The U.S. National Geodetic Survey is planning to replace NAD83 (North American Datum 1983) with the modernized NATRF2022 (North American Terrestrial Reference Frame of 2022) in 2025 or 2026. This new geometric reference system is aligned with the Earth’s true center of mass—resulting in a 2.2-meter shift compared to NAD83.
While the change may appear subtle, it introduces horizontal coordinate differences of about 1.3 to 1.5 meters along the U.S.–Canada border. For high-precision industries in North America like surveying, engineering, and GIS, this difference could matter and may require careful transformation of existing data to maintain accuracy.
EcoDraft is honoured to have been featured in an article on this subject by Benedicta Antwi Boasiako of GoGeomatics Canada.
Read the full article here: Re-Centering Canada: Inside the Modernization of the Canadian Spatial Reference System (GoGeomatics Canada, Sept 2025)