GIS data for Romania is sparse. The government have it, but they are slow to share it and even when they do, they fail to release under clear licensing terms.
Once GIS data is obtained, another problem arises - the data is most likely in the Stereo 1970 projection (EPSG 31700). Modern GIS systems, including openstreetmap, have no capability of interpreting data in anything other then WGS 84 (EPSG 4326).
A translation is needed from Stereo 1970 to WGS84.
One can attempt to translate coordinates using the excellent libproj.
Given the coordinates for Cabana Fantanele, a hut in the Ceahlau mountains, in Stereo 1970, we can use the tools provided by libproj to translate to WGS84:
However, if you plot this WGS84 coordinate set on Google Earth (pin name is "Fantanele proj"), you will see the coordinates are approximately 100 meters away from the hut.
Thanks to the work of a government agency called ANCPI (Agentia Nationala de Cadastru si Publicitate Imobiliara) we have a tool that allows accurate translations between Stereo 1970 and WGS84: TransDatRO.
Unfortunately accurate translation between Stereo 1970 and ETRS89 requires a set of common points and the tool only includes enough points for the following counties: Caras Severin, Gorj, Valcea, Dambovita, Teleorman, Braila, Botosani, Suceava.
Degrees, minutes, seconds can be converted to decimal degrees (as required by openstreetmap) using libproj's cs2cs:
When we plot the coordinates as returned by TransDat, even though Neamt county is not part of the accurate county list, we observe that coordinates returned by TransDat are much closer to what's revealed by the satellite imagery (see how "Fantanele Topo" is in close proximity to the hut's roof):
Note: I am not a geographer. All of this explained above is derived from personal, rather empiric research.
I have lots of questions that I couldn't find an answer to such as why there is no apparent difference when converting from ETRS89 to WGS84 - you might notice that I use ETRS89 and WGS84 interchangeably.
Once GIS data is obtained, another problem arises - the data is most likely in the Stereo 1970 projection (EPSG 31700). Modern GIS systems, including openstreetmap, have no capability of interpreting data in anything other then WGS 84 (EPSG 4326).
A translation is needed from Stereo 1970 to WGS84.
One can attempt to translate coordinates using the excellent libproj.
Given the coordinates for Cabana Fantanele, a hut in the Ceahlau mountains, in Stereo 1970, we can use the tools provided by libproj to translate to WGS84:
cristi:proj diciu$ ./src/cs2cs +proj=stere +lat_0=46 +lon_0=25 +k=0.999750 \
> +x_0=500000 +y_0=500000 +ellps=krass +units=m +no_defs +to \
>+proj=longlat +ellps=WGS84 +datum=WGS84 +no_defs -f "%.6f"
572176.849 611484.777
25.949088 46.999202 0.000000
However, if you plot this WGS84 coordinate set on Google Earth (pin name is "Fantanele proj"), you will see the coordinates are approximately 100 meters away from the hut.
Thanks to the work of a government agency called ANCPI (Agentia Nationala de Cadastru si Publicitate Imobiliara) we have a tool that allows accurate translations between Stereo 1970 and WGS84: TransDatRO.
Unfortunately accurate translation between Stereo 1970 and ETRS89 requires a set of common points and the tool only includes enough points for the following counties: Caras Severin, Gorj, Valcea, Dambovita, Teleorman, Braila, Botosani, Suceava.
Degrees, minutes, seconds can be converted to decimal degrees (as required by openstreetmap) using libproj's cs2cs:
cristi:proj diciu$ ./src/cs2cs -f “%.6f” +proj=latlong +datum=WGS84 +to +proj=latlong +datum=WGS84
46d59'56.28495N 25d56'51.25243E
“46.998968” “25.947570” “0.000000”
When we plot the coordinates as returned by TransDat, even though Neamt county is not part of the accurate county list, we observe that coordinates returned by TransDat are much closer to what's revealed by the satellite imagery (see how "Fantanele Topo" is in close proximity to the hut's roof):
Note: I am not a geographer. All of this explained above is derived from personal, rather empiric research.
I have lots of questions that I couldn't find an answer to such as why there is no apparent difference when converting from ETRS89 to WGS84 - you might notice that I use ETRS89 and WGS84 interchangeably.