Coastline
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This section presents a collection of many different coastline data files.  Although it is nearly certain that all of these datasets are related, and probably derived from common sources, their exact "family tree" is poorly known.  The possible parent dataset, the Digital Chart of the World, is not presented here due to extensive copyright issues, and because it is badly out of date.  The southwest corner of the African continent (Capetown area) is shown for comparison purposes.

World Vector Shoreline US Government Statement Source:  GEBCO 2003 Data (zipped shapefiles) 1:250,000 (Files below are subsampled from this full-resolution base) 1:1,000,000 1:3,000,000 1:12,000,000 1:43,000,000
Vector Map Level 0 (VMap0) ESRI License NIMA Statement GCMD Metadata Record Additional Information Original Source (very large files!)  US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency NOA:  North America EUR:  Europe, Northern Asia and Northwest Africa SOA:  South America, Antarctica, Central and Southern Africa SAS:  South Asia, Australia and Northeast Africa Data (zipped shapefiles) African Coastline from VMap0
World Borders  (Low resolution product developed from VMap0) Source:  Mapping Hacks Data World Coastline & International Borders (zipped shapefile) OMAP Coastline & International Borders (zipped shapefile)
Global Self-Consistent High-Resolution Shoreline Database (GSHHS) Citation:  Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith, A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline Database, J. Geophys. Res., 101, #B4, pp. 8741-8743, 1996 Original Source: US National Geophysical Data Center Data (zipped shapefiles) Islands Lakes Land