The shoreline was created from data captured (digitized from scanned images of the master separates of the NOS Charts) from over 270 National Ocean Service Navigation Charts and spans some 80,000 nautical miles at an average map scale of 1:70,000.
This product comprises over 75,000 nautical miles of coastline (nearly 2.5 million vectices), representing the entire conterminous United States of America. Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, and all other interests and territories of the United States are not included in the collection.
The data set is designed for a broad target audience ranging from governmental agencies, universities and other research institutions, to the private sector, and students, as well as any other concern requiring a general purpose digital shoreline layer for GIS and cartographic projects.
Public domain data from the U.S. Government are freely redistributable with proper metadata and source attribution.
Spatial data were derived directly from National Ocean Service Navigation Charts. The NOS Chart Products meet or exceed National Map Accuracy standards (hard copy); the digital data supplied in this compilation should, when plotted at scale, meet or exceed these same cartographic standards.