[Talk-GB] Counties and coasts

[Peter Miller]

On 22 Jun 2009, at 15:14, Matthew Westcott wrote:

> On 22 Jun 2009, at 14:45, Chris Hill wrote:
>> I understand that
>> councils are responsible for the beach so the county could be said to
>> extend beyond what we currently mark as the coastline.  Does anyone
>> know
>> where council boundaries actually end with respect to the sea and
>> coastline?
>
>
> Entirely wild speculation, but logically I'd assume they ought to
> extend to the 12 mile boundary beyond the coastline which the UK
> claims as territorial waters...
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-mile_limit
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

Here is a view from the Essex county boundary (pink) from the OS  
(Meridian) overlaid on Navteq coastline. The white area seems to be  
sandbanks and the edge of the pink seems to relate more closely to the  
coastline as on OSM. The administrative boundary for Essex on OSM  
relates reasonably closely to the Naveq coastline however it actually  
relates to sand-banks in the 1940's from NPE.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterito/3650048655/

Bing (Microsoft) also use the Naveq data and their coastline  
corresponds with the Navteq coastline data we show above however when  
one clicking on the aerial photography the coast moves in a lot to  
where Meridian says the coast is. Notice the nonsense on Bing around  
the Mersea Island where Bing shows a land bridge from the Island to  
the mainland which doesn't exist on aerial photography.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx? 
cp=51.7648917581035~0.9051542318286936&lvl=12

Google (using TeleAtlas) show the coast more closely related to the  
aerial photography and the OSM coastline.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=51.771877,0.943794&spn=0.088378,0.291824&z=12

The Sealand article makes no reference to Sealand being 'in Suffolk'  
or 'in Essex', but 'off the coast of Essex' and being now in  
'territorial waters'. I thought the Queen owned the land between high  
and low water anyway. The Three Mile limit article makes no reference  
to who 'manages' this area of sea.

No answers, just a review of what happens. Personally I would find the  
edge of dry land more useful than the edge of moving sandbanks and I  
would like the edge of Essex (and the coastline) to match up with  
where one starts to get wet! We then have a 'tUnited Kingdom  
territorial waters' boundary which is out to sea (which we do have)



Regards,



Peter


>
> - Matt
>
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