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Also at sea borders exist. According to the "Convention on Law of the Sea", coastal states have specific sovereign authority and the capacity to hold rights within an area of maximally 200 nautical miles off their coast line. When Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) between neighbouring countries - or facing countries where the 200 miles criterion can not be applied - are delineated, a median line is calculated or the boundary is set in a convention. |
Up to 2006, no public domain database of these boundaries (global cover) was available. Therefore, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) decided to develop an own database MARBOUND based on existing datasets, convention texts and the calculation of the median lines. The EEZ's can be explored on a map or searched by means of a database. Information can be downloaded as ‘shape files’ or downloaded in a Google-Earth format.
Since its launch there have been some adaptation. Now the fifth version of this MARBOUND data tool is available. It seems to be used very intensively by users from all over the world: in 2009 we counted yet more than 2000 downloads. Users indicate to use the data in order to plan building projects and other developments at sea, environmental impact assessments, marine and coastal studies, school projects, etc.