What is the main feature of an Equal Area projection?

The main feature of an Equal Area projection is the preservation of area. This type of map projection ensures that the sizes of geographical features are represented accurately relative to each other, regardless of their location on the map. This means that if a feature occupies a certain area on the ground, it will occupy the same proportional area on the map, enabling users to compare the size of different regions accurately.

This characteristic is particularly valuable in applications such as thematic mapping, where understanding the relative sizes of phenomena (like population density, land use, or resource distribution) is crucial. In an Equal Area projection, although the shapes of the landforms may be distorted, the proportionality of the areas remains constant, allowing for accurate quantitative analysis. For example, a country that is significantly larger than another will appear larger on the map, reinforcing the accurate representation of its size in relation to the other country.

The other projections focus on preserving different attributes, such as shape for conformal projections, distance for equidistant projections, and direction for azimuthal projections, which do not prioritize the accurate representation of area.