Marine Boundaries - Best Practices

Building better boundaries through coordination and best practices

Presentation Outline

• The current state of marine boundaries

• Examples — marine boundary challenges

• Solutions and resources:

– FGDC Marine Boundary Working Group

– Marine Boundary Best Practices Handbook

The Current State of Marine Boundaries

• No comprehensive national framework/standards for marine boundaries

• Multi-levels of offshore rights — international, national, state, regional, tribal, private…

• Legal descriptions have not kept up with current mapping technology

• Ever-increasing demand for ocean resources

• Marine environment — mapping challenge

Depiction of U.S. Marine Boundaries

Tidal Datums—MHHW, MHW, MLW, MLLW are examples of tidal datums. Private/state land varies by state.

Baseline—the Xs represent the salient points of the baselines (MLLW in the US). Bay closing lines—used to separate inland water bodies from the open sea.

State Seaward—generally extends 3 nautical miles from the baseline (exceptions: west FL, TX, PR extend to 9 nautical miles). Often called Submerged Lands Act boundary or federal/state boundary.

Revenue Sharing—boundary extends 3 nautical miles beyond the state seaward boundary—27% to state.

Territorial Sea—extends 12 nautical miles from the baseline. Often referred to as the marginal sea.

Contiguous Zone—extends 24 nautical miles from the baseline. Executive Order 9/99.

OCS Lease Blocks—subdivision of the OCS within U.S. jurisdiction for mineral leasing.

EEZ—out to 200 nautical miles from the baseline or as determined by treaty.

Continental Shelf—no U.S. claim to date (UNCLOS Article 76).Marine Protected Areas—reserved by federal,

state, territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations.

All of these activities require accurate, useable, and accessible digital marine boundaries.

Why Do You Need Marine Boundaries?

• Natural resource management

• Navigation

• Offshore oil/mineral extraction

• Cable routing

• Law enforcement, customs, immigration actions

• Air space designation

• Radio spectrum leasing

Mapping Issues…

Marine Boundary Mapping Issues

• Legal language not easily mappable — ambiguous language (head of tide, high wash of waves, 3 mi. from coast)

• Conflicting sources

• Ambulatory boundaries

• Cartographic source

• General ambiguities — units, datums

• Land vs. Water issues

Legal Language Example

1000 m isobathcoordinate list-and-reference to isobath

Physical feature described two ways

Conflicting Source Example

Different coordinates in two designations have led to a sliver

Cordell Bank NMS

Gulf of the

Farallones NMS

Reference to Ambulatory Features

Monterey Bay NMS is defined within the CFR as the Mean High Water Line, excluding certain bodies of coastal waters

International Collision at Sea Regulation (Colreg.) lines—maintained by U.S. Coast Guard

Cartographic Issues

.

•Scale•Projection•Datum•Date•Coordinate accuracy

Jurisdictional Issues…

State Watersgenerally applies - some exceptions

• Private ownership generally extends to the MHW line(except for TX MHHW or DE MA, ME, NM, PA, VA which are MLLW)

• Seaward of this line are the public trust lands - managed by state or federal government (sometimes tribal)

• Coastal state has control of the sea bottom and marine resources out to the state's seaward boundary (except were reserved by federal government)

• Adjudicated bilateral boundaries do not exist (exceptions TX/LA, SC/GA, ME/NH)

Federal Jurisdictiongenerally applies - some exceptions

• Federal government has sovereign rights over all living and nonliving resources from the State Seaward Boundary out to the extent of the exclusive economic zone state's seaward boundary (exceptions wFL, PR, TX)

• Within the State Seaward Boundary, federal government retains control over commerce, navigation, defense, fisheries, and international matters.

Atlantic Ocean

Marine Boundaries

Gulf of Mexico

Florida

Exclusive Economic Zone24 M Contiguous Zone12 M Territorial Sea6 M OCSLA 8(g)3 M State-Seaward BoundaryBaseline points (MLLW)NOAA Medium Resolution Shoreline National Marine Sanctuary

Exclusive Economic Zone24 M Contiguous Zone12 M Territorial Sea6 M OCSLA 8(g)3 M State-Seaward BoundaryBaseline points (MLLW)NOAA Medium Resolution Shoreline National Marine Sanctuary

Why Should You Care?If you don’t accurately know where your area of concern is, you can’t _________________ it

• use• manage• assess • measure• monitor• enforce• extract• lease

You can’t expect other to follow the rules if you can’t reasonably

describe your boundaries.

(fill in the blank)

Solutionsand

Resources

FGDC Marine Boundary Working Group

· Provides a venue for communicating and coordinating on marine boundary activities

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration• Minerals Management Service• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service• National Park Service• Census Bureau• National Imagery and Mapping Agency• U.S. Navy• U.S. Coast Guard• Environmental Protection Agency• Federal Communications Commission• State of Florida • Department of State • Bureau of Land Management• U.S. Geological Survey

Marine Boundary Best Practices Handbook

Vision: guidance document for developing marine managed area boundaries. Includes the legal and spatial components of the boundary.

Top 10 Ways To Create a Good Marine Boundary are…

#10

If possible, used fixed features when If possible, used fixed features when describing or developing a digital marine describing or developing a digital marine boundary.boundary.

X

#9

Fuzzy terms like:Shoreline

High wash of the waves

General contour of the coast

Approximate low water

Conflicting references (e.g., 1000m isobath and coordinate listing)

Include spatial information – projections, datums

Avoid ambiguous, conflicting language when Avoid ambiguous, conflicting language when describing a boundary.describing a boundary.

X

#8

When developing a digital marine boundary, When developing a digital marine boundary, use the official source for boundary use the official source for boundary information.information.

Baseline points - envelope of arcs?Shoreline points and buffer?

#7

Develop feature level metadata for boundaries.Develop feature level metadata for boundaries.

“ … except where adjacent to Indian reservationsIndian reservations, State and County owned lands; in such case, the coastal boundary is the mean lower low water mean lower low water lineline.”

#6

When developing a boundary from a hard copy When developing a boundary from a hard copy document, use the largest scale source document, use the largest scale source material.material.

Chart 11438 Scale = 1:30,000Chart 11434 Scale = 1:180,000

#5

Develop a standard operating procedure for Develop a standard operating procedure for boundary development for your organization.boundary development for your organization.

1. ……2. ……3. ……4. …… ……Last step: Back-up data

#4

Produce a clear legal description that can be Produce a clear legal description that can be easily, accurately, and unambiguously easily, accurately, and unambiguously translated into a digital boundary.translated into a digital boundary.

“A line drawn from the southernmost extremity of Savannah Beach on Tybee Island 255° true across Tybee Inlet to the shore of Little Tybee Island south of the entrance to Buck Hammock Creek” (U.S. Department of Transportation, 1995)

Excerpt from COLREGS description:Excerpt from COLREGS description:

#3

Prior to publication, have your boundary Prior to publication, have your boundary reviewed by mapping, legal, and enforcement reviewed by mapping, legal, and enforcement staff.staff.

#2

Develop metadata using approved national Develop metadata using approved national standards to help strengthen the validity of the standards to help strengthen the validity of the data.data.

FGDC-compliant FGDC-compliant metadata!metadata!

#1

Widely publish and share your marine Widely publish and share your marine boundary data boundary data

-data clearinghouse -data clearinghouse -World Wide Web-World Wide Web-other local sources-other local sources

Marine Boundary Working Group

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/mbwg

Available Resources: Available Resources:

Overview of U.S. marine cadastral boundaries Data Portal – Geospatial data and source information

Marine Boundary Best Practices Manual – Guidance document for developing marine managed area boundaries. Includes the legal and spatial components of the boundary.

Marine Boundary Working Group Poster

For Additional InformationFor Additional Information

David SteinDavid SteinNOAA Coastal Services CenterNOAA Coastal Services CenterDave.Stein@noaa.govDave.Stein@noaa.gov