Which map projection is most suitable for a national park with an east-west orientation near the equator?

The Albers Equal Area Conic projection is particularly suitable for mapping areas with an east-west orientation, especially for regions located near the equator. This projection is designed to minimize distortion of area, which makes it useful for presenting accurate data regarding the size and distribution of features within the national park.

When employing this projection, the design utilizes two standard parallels, which can be selected to best fit the latitudinal extent of the area being mapped, ensuring that both the central meridian and the parallels align effectively with the geographic features of the park. This characteristic allows for better representational accuracy in terms of area measurements, which is beneficial for resource management and ecological studies in a national park setting.

Additionally, while other projections like Transverse Mercator and Lambert Conformal Conic may also handle specific spatial orientations well, they do not provide the same level of area accuracy for east-west expanses located near the equator as the Albers projection. The Polar Stereographic projection, on the other hand, is not appropriate in this context since it is optimized for polar regions and would distort that geographical area significantly.