Authors / CoAuthors
McGregor, M.J. | Alcock, M.B. | Boyes, G.W. | Symonds, P.A.
Abstract
A revolution is underway in the regulatory intensity of the marine jurisdiction and the technologies by which the jurisdiction is defined, navigated on and policed. This revolution if not properly managed has the capacity to undermine the technical and legal compact by which the most fundamental aspects of UNCLOS are managed - the maritime zones. The ready availability of high resolution coastal imagery and data, collected at high repeat cycles breaks the nexus between cartographic products and the baseline determination where its legal definition is the physical coastline. It is impractical to monitor, compute, distribute and archive the baseline of a highly dynamic coastline. In addition, the increasing establishment of spatially complex marine regulations creates an insatiable demand for more certainty in the determination of maritime zones. For instance, Australia administers over eighty separate regulatory zones through a dozen different agencies. States require a new method of characterising their baselines that is defensible in a precise digital world, and does not impose the costly and burdensome process of mapping a coastline in constant flux. The practical resolution is to adopt a fixed baseline compiled from the best available digital data at an epoch, then periodically updated it when considered appropriate. A fixed baseline is the answer to this problem which will bring with it certainty and repeatability via a method that recognises the costly and complex overhead of coastline characterisation. In this paper I will present a case for the adoption of a fixed baseline; illustrate the expensive impracticality of attempting to represent a fluid coastline to a world demanding certainty; how fixed baselines could form the basis of maritime zones; and finally demonstrate that adopting a fixed baseline is consistent with and desirable to International convention.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
70367
Contact for the resource
Custodian
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
-
- External PublicationAbstract
- ( Theme )
-
- boundaries
- ( Theme )
-
- marine
-
- AU
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
-
- Earth Sciences
-
- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2010-01-01T00:00:00
Creation Date
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
Purpose
Maintenance Information
unknown
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Lineage
Unknown
Parent Information
Extents
[-89.0, -9.0, 110.0, 160.0]
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
Associations
Downloads and Links
Source Information
Source data not available.