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Due to new cartographic production processes and the availability of digital products such as Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs), the Coast Survey Development Laboratory (CSDL) is supporting OCS' Chief Geographer in developing improved techniques for generating more accurate, digital maritime boundaries. Through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software such as CARIS' LOTS and ESRI's ArcGIS, CSDL will provide NOAA cartographers and the public with the latest vector representations of these boundaries.
In our effort to create digital boundaries, we are utilizing CSDL's Extracted Vector Shoreline from the largest scale nautical charts. This MLLW line is used as input to CARIS' LOTS: Limits and Boundaries software for the designation of a baseline. Once the boundaries are created, they are exported to a text file as a series of points with .1 nautical mile spacing.
Digital limits of the Exclusive Economic Zone for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are contained within a zipped file. Within the zipped file is a shapefile and a text file detailing the individual coordinates. The shapefile is a polyline which was exported from the LOTS environment after using the tools "Join Nearest Points" and "Line to Geodesic". Coordinates for the EEZ were gathered from the August 23, 1995 Federal Register Notice ("Exclusive Economic Zone and Maritime Boundaries: Notice of Limits") and from 200 nautical mile (NM) arcs for the northern end of the islands.
For all other portions of the EEZ: The EEZ was derived from the August 23, 1995 Federal Register Notice- "Exclusive Economic Zone and Maritime Boundaries: Notice of Limits". The coordinates are labeled accordingly in the text file, PR_USVI_EEZ.txt. Federal Register coordinates 52 through 112 were translated from Puerto Rico datum to WGS84 using NIMA's GEOTRANS software. The translations are believed to be correct. No added tests were conducted.
The resulting boundaries were attributed in CARIS and exported using the "Output as a Text File" tool. The line was exported as a series of points .1 nautical miles apart in decimal degrees. This point file was parsed to be tab delimited.
For the shapefile-- The text file of uniform Federal Register coordinates was imported into ArcView 3.2 and converted to a shapefile. The shapefile was imported into CARIS LOTS using the Import SHP utility. The points were connected in LOTS using the "Join Nearest Points" and "Line to Geodesic" tools. The new Federal Register line was cut and joined to the northern 200 NM line generated using the Envelope of Arcs tools in LOTS. The resulting single EEZ line was exported from LOTS using the Import SHP utility in reverse. The polyline was exported as WGS84 and was attributed in ArcView 3.2.