CoastGIS'99: geomatics and coastal environment
of United States of America v. State oj Alaska (1973), and the issue of
Dinkum Sands. At issue was whether this small formation just off
the northern coast of Alaska qualified as an island with baselines from
which a 3 nautical mile Submerged Lands Act Grant would belong to
the state. Important oil and gas reserves were discovered nearby and
both the US government and the State of Alaska sought the right to
grant leases for exploration of the area. After 17 years of legal action,
the Court sided with the federal government, establishing its right to
the $1.6 billion in oil and gas revenues. This illustration provides
significant evidence that geography does matter.
In the US a number of factors complicate the mapping of baselines. As
with mapping all coastal and ocean features, the tidal influences on
marine boundary elements are considerable. The major complication
with US baselines is that there are at least two separate interpretations’.
Regulatory limits defined by the Submerged Lands Act and Outer
Continental ShelfLands Act for minerals leasing purposes are under the
responsibility of the Minerals Management Service. The baseline from
which these limits are measured is often ambulatory, unless immobilised uncler a joint motion by the US Supreme Court (Thormahlen,
1999). NOAA is charged with the responsibility of maintaining the
legal maritime boundaries, designated by the Law of the Sea, which delineate sovereign rights, and other rules of international law relating to
innocent passage, transit passage, sea lanes passage, and protection of
the marine environment (LOS, 1997). These boundaries are measured
from an ambulatory baseline and may or may not be coincident with
the Minerals Management Service baseline. In other words, one baseline is used for determining offshore revenue sharing and the other is
used for determining state, federal, and international sovereignty. The
position of each line often depends on the placement of the other in relation to the baseline. Attempts to encode the baselines and the resulting
boundaries can result in confusion for the geospatial data community.
Another example of regulatory and mapping complexity can be illustrated by the need for a 3 dimensional component as in the case of the
group of islands off the coast of southern California, known as the
Channel Islands. The US National Park Service (NPS) has exclusive
jurisdiction over the islands (land) and shared administration, from
mean high tide out to 1 nautical mile (water), with the National Marine
Sanctuary Program managed by NOAA as well as the State of California's
Fish and Game Department. Within the 1 nautical mile buffer, National
Park Service administers the surface waters while NOAA and the state
manage the area below the surface. The state and NOAA share jurisdiction out to 3 nautical miles (seaward state boundary), and NOAA
has total jurisdiction out to the National Marine Sanctuary boundary
at 6 nautical miles. Not only is the term “mean high tide”, used m
the legal description, not an actual tidal datum, but the inclusion of
3. In addition to the two federal baselines (fixed and ambulatory), individual states often have
their own interpretation of the baseline.
290
of United States of America v. State oj Alaska (1973), and the issue of
Dinkum Sands. At issue was whether this small formation just off
the northern coast of Alaska qualified as an island with baselines from
which a 3 nautical mile Submerged Lands Act Grant would belong to
the state. Important oil and gas reserves were discovered nearby and
both the US government and the State of Alaska sought the right to
grant leases for exploration of the area. After 17 years of legal action,
the Court sided with the federal government, establishing its right to
the $1.6 billion in oil and gas revenues. This illustration provides
significant evidence that geography does matter.
In the US a number of factors complicate the mapping of baselines. As
with mapping all coastal and ocean features, the tidal influences on
marine boundary elements are considerable. The major complication
with US baselines is that there are at least two separate interpretations’.
Regulatory limits defined by the Submerged Lands Act and Outer
Continental ShelfLands Act for minerals leasing purposes are under the
responsibility of the Minerals Management Service. The baseline from
which these limits are measured is often ambulatory, unless immobilised uncler a joint motion by the US Supreme Court (Thormahlen,
1999). NOAA is charged with the responsibility of maintaining the
legal maritime boundaries, designated by the Law of the Sea, which delineate sovereign rights, and other rules of international law relating to
innocent passage, transit passage, sea lanes passage, and protection of
the marine environment (LOS, 1997). These boundaries are measured
from an ambulatory baseline and may or may not be coincident with
the Minerals Management Service baseline. In other words, one baseline is used for determining offshore revenue sharing and the other is
used for determining state, federal, and international sovereignty. The
position of each line often depends on the placement of the other in relation to the baseline. Attempts to encode the baselines and the resulting
boundaries can result in confusion for the geospatial data community.
Another example of regulatory and mapping complexity can be illustrated by the need for a 3 dimensional component as in the case of the
group of islands off the coast of southern California, known as the
Channel Islands. The US National Park Service (NPS) has exclusive
jurisdiction over the islands (land) and shared administration, from
mean high tide out to 1 nautical mile (water), with the National Marine
Sanctuary Program managed by NOAA as well as the State of California's
Fish and Game Department. Within the 1 nautical mile buffer, National
Park Service administers the surface waters while NOAA and the state
manage the area below the surface. The state and NOAA share jurisdiction out to 3 nautical miles (seaward state boundary), and NOAA
has total jurisdiction out to the National Marine Sanctuary boundary
at 6 nautical miles. Not only is the term “mean high tide”, used m
the legal description, not an actual tidal datum, but the inclusion of
3. In addition to the two federal baselines (fixed and ambulatory), individual states often have
their own interpretation of the baseline.
290