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    Visualizing the Census of Marine Life
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The Census of Marine Life was a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans.  The world's first comprehensive census of the past, present, and future of life in the oceans was released in October 2010.

 

Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline (GSHHS)

GSHHS database v1.10

 Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline (GSHHS) Database v1.10

 GSHHS is a high-resolution shoreline data set amalgamated from two databases in the public domain. The data have undergone extensive processing and are free of internal inconsistencies such as erratic points and crossing segments. The shorelines are constructed entirely from hierarchically arranged closed polygons. The data can be used to simplify data searches and data selections, or to study the statistical characteristics of shorelines and land-masses. It comes with access software and routines to facilitate decimation based on a standard line-reduction algorithm.
  • Spatial Resolution: multiple resolutions can be derived

           Full resolution        0.04 km  

           High resolution        0.2 km

           Intermediate resolution    1.0 km

           Low resolution        5.0 km

           Crude resolution    25  km         

  • Extent: Global
  • Temporal Resolution:  N/A
  • Date Range:  updated March 2008
  • Format(s): binary, ESRI Shapefile (v 1.3)
  • Access Methods: FTP
  • Data Access: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/shorelines/data/gshhs/version1.10/
  • CoML visualization guidance: TBD

 

ref_gshhs_int.jpg


Use Example

Convert binary dataset (coarse level) to an ESRI shapefile

             Unzip to a /gshhs folder.   Contents are 3 binary datasets (*.b), each with 5 possible resolutions.  Datasets are gshhs, borders, and rivers; resolutions are full (f), high (h), intermediate (i), low (l), coarse (c)

             In ArcGIS toolbox find Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools -> Data Products -> Shorelines -> GSHHS 1.4 Database to ArcGIS Polygons tool

             Choose the dataset and resolution (Coarse is file "gshhs_c.b"), choose an output file name and location and run.  Converting GSHHS datasets is computationally intensive.

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