What is the absolute best vector GIS coastline product available globally? I know of a great product for Africa (page 13 of this PDF http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/ecosystems/docs/Africa_Ecosystems_Booklet_final.pdf). This is just what is needed but for the countries listed below. Does a global product of this detail exist? If not global feel free to send me links for continents or countries. I particularly need the coastlines of Asia (tropical countries) and Latin America. Feel free to give me continental links or even country links to the best vector digital GIS coastlines. High-detail and high-resolution matters (1:50,000 or better).
Countries required are:
- Brazil
- Ecuador
- Mexico
- India
- Bangladesh
- China
- Thailand
- Malaysia
- Vietnam
- Philippines
- Indonesia
- Myanmar
Thanks.
Best Answer
The coastline in the referenced resource ("A New Map of Standardized Terrestrial Ecosystems of Africa") was created from an analysis of 30m Landsat imagery, subsequently generalized to 90m (see page 6).
I am not aware of a global database of coastlines derived from Landsat, but check out GSHHG. Their shoreline data comes from the World Vector Shoreline database, originally produced at 1:250,000.
GSHHG A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg/