The US territorial sea is a maritime zone, over which the United States exercises sovereignty. Each coastal State claims a territorial sea that extends seaward up to 12 nautical miles from its coastal baseline. As defined by maritime law, the coastal State exercises sovereignty over its territorial sea, the air space above it, and the seabed and subsoil beneath it. The U.S. territorial sea extends 12 nautical miles from the coastal baseline. The zone is usually used in concert with several other Limits and Boundary Lines for Maritime purposes.Maritime limits for the United States are measured from the US baseline, which is recognized as the low-water line along the coast as marked on NOAA's nautical charts. The baseline and related maritime limits are reviewed and approved by the interagency US Baseline Committee. The Office of Coast Survey depicts on its nautical charts the territorial sea (12nm), contiguous zone (24nm), and exclusive economic zone (200nm, plus maritime boundaries with adjacent/opposite countries. US maritime limits are ambulatory and subject to revision based on accretion or erosion of the charted low water line. Dataset SummaryThis map service contains data from NOAA and BOEM sources that address USA Regional coastal areas and are designed to be used together within an ArcGIS.com web map. These include: World Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from NOAA Office of Coast SurveyContiguous Zone (CZ) from NOAA Office of Coast SurveyTerritorial Sea (TS) Boundary from NOAA Office of Coast SurveyRevenue Sharing Boundary [Section 8(g) of OCSLA Zone Boundary] from Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)Submerged Land Act Boundaries (SLA) aka State Seaward Boundary (SSB)State Administrative Boundary from Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)Continental Shelf Boundary (CSB) from Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)Regional Maritime Planning Area Boundaries from NOAA Office of Coast SurveyInternational Provisional Maritime Boundary from NOAA (International Boundary Commission)The data for this layer were obtained from MarineCadastre.gov and is updated regularly.More information about U.S. Maritime Limits and BoundariesLink to source metadataWhat can you do with this layer?The features in this layer are used for areas and limits of coastal planning areas, or offshore planning areas, applied within ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Online. A depiction of the territorial sea boundaries helps disputing parties reach an agreement as in the case of one state's boundary overlapping with another state's territorial sea, in which case the border is taken as the median point between the states' baselines, unless the states in question agree otherwise. A state can also choose to claim a smaller territorial sea.Conflicts still occur whenever a coastal nation claims an entire gulf as its territorial waters while other nations only recognize the more restrictive definitions of the UN convention. Two recent conflicts occurred in the Gulf of Sidra where Libya has claimed the entire gulf as its territorial waters and the US has twice enforced freedom of navigation rights, in the 1981 and 1989 Gulf of Sidra incidents.This layer is a feature service, which means it can be used for visualization and analysis throughout the ArcGIS Platform. This layer is not editable.

The maritime limits and boundaries of the U.S., found in the A-16 National Geospatial Data Asset Portfolio, is recognized as the low-water line along the coast measured from the U.S. baseline. This is marked on official U.S. nautical charts in accordance with the articles of the Law of the Sea. The baseline and related maritime limits are reviewed and approved by the inter-agency U.S. Baseline Committee.The primary purpose of this data is to update the official depiction of these maritime limits and boundaries on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's nautical charts. The Office of Coast Survey depicts on its nautical charts the territorial sea (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24 nautical miles), and Exclusive Economic Zone (200 nautical miles, plus maritime boundaries with adjacent/opposite countries). U.S. maritime limits are ambulatory and are subject to revision based on accretion or erosion of the charted low-water line. For more information about U.S. maritime limits and boundaries and to download data, see U.S. Maritime Limits & Boundaries. For the full Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata record, see Maritime Limits and Boundaries of United States of America.Thumbnail source image courtesy of: David Restivo

(Version 4.1, updated September 13, 2013) Maritime limits for the United States are measured from the U.S. baseline, recognized as the low-water line along the coast as marked on NOAA's nautical charts in accordance with the articles of the Law of the Sea. The baseline and related maritime limits are reviewed and approved by the interagency U.S. Baseline Committee. The primary purpose of this dataset is to update the official depiction of these maritime limits and boundaries on NOAA's nautical charts. The Office of Coast Survey depicts on its nautical charts the territorial sea (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24nm), and exclusive economic zone (200nm, plus maritime boundaries with adjacent/opposite countries). U.S. maritime limits are ambulatory and subject to revision based on accretion or erosion of the charted low water line. For more information about U.S. Maritime Limits and Boundaries and to stay up-to-date, see: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm. For the full FGDC metadata record, see: http:www.ncddc.noaa.gov/approved_recs/nos_de/ocs/ocs/MB_ParentDataset.html. Coordinates for the US/Canada international boundary, on land and through the Great Lakes, are managed by the International Boundary Commission.

NOAA is responsible for depicting on its nautical charts the limits of the 12 nautical mile Territorial Sea, 24 nautical mile Contiguous Zone, and 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The outer limit of each of these zones is measured from the U.S. normal baseline, which coincides with the low water line depicted on NOAA charts and includes closing lines across the entrances of legal bays and rivers, consistent with international law. The U.S. baseline and associated maritime limits are reviewed and approved through the interagency U.S. Baseline Committee, which is chaired by the U.S. Department of State. The Committee serves the function of gaining interagency consensus on the proper location of the baseline using the provisions of the 1958 Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, to ensure that the seaward extent of U.S. maritime zones do not exceed the breadth that is permitted by international law. In 2002 and in response to mounting requests for digital maritime zones, NOAA launched a project to re-evaluate the U.S. baseline in partnership with other federal agencies via the U.S. Baseline Committee. The focus of the baseline evaluation was NOAA's largest scale, most recent edition nautical charts as well as supplemental source materials for verification of certain charted features. This dataset is a result of the 2002-present initiative and reflects a multi-year iterative project whereby the baseline and associated maritime limits were re-evaluated on a state or regional basis. In addition to the U.S. maritime limits, the U.S. maritime boundaries with opposite or adjacent countries as well as the US/Canada International Boundary (on land and through the Great Lakes) are also included in this dataset.

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea zone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a sovereign state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind. This maritime boundary is designed to be used with other marine boundaries in order to help determine areas of trade, commerce and transportation. The 200 NM zone is measured, country-by-country, from another maritime boundary, the baseline (usually but not in all cases the mean low-water mark, used is not the same thing as the coast line. For each country, obtain the official list of the baseline points from the United Nations under Maritime Space.The exclusive economic zone stretches much further into sea than the territorial waters, which end at 12 NM (22 km) from the coastal baseline (if following the rules set out in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea). Thus, the EEZ includes the contiguous zone. States also have rights to the seabed of what is called the continental shelf up to 350 NM (648 km) from the coastal baseline, beyond the EEZ, but such areas are not part of their EEZ. The legal definition of the continental shelf does not directly correspond to the geological meaning of the term, as it also includes the continental rise and slope, and the entire seabed within the EEZ. The chart below diagrams the overlapping jurisdictions which are part of the EEZ. When the (EEZ) boundary is between countries which are separated by less than 200NM is settled by international tribunals at any arbitrary line. Many countries are still in the process of extending their EEZs beyond 200NM using criteria defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Dataset Summary The data for this layer were obtained from https://www.marineregions.org/published here. Link to source metadata.Preferred Citation: Flanders Marine Institute (2023). Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase: Maritime Boundaries and Exclusive Economic Zones (200NM), version 12. Available online at https://www.marineregions.org/. https://doi.org/10.14284/632This layer is a feature service, which means it can be used for visualization and analysis throughout the ArcGIS Platform. This layer is not editable.

The Digital Geologic Map of International Boundary and Water Commission Mapping in Amistad National Recreation Area, Texas and Mexico is composed of GIS data layers complete with ArcMap 9.3 layer (.LYR) files, two ancillary GIS tables, a Map PDF document with ancillary map text, figures and tables, a FGDC metadata record and a 9.3 ArcMap (.MXD) Document that displays the digital map in 9.3 ArcGIS. The data were completed as a component of the Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) program, a National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) funded program that is administered by the NPS Geologic Resources Division (GRD). Source geologic maps and data used to complete this GRI digital dataset were provided by the following: Eddie Collins, Amanda Masterson and Tom Tremblay (Texas Bureau of Economic Geology); Rick Page (U.S. Geological Survey); Gilbert Anaya (International Boundary and Water Commission). Detailed information concerning the sources used and their contribution the GRI product are listed in the Source Citation sections(s) of this metadata record (ibwc_metadata.txt; available at http://nrdata.nps.gov/amis/nrdata/geology/gis/ibwc_metadata.xml). All GIS and ancillary tables were produced as per the NPS GRI Geology-GIS Geodatabase Data Model v. 2.1. (available at: http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/inventory/geology/GeologyGISDataModel.cfm). The GIS data is available as a 9.3 personal geodatabase (ibwc_geology.mdb), and as shapefile (.SHP) and DBASEIV (.DBF) table files. The GIS data projection is NAD83, UTM Zone 14N. The data is within the area of interest of Amistad National Recreation Area.

This shapefile provides a worldwide geographic division by merging the World Continents division proposed by Esri Data and Maps (2024) to the Global Oceans and Seas version 1 division proposed by the Flanders Marine Institute (2021). Though divisions of continents and oceans/seas are available, the combination of both in a single shapefile is scarce.

The Continents and Oceans/Seas shapefile was carefully processed to remove overlaps between the inputs, and to fill gaps (i.e., areas with no information) by spatially joining these gaps to neighbour polygons. In total, the original world continents input divides land areas into 8 categories (Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America), while the original oceans/seas input divides the oceans/seas into 10 categories (Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Region, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, South China and Easter Archipelagic Seas, South Pacific Ocean, and Southern Ocean). Therefore, the resulting world geographic division has 18 possible categories.

References

Esri Data and Maps (2024). World Continents. Available online at https://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/esri::world-continents/about. Accessed on 05 March 2024.

Flanders Marine Institute (2021). Global Oceans and Seas, version 1. Available online at https://www.marineregions.org/. https://doi.org/10.14284/542. Accessed on 04 March 2024.

Borders of territorial waters (12 nautical miles from baseline) in the Baltic Sea. It is based on a dataset by the European Environment Agency ( https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/maritime-boundaries). The Russian borders and some small segments are based in OpenStreetMap. See the attribute table for details. The Swedish territorial waters file was edited in November 2019. The source was the Swedish Maritime Administration (https://www.sjofartsverket.se/sv/Maritima-Tjanster/Havsgranser/)

The collection of water quality data has been an integral part of the International Boundary and Water Commission's mission and goal since the signing of the 1944 Water Treaty. The IBWC collects water quality data for several transboundary rivers, the Rio Grande, Colorado River, New River, Alamo River, and the Tijuana River, along with stations in the Pacific Ocean known as the South Bay Ocean Outfall Water Quality Monitoring Program (Pacific Ocean). The data is collected and exchanged between the United States and Mexico as agreed to under the IBWC 1944 Water Treaty and the subsequent agreements made by the IBWC to implement the various water quality monitoring programs along the border. Water quality goals for each program are either specified in an IBWC Minute (such as Minute No. 264 for New River), or compared to water quality standards using United States or Mexican standards for rivers and streams.

Two global GIS-covers in ESRI shape format were produced: one contains polylines representing the maritime boundaries;the second holds polygons representing the EEZs. When all the boundary lines were constructed, the lines could be aggregated and an EEZ-polygon per country was derived. For the land-side border, the boundaries of the world countries were used, on the sea-side the boundaries were aggregated for each country. Separate polygons were created for islands (ex.: Azores) and dependencies (ex.: Réunion) but those polygons are linked with their corresponding sovereign nation (in the attribute table).

The map is designed to be used as a basemap by marine GIS professionals and as a reference map by anyone interested in ocean data. The basemap focuses on bathymetry. It also includes inland waters and roads, overlaid on land cover and shaded relief imagery.

From October 16-November 3, 2022 (San Diego, California to Newport, Oregon), NOAA Ocean Exploration conducted mapping operations off the coast of California and Oregon in U.S. waters, aiding in closing bathymetric gaps within this region. Expedition EX-22-08 collected 32,416 square kilometers of bathymetry and associated water column data, 22,313 square kilometers of which were within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Sea deeper than 200 m, while 10,104 square kilometers were collected in international waters. During mapping operations, NOAA Ocean Exploration simultaneously collected EM 304 multibeam sonar bathymetry observations and Simrad EK60/EK80 split-beam fisheries sonar observations of biologic material in the water column, as well as Knudsen 3260 sub-bottom profiler observations of sub-seafloor geologic structure and sediment. A detailed sub-bottom survey targeted previously-identified sponge reefs in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. The exploratory mapping operations conducted during this cruise will provide initial characterization of the region, as well as data to support further exploration.

The Real Map of Ireland represents Ireland's marine territory of over 220 million acres which is ten times the size of the island of Ireland. The currently designated Irish Continental Shelf, represented by the red line on the map. shows Ireland's current territorial waters which extends out across the North Atlantic Ocean and includes parts of the Irish and Celtic Seas. This area also includes one of the largest marine Exclusive Economic Zones in the European Union. The Continental Shelf of a coastal State comprises the seabed and subsoil of submarine areas that extend to 200 nautical miles from its territorial sea baselines or further if the natural prolongation of its land mass is beyond this. The coastal State exercises over the continental shelf sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources. Where a margin extends beyond 200 nautical miles, a coastal state may extend its continental shelf limit, subject to the criteria set out in Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Real Map of Ireland released January 2008. The Real Map of Ireland vision produced to support the promotion of Ireland's marine resource. The Real Map of Ireland produced by the Marine Institute, Ireland's national agency for marine research, technological development and innovation.

This dataset contains maps of the location and temporal distribution of surface water from 1984 to 2020 and provides statistics on the extent and change of those water surfaces. For more information see the associated journal article: High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes (Nature, 2016) and the online Data Users Guide.

These data were generated using 4,453,989 scenes from Landsat 5, 7, and 8 acquired between 16 March 1984 and 31 December 2020. Each pixel was individually classified into water / non-water using an expert system and the results were collated into a monthly history for the entire time period and two epochs (1984-1999, 2000-2020) for change detection.

This mapping layers product consists of 1 image containing 7 bands. It maps different facets of the spatial and temporal distribution of surface water over the last 35 years. Areas where water has never been detected are masked.

The International Map of the World (IMW) series is no longer maintained, and printed copies of this map are no longer available. The Australian portion of the series consists of 49 maps. They were produced to an international specification using the R502 series at 1:250,000 scale as source material. Production commenced in 1926 and was completed in 1978. The maps were revised from time to time and the last reprint was undertaken in 2003. Each standard map sheet covers 4 degrees of latitude by 6 degrees of longitude and was produced using a Lambert Conformal Conic projection with 2 standard parallels. The series has recently been superseded by the 1:1 000 000 topographic map general reference.

Global map of open permanent water bodies at 300m spatial resolution derived from the full ENVISAT-ASAR dataset between 2005 and 2010.

In an attempt to improve the characterization of inland water bodies in global LC products, a SAR-based approach has been implemented. Multi-temporal acquisitions of Envisat ASAR Wide Swath Mode with local gap fillers based on Image Mode and Global Monitoring Mode from the years 2005 to 2010, MERIS data and auxiliary datasets have been used to generate a single epoch map of permanent open water bodies at 300 m.

Static map of stable open water bodies at 300m spatial resolution resulting from a land/water classification based on Envisat ASAR, SRTM-SWBD and MERIS data. The water pixels of this map correspond to the class "Water Bodies" of the CCI-LC Maps.

The product consists of 3 layers:

Map land/permanent water classification at 300m spatial resolution. Legend : 1-Land, 2-Water,
NObsImsWS number of observations originating from the ASAR Wide Swath Mode + Image Monitoring Mode imagery,
NObsImsGM number of observations originating from the ASAR global monitoring mode imagery.

The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation has completed the World Reef Map, an online interactive coral reef atlas that allows users to explore all of the coral reefs and shallow water marine habitats mapped on the Global Reef Expedition. With over 65,000 square kilometers of shallow water marine ecosystems mapped, this is by far the largest collection of high-resolution coral reef maps ever made. Map layers include Benthic Habitat Data, Bathymetry, Depth Contours and Habitat Videos.

Advances in data availability, Earth observation technologies, and geospatial sciences have transformed our ability to map Global Surface Water Extents (GSWE). However, traditional GSWE mapping has been limited to static estimates, with more recent efforts focusing on annual averages and temporal attributes like frequency and occurrence of long-term variations. We harnessed remotely sensed Sentinel-2 based near real-time Dynamic World land cover product to produce the first public, routinely available 10-meter resolution global surface water datasets. Our key contribution is an Open Science operational framework to rapidly extract the latest available Dynamic World products every 2-5 days, run geospatial analytics, and create actionable water information for educators, researchers, and stakeholders at any scale of practical interest.

This dataset has been developed by the Hydrology & Hydroinformatics Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Arlington, United States.

SeaMaST provides evidence on the use of sea areas by seabirds and inshore waterbirds in English territorial waters, mapping their relative sensitivity to offshore wind farm and wave/tidal energy developments. Data were compiled from offshore boat and aerial observer surveys spanning the period 1979–2012. The data were analysed using distance analysis and Density Surface Modelling to produce predicted bird densities across a grid covering English territorial waters at a resolution of 3 km x 3 km. Coefficients of Variation were estimated for each grid cell density, as an indication of confidence in predictions. Offshore wind farm sensitivity scores were compiled for seabird species using English territorial waters in breeding and non-breeding seasons, according to the BDMPS (Biologically Defined Minimum Population Scales) project (http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6427568802627584). The comparative risks to each species of collision with turbines and displacement from operational turbines were reviewed and scored separately, and the scores were multiplied by the bird density estimates to produce relative sensitivity maps. Attribution statement: © Natural England copyright [Year], reproduced with the permission of the Crown Estate, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust

Many maps of open water and wetland have been developed based on three main methods: (i) compiling national/regional wetland surveys; (ii) identifying inundated areas by satellite imagery; (iii) delineating wetlands as shallow water table areas based on groundwater modelling. The resulting global wetland extents, however, vary from 3 to 21% of the land surface area, because of inconsistencies in wetland definitions and limitations in observation or modelling systems. To reconcile these differences, we propose composite wetland (CW) maps combining two classes of wetlands: (1) regularly flooded wetlands (RFW) which are obtained by overlapping selected open-water and inundation datasets; (2) groundwater-driven wetlands (GDW) derived from groundwater modelling (either direct or simplified using several variants of the topographic index). Wetlands are thus statically defined as areas with persistent near saturated soil because of regular flooding or shallow groundwater. To explore the uncertainty of the proposed data fusion, seven CW maps were generated at the 15 arc-sec resolution (ca 500 m at the Equator) using geographic information system (GIS) tools, by combining one RFW and different GDW maps. They correspond to contemporary potential wetlands, i.e. the expected wetlands assuming no human influence under the present climate. To validate the approach, these CW maps were compared to existing wetland datasets at the global and regional scales: the spatial patterns are decently captured, but the wetland extents are difficult to assess against the dispersion of the validation datasets. Compared to the only regional dataset encompassing both GDWs and RFWs, over France, the CW maps perform well and better than all other considered global wetland datasets. Two CW maps, showing the best overall match with the available evaluation datasets, are eventually selected. They give a global wetland extent of 27.5 and 29 million km², i.e. 21.1 and 21.6% of global land area, which is among the highest values in the literature, in line with recent estimates also recognizing the contribution of GDWs. This wetland class covers 15% of global land area, against 9.7% for RFWs (with an overlap ca 3.4 %), including wetlands under canopy/cloud cover leading to high wetland densities in the tropics, and small scattered wetlands, which cover less than 5% of land but are very important for hydrological and ecological functioning in temperate to arid areas. […]