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    Historical Medium Resolution Shoreline T-Sheets CUSP National Shoreline ENC to Direct Composite Shoreline ESI Shoreline
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Historical Medium Resolution Shoreline

The medium-resolution shoreline vector is a high-quality, GIS-ready digital vector data set created for general use. Compiled from hundreds of 1980s vintage NOAA nautical charts, this product represents the entire continental United States of America.

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Coverage

Continental U.S. – does not include Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, or other interests and territories of the U.S.

Source Data

NOAA nautical charts

Tidal Datum

Mean high water

Scale

Average scale of 1:70,000. Actual source chart scales range from 1:10,000 to 1:600,000 depending on the particular section of coastline.

Spatial Reference

Geographic coordinate system; horizontal datum – North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83).

Accuracy

The data supplied here are a compilation of information collected from many current or pre-release NOS navigation charts. Developers of this dataset has made no attempt to ascertain the congruency between the charted data and the real world.

Process Description

Generation of this shoreline product was accomplished in five stages: data capture, chart cover construction, segment assembly, verification, and final formatting and archiving. Stage 1, data capture, involves the initial conversion of the analog source data, NOS coastal series navigational charts, into a digital vector image. During stage 2, the raw vector image is converted into an ArcInfo GIS coverage. In addition, during this phase of the work, the data are corrected (gross error removal), topologies are constructed, descriptive information is added, and an intermediate archive is created. The third stage is segment assembly. Here, the chart cover data are partitioned into regionally contiguous groupings (referred to as sections), adjacent boundaries are matched, and the individual charts are joined together to produce continuous shoreline segments. Following assembly, stage 4, data verification, is initiated. Portions of the sectional data are chosen at random to be plotted coincident with chart master sheets (mylars) and compared. Discrepancies are noted, corrective action, if required, is taken, and the data are re-verified. The fifth and final stage is formatting and final archive.

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