Formulas for precisely and efficiently estimating the bias and variance of the length measurements

Error analysis in length measurements is an important problem in geographic information system and cartographic operations. The distance between two random points—i.e., the length of a random line segment—may be viewed as a nonlinear mapping of the coordinates of the two points. In real-world applications, an unbiased length statistic may be expected in high-precision contexts, but the variance of the unbiased statistic is of concern in assessing the quality. This paper suggesting the use of a k-order bias correction formula and a nonlinear error propagation approach to the distance equation provides a useful way to describe the length of a line. The study shows that the bias is determined by the relative precision of the random line segment, and that the use of the higher-order bias correction is only needed for short-distance applications.

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