Spatial datasets to define operational boundaries within four marine basins delineated by distance from shore, depth, EEZ and protected status, accompanied by maps and statistical summary tables

Abstract

This data article provides several datasets delineating, illustrating and summarizing marine regions within exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of 69 coastal states within the Atlantic, Baltic/North Sea, Mediterranean and Caribbean marine basins. Datasets include two GIS feature classes stored in a Version 10.0 file geodatabase: (1) A polygon feature class delineating operational boundaries within EEZs based on sovereign authority, distance bands from shore, depth ranges, and whether the region lies within a recognized protected area, and (2) A polyline feature class of shorelines for each coastal state. Both feature classes are fully described in the metadata. Datasets also include Excel files summarizing each marine basin and coastal state, summarized by area and proportion of all combinations of distance, depth and protected status. Datasets also include maps illustrating and describing all combinations of distance, depth and protection status, plus shoreline length, for each coastal state and for each marine basin. Datasets also include Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code files used to generate all datasets, summary tables and maps. These datasets support analysis described in “Assessment of the geographical potential for co-use of marine space, based on operational boundaries for Blue Growth sectors” (van den Burg et al., 2018), and allow readers to extend the regional assessments described in that article down to individual country-level assessments.