[OSM-talk] Coastlines

[Erik Johansson]

On 3/22/06, Jon Stockill <lists at stockill.net> wrote:
> There are several freely available datasets for coastlines:
>
> 1. VMAP0 - US department of defence vector map (contains far more than
> just coastlines, but can be rather "coarse".
>
> 2. GSHHS - Global Self-consistent Hierarchical High-resolution
> Shoreline. Tends to give more accurate coastlines than VMAP0 outside of
> the US (for some reason VMAP0 seems more accurate for the US). There are
> issues with inland water (such as the great lakes) though.
>
> 3. SWBD - Shuttle radar topography mission Water Body Data. Derived from
> the SRTM digital elevation model. Newer than the rest, potentially more
> accurate.
>
> For paths running along cliff tops you wouldn't want to trust your life
> to any of this data - but for the purposes of giving you a plausible
> landmass to draw maps on they're all useful.
>
> Jon
>


Cool, I wasn't aware of SWBD, and those files are quite easy to handle as well.

--
/Erik