Comparison of Numerical Techniques for Coordinate Transformation: The Case Study of Nigeria Transverse Mercator and Universal Transverse Mercator
Idowu, T. O.

Abstract
In this paper, numerical techniques were employed to transform coordinates from the Nigerian Transverse Mercator (NTM) system to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) system. The two numerical techniques used are Newton’s divided difference and cubic spline techniques. The data used are the simulated NTM coordinates of points in the West belt of NTM projection system which also fall in zone 31 of UTM projection system. All the computations were carried out on Pentium IV computer using computer program written in Visual Basic language. These computations were based on rectangular coordinate system. This is because both NTM and UTM are based on plane surveying system. Based on the results obtained and comparison of the two numerical techniques with the standard step-wise analytical technique, it can be inferred that the numerical techniques serve as effective tools for coordinate transformation from NTM system to UTM system. However, cubic spline technique proved to be more accurate and reliable but less economical of computing time and computer memory spaces than the Newton’s divided difference technique.

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