World Shorelines

The original World Vector Shoreline (WVS) was a digital data file containing the shorelines, international boundaries, and country names of the world. WVS data were processed into NGA’s Vector Product Format in 1995, resulting in the highest resolution demarcation of coastline globally available, the World Vector Shoreline Plus. Six libraries exist, within this single worldwide database, at scales ranging from 1:250,000 to 1:120,000,000. Each library contains a Countries/Coastlines/Oceans (COC) coverage, including both line and area features such as coastlines, political boundary lines, and other lines of separation, administrative areas, and oceans. Each library also contains the following reference coverages: library reference (LIBREF), which gives an overview of the library; tile reference (TILEREF), which defines the tiling scheme for each library; and names placement (GAZETTE), which contains point features that represent the approximate centroid of each locality in the WVS Plus database. The maritime boundaries (MAB) and maritime boundaries supplemental (MBS) coverages contain maritime claims for each country as derived from the Maritime Claims Reference Manual, DOD 2005.1M, 2001. MAB and MBS are found only in the WVS250K library (1:250,000 scale). The bathymetry (BAT) coverage exists only in the WVS003M, WVS012M, and WVS040M libraries and contains depth contours and depth areas derived from the digital bathymetric database product. See the Vector Product Format (VPF) World Vector Shoreline (WVSPLUS) Draft Specification (MIL-PRF-89012A dated August 24, 1999) for a detailed product definition, and the VPF Military Standard (MIL-STD-2407) for more descriptions of VPF. Tidal Datum: Mean high water (MHW)