EVS-Islands

Pai-Ch'uan Lieh-Tao

Baiquan Liedao (Pai-ch'uan Lieh-tao) (25°58'N., 119°55'E.), lying about 11 miles S of Matsu Liehtao, consists of two islands and several islets and rocks.

Dongquan Dao (Tung-chu Tao) (25°58'N., 119°58'E.), the E island of the group, is 114m high and precipitous; islets and dangers lie within 0.75 mile NW and 1 mile NE of the island.

A light is shown from a round tower on the NE end of the island and a signal operates from the tower.

Xiquan Dao (Hsi-chu Tao) (25°59'N., 119°56'E.), the W island of the group, is 191m high. Its summit consists of three rounded hummocks, on the center and highest of which is a boulder; the SW slopes of the ridge are strewn with sand and show white in misty weather when little else of the island is visible.

P'o-lang Shih, 16m high, lies at the outer end of a rocky ridge which extends 0.5 mile SW from the W point of the island; this rock and a 13m high rock on the ridge are prominent. Sand banks, with charted depths of 5.4 to 10m, extend up to 4 miles SW of Hsi-chu Tao.

Caution.—A prohibited area, which may be fouled by fishing stakes, lies about 4 miles SE of Tung-chu Tao. (SD Pub-157)

I said to myself, "Avoid controversial islands. Select an island of little or no consequence." So what did I do? I selected a group of islands located off of the eastern coast of China which are claimed by the Republic of China (ROC). The actual map work was straight forward and the map product was simple and fast to construct. But I failed on the controversial islands aspect of the project. This group of islands is located to the south of Matsu Island, another island claimed by the ROC. These small rocks are continually contested for ownership between PRC and ROC. So far ROC has control and the PRC, although formally complaining, abides by the status-quo. They are potential flashpoints. They would be an interesting destination for an intrepid traveller.

view Pai-Ch'uan Lei-Tao on Google Maps

Enjoy!

Labels: China, Digital Globe, EVS, island, Landsat, Marplot, Pacific, Taiwan

Posted by Mr Minton at 3/23/2007 01:36:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

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.

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..

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.

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.

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

Posted by Mr Minton at 3/22/2007 06:15:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Located in the Taiwan Straits between mainland China and Taiwan is the group of islands called the Peng-hu Tao (aka The Fisherman Islands).

They are low lying islands peppered with coral reefs throughout. A couple of the southern islands are uplifted rocks. All of the others are merely meters above the water. Today they are destinations for tourists from all over the world. They offer the appeal of the Chinese culture and the escape of an island.

I had posted images and maps of these islands earlier, but I thought I would repost them all at a consistent scale (1:150,000). The maps are rendered in my EVS Shoreline style which shows mapping of traditional shorelines only.

Enjoy!

Labels: atoll, EVS, island, Landsat, map, Marplot, Pacific, Taiwan

Posted by Mr Minton at 12/22/2006 07:25:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post