectangular (LSR) coor-dinate system that is commonly usedin computational photogrammetry. Ofcourse, back then they did not trans-form first to the Earth-centered Geo-centric Coordinate System and thenperform a 3 by 3 rotation secant ortangent to the surface of the ellipsoidthe way we do now. (Its trivial withFortran or C, but mind-boggling withtables of logarithms).

A chain from St. Anna base line toSibiu (Hermannstadt) Observatory wascomputed in 1846. The computationsagain were based on the Zach 1812 el-lipsoid and St. Anna was used as astarting point. From these computa-tions for Sibiu Observatory, the follow-ing values were obtained: f= 45 50' 28.95" North, l= 41 46' 39.00" East of Ferro, and theazimuth to Presbe a = 359 16' 33.78".If these values are compared with thevalues derived in 1870 from ViennaUniversity using the Bessel 1841 ellip-soid: f = 45 50' 25.97" North, l= 41 46' 31.66" East of Ferro, and theazimuth to Presbe a = 359 16' 43.24".The result of this bust was that thecartographic adjustments were a night-mare for nearly a century when tryingto fit other datums to Romniansheets.

Thanks to John W. Hager, the Con-stanta Datum established by the Rus-sians in the 19th century originated atthe minaret of the main mosque inConstanta where Fo = 44 10' 31" Northand L o = 29 39' 30.55" East of Green-wich. The reference azimuth from

ROMNIA

CL IFFORD J . MUGNIER , C .P. , C .M.S.

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East Pyramid to West Pyramid on theKyustendyi (Constanta) Base was ao= 305 15' 01.7", and the ellipsoid usedwas the Walbeck where a = 6,376,896m and 1/f = 302.78.

The Austrians were at work inBukovina and Transylvania throughthis time, and established the Kron-stadt base in 1876 that measured4,130.141 m 1/2,000,000. A famousname in east European coordinate sys-tems, Kronstadt is merely the Austrianname for the central Romnian Alpinecity of Brasov. Two ellipsoidal BonneGrids were established in 1870, bothcast on the Bessel 1841 ellipsoid, theWest Romnian Bonne where fo= 45 00' North and lo = 26 06' 41.18"East of Greenwich, and the EastRomnian Bonne where fo = 46 30'North and lo = 27 20' 13.35" East ofGreenwich. Both of these Grids had ascale factor at origin equal to unityand had no false origin.

During World War I, the necessityfor a conformal grid system becameevident for artillery fire control, andProfessor Cholesky developed a Lam-bert Conformal Conic Cadrilaj (Grid)for Romnia. Cholesky imposed twoconditions on the design:(i) The projection distance between

parallels 45G and 50G shall equalthe distance between parallels 50G

and 55G, and both these distancesshall be 500 km.

(ii) The scale factor at the central par-allel shall equal the reciprocal ofthe scale factors at the projectionlimits.

Thanks to Giles Andr of the DefenceGeographic Centre in Middlesex,Placinteanu in 1940 and Negoescu in1942 attempted to re-create and extendthe original Lambert- Cholesky Tables.The closest computational carto-graphic fit yielded the following para-meters: Clarke 1880 ellipsoid (modi-fied for this Grid) a = 6,378,249.2 m, e 2

= 0.00680348764, mo = 0.99844674, fo= 45 02' 29.216" North, lo= 24 18' 44.99" East of Greenwich,False Easting = 500 km, and False

Northing = 504,599.11 m. These para-meters are not a reflection of a Lam-bert-Cholesky projection, but for a pro-jection in sympathy with Choleskysover Romnia.

After WWI, the new origin point forthe Bucharest Datum of 1920 wasbased on the Bucharest Military Obser-vatory, and the astronomical coordi-nates were transferred to point Mili-tari, situated at the end of theBucharest baseline, where Fo= 44 26' 07.2832" North and L o= 26 01' 00.207984" East of Green-wich. The reference azimuth toCiorogrla (west end of base) was ao= 96 43' 22.8" (measured from south),and the new ellipsoid used was theHayford 1909 (later termed the Inter-national 1924) where a = 6,378,388 mand 1/f = 297.

With ten years of triangulationprogress, the New Romnian Datum of1930 was established and referencedto the International 1924 ellipsoid.The origin was at Observa-torul Mili-tar Astronomic din Dealul Piscului,Bucuresti, called Dealul Piscului inthe West, where Fo = 44 24' 34.20"North 0.06" (1895) and L o= 26 06' 44.98" East of Greenwich0.075" (1900.7). The reference azi-muth to Cotroceni, originally observedin 1895, was ao = 127 01' 53.005". ARousilhe Stereographic Grid was de-veloped with its projection center nearthe geographic center of the country.The defining parameters are fo = 51

G

= 45 54' North, lo = 28G 2138.51

= 25 23' 32.8772" East of Greenwich,FE = FN = 500 km, and mo= 0.9996666666. Because the origin isnear Kronstadt (now Brasov), it cameto be known as the Stereographic Pro-jection with Kronstadt as CentralPoint.

After WWII, Romnia was intro-duced to the Soviet System 42 Da-tum with its origin at Pulkovo Obser-vatory, where Fo = 59 46' 18.55" Northand L o = 30 19' 42.09" East of Green-wich. The reference azimuth to SignalA is ao = 317 02' 50.62", and the newellipsoid used is the Krassovsky 1940

where a = 6,378,245 m and 1/f = 298.3.The standard grid used in the formerU.S.S.R. and most former satellitecountries is the Russia Belts Gauss-Krger Transverse Mercator where thegrid parameters are identical to theUTM except that the Russia Belts havea scale factor at origin on the CentralMeridian equal to unity. However,Romnia did not go along with that forits internal use, even though the Sovi-ets used their Russia Belts for militarytopographic mapping of the country.The Stereo 70 was developed forRomnia based on the Hristow ObliqueStereographic projection. The projec-tion center was selected as fo= 45 North and lo = 25 East of Green-wich, and associated parameters wereFE = FN = 500 km and mo = 0.999750.Example computation point is f= 44 30' 30" N and l = 26 03' 03" Esuch that, on the Stereo 70 Grid,Northing (X) = 334,794.541 m andEasting (Y) = 583,553.824 m. As acomputational exercise using the iden-tical geodetic coordinate but comput-ing the Grid on the Kronstadt Stereowith its different ellipsoid, Northing(Y) = 345,588.461 m and Easting (X)= 552,344.592 m. Note that theKronstadt Stereo unit of angular mea-surement is Grads (100G = 90) so thatf = 49G 45C 37CC.037 N and l= 28G 94C 53CC .704 E for the identicalpoint. NIMA lists the transformationfrom System 42 in Romnia to WGS 84Datum as DX = +28 m 3 m, DY = -121m 5 m, and DZ = 177 m 3 m, andthis is based on four collocated pointscomputed in 1997. The U.S. NationalGeodetic Survey assisted the govern-ment of Romnia with the establish-ment of the Romnia High AccuracyReference Network, and, for stationDealul Pisculci on System 42, f= 44 24' 22.383" N, l = 26 06' 44.126" E,and H = 89.275 m; and, on EUREF89, f= 44 24' 22.71021" N, l= 26 06' 38.74635" E, and h = 124.520 m.

The International Boundary Trea-ties of Romnia indicate that the bor-der of the country is largely monumen-

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ted or along streams and rivers. Interestingly, the boundarywith Hungary distinguishes between navigable streams thatare defined by the thread of the main channel or thalweg,and non-navigable streams that are defined by the geo-graphical center or medium filium acquae. Thanks for helpgo to Russell Fox of the Ordnance Survey, Giles Andr of theDefence Geographic Centre, Dave Doyle of the National Geo-detic Survey, and John W. Hager.

The successful development of countries in the 21st cen-tury is going to be largely dependent on the free availabilityof spatial data. Although there is little difficulty in a na-tional government charging fair market value for data, thetotal suppression of spatial data distribution for militarypurposes of security is quite out of date and futile. Militaryoperations in the recent past have clearly demonstrated thatexisting native topographic maps and existing native geo-detic control have absolutely nothing to do with successfulcoordination of fire support. Secrecy of positional data andtopographic maps only hurts the local economy and discour-ages foreign investment. It is hoped that the formerlyclosed societies will move to a more enlightened philoso-phy regarding GIS technology.

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