Data: Limits in The Seas or When Does a Country's Borders Float
State Department Catalog of Limits in The Seas (LOS)
I have studied the Limits in The Seas (LOS) for some time. While working with island maps I found that these listings display both timely and difficult to obtain information. There are at least two sources for this information - The US Department of State and Florida State University Law Library. Both sources appear to offer the same documents.
LOS #127 - Taiwan's Maritimes Claims
Since I have done extensive mapping in and around Taiwan, I looked at that country's baseline data. What is a baseline? It is the internationally agreed upon baseline that all other maritime boundaries are drawn from. Consequently, it is the "mother" of all maritime boundaries. One of the documents lists detailed explanations of how baselines are determined. Needless to say, it is an extremely exacting science and one that is open to a wide variety of interpretations..
Table of Taiwan's Baseline Coordinates
This is a table of Taiwan's Baseline coordinates. The main portion contains the baseline that encompasses Taiwan proper. Two shorter baselines cover island groups to the south. The document is in PDF format and the coordinates are in degrees-minutes and decimal-seconds. Other documents list the coordinates in degrees-minutes-seconds. This format is not the most widely used for digital mapping, but it can be converted into degrees-decimal.
Plotted Baselines
Each document includes a map(s) of the baseline(s). The maps are small scale and gives one a good idea of the alignment of these unique maritime boundaries.
Baseline and Point ID's Displayed on Marplot Map
Being the consumate "data-hound", I figured out a way to extract the baseline coordinate table from the PDF document, format it's data (lat/lon coords) using MS Word. That data is transferred into MS Excel. It is converted into two Marplot compatible layers of vector information. One layer is the Baseline line (polyline) and the second layer is the Baseline points with names. After preparing them within MS Excel, I import them into Marplot where I can choose to display them whenever or however I wish.
Enjoy!
Labels: Limits in the Seas, LOS, Marplot, Taiwan
