U.S. State Submerged Lands

Office for Coastal Management
Data Set (DS) | ID: 48928 | Published / External
Created: 2017-11-14   |   Last Modified: 2025-05-15

Parent: MarineCadastre
Project (PRJ) | ID: 37232

ID: 48928
Data Set (DS)

* Discovery
• First Pass
» Metadata Rubric

Item Identification

* » Title U.S. State Submerged Lands
Short Name  
* Status Completed
Creation Date  
Revision Date  
• Publication Date 2016-09-14
* » Abstract

The Submerged Lands Act (43 U.S.C. Section 1301 et seq.) grants coastal states title to natural resources located within their coastal submerged lands and navigable waters out to three nautical miles from their coastlines (three marine leagues for Texas and Florida's Gulf of Mexico coastlines). The Submerged Lands Act defines "natural resources" to include oil, gas, and all other minerals, and fish, shrimp, oysters, clams, crabs, lobsters, sponges, kelp, and other marine animal and plant life," yet expressly excludes "water power, or the use of water for the production of power" 43 U.S.C. Section 1301(e). The term "coast line" is "the line of ordinary low water along that portion of the coast which is in direct contact with the open sea and the line marking the seaward limit of inland waters" (43 U.S.C. Section 1301(c)). Some boundary delineations are approximated, including areas in Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington State. The official delineation of the Submerged Lands Act in these locations has not yet been established by BOEM. Please reference BOEM's official Submerged Lands Act Boundary in these locations to determine where this boundary is approximated and where it is official.

Source: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title43/pdf/USCODE-2011-title43-chap29.pdf

Date enacted: May 22, 1953

Codification: 43 U.S.C. Sec. 1301 et seq.

Authority: agencies of several U.S. coastal states
* Purpose

To support ocean planning activities pursuant to the Executive Order Regarding the Ocean Policy to Advance the Economic, Security, and Environmental Interests of the United States, the Energy Policy Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act, and the Coastal Zone Management Act.
Notes
Other Citation Details
• Supplemental Information

Bureau Code: 006:48, Program Code: 006:055
DOI (Digital Object Identifier)  
DOI Registration Authority  
DOI Issue Date  

Keywords

Theme Keywords

Thesaurus Keyword
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE/MANAGEMENT
ISO 19115 Topic Category boundaries
ISO 19115 Topic Category oceans
ISO 19115 Topic Category planningCadastre
None coastal
None marine boundaries
None planning
   
   
   

Temporal Keywords

Thesaurus Keyword
   
   
   

* Spatial Keywords

Thesaurus Keyword
Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Location Keywords CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
None Exclusive Economic Zone
None Outer Continental Shelf
None Territorial Sea
None United States of America
   
   
   

Stratum Keywords

Thesaurus Keyword
   
   
   

Instrument Keywords

Thesaurus Keyword
   
   
   

Platform Keywords

Thesaurus Keyword
   
   
   

Physical Location

• » Organization Office for Coastal Management
• » City Charleston
• » State/Province SC
• Country  
• » Location Description

Data Set Information

* Data Set Scope Code Data Set
• Data Set Type  
• Maintenance Frequency None Planned
Maintenance Note
» Data Presentation Form  
• Entity Attribute Overview

statute, citation, codification
Entity Attribute Detail Citation
Entity Attribute Detail URL  
Distribution Liability

https://www.marinecadastre.gov/about/disclaimer.html
Data Set Credit Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, NOAA Office for Coastal Management

Support Roles

» At least one Distributor Org, one Metadata Contact, one Point of Contact, and one Data Steward should be listed.
* » Support Role Point of Contact
* » Date Effective From 2016-09-14
Date Effective To
Organization NOAA Office for Coastal Management (NOAA/OCM)
Address 2234 South Hobson Ave
Charleston, SC 29405-2413
Email Address coastal.info@noaa.gov
Phone (843) 740-1202
Fax  
Mobile  
URL https://coast.noaa.gov
Business Hours  
Contact Instructions
* » Support Role
* » Date Effective From
Date Effective To
* » Contact
* Contact Instructions
* » Support Role
* » Date Effective From
Date Effective To
* » Contact
* Contact Instructions
* » Support Role
* » Date Effective From
Date Effective To
* » Contact
* Contact Instructions

Extents

Currentness Reference Publication Date

Extent Group 1

Extent Description

Extent Group 1 / Geographic Area 1

* » W° Bound -179.229655
* » E° Bound 179.856675
* » N° Bound 71.439231
* » S° Bound 18.85975
* » Description

Extent Group 1 / Vertical Extent

EPSG Code
Vertical Minimum
Vertical Maximum

Extent Group 1 / Time Frame 1

* » Time Frame Type Discrete
* » Start 2016
End  
Alternate Start As Of Info  
Alternate End As Of Info  
Description

Spatial Information

Spatial Resolution

Angular Distance  
Angular Distance Units  
Horizontal Distance  
Horizontal Distance Units  
Vertical Distance  
Vertical Distance Units  
Equivalent Scale Denominator  
Level of Detail Description

Spatial Representation

Grid Representation Used?  
Vector Representation Used? Yes
Text / Table Representation Used?  
TIN Representation Used?  
Stereo Model Representation Used?  
Video Representation Used?  

Grid Representation

Dimension Count
Cell Geometry
Transformation Parameter Available?  

Axis Dimension
Dimension Type
Size
Resolution
Resolution Units
Resolution Type
Description

Axis Dimension
Dimension Type
Size
Resolution
Resolution Units
Resolution Type
Description

Vector Representation

Topology Level
Complex Object Present?  
Complex Object Count
Composite Object Present?  
Composite Object Count
Curve Object Present?  
Curve Object Count
Point Object Present?  
Point Object Count
Solid Object Present?  
Solid Object Count
Surface Object Present?  
Surface Object Count

Reference Systems

Reference System

EPSG Code

Horizontal Resolution
Horizontal Encoding Method
Latitude Resolution
Longitude Resolution
Coordinate X Resolution
Coordinate Y Resolution
Row Resolution
Column Resolution
Horizontal Units
Distance Resolution
Distance Units
Bearing Resolution
Bearing Units
Reference Direction
Reference Meridian

Vertical Resolution
Vertical Encoding Method
Vertical Resolution
Vertical Units

Access Information

Data License  
Data License URL  
Data License Statement
* » Security Class Unclassified
* Security Classification System
Security Handling Description
• Data Access Policy
» Data Access Procedure
• » Data Access Constraints

None
• Data Use Constraints

For coastal and ocean planning
Metadata Access Constraints
Metadata Use Constraints

Distribution Information

Start Date  
» Download URL https://marinecadastre.gov/data/
Distributor
File Name  
Description

Marine Cadastre Data Registry
File Date/Time  
File Type (Deprecated)  
Distribution Format  
File Size  
Application Version  
Compression  
Review Status  
Start Date  
» Download URL https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/mc/USStateSubmergedLands.zip
Distributor
File Name  
Description
File Date/Time  
File Type (Deprecated)  
Distribution Format  
File Size  
Application Version  
Compression  
Review Status  
Start Date
End Date
» Download URL
Distributor
File Name
Description
File Date/Time
File Type
FGDC Content Type
File Size
Application Version
Compression
Review Status
Start Date
End Date
» Download URL
Distributor
File Name
Description
File Date/Time
File Type
FGDC Content Type
File Size
Application Version
Compression
Review Status
Start Date
End Date
» Download URL
Distributor
File Name
Description
File Date/Time
File Type
FGDC Content Type
File Size
Application Version
Compression
Review Status

Archive Information

Location
File Identifier
File Name
URL
Description
DOI
Archive Date
Archive Update Frequency
Location
File Identifier
File Name
URL
Description
DOI
Archive Date
Archive Update Frequency
Location
File Identifier
File Name
URL
Description
DOI
Archive Date
Archive Update Frequency

URLs

URL
Name
URL Type
File Resource Format
Description
URL
Name
URL Type
File Resource Format
Description
URL
Name
URL Type
File Resource Format
Description

Activity Log

Activity Time 2016-09-14
Activity Type  
Responsible Party  
Description

Date that the source FGDC record was last modified.
Activity Time 2017-11-14
Activity Type  
Responsible Party  
Description

Converted from FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (version FGDC-STD-001-1998) using 'fgdc_to_inport_xml.pl' script. Contact Tyler Christensen (NOS) for details.
Activity Time 2018-02-08
Activity Type  
Responsible Party  
Description

Partial upload of Positional Accuracy fields only.
Activity Time
Activity Type
Responsible Party
Description
Activity Time
Activity Type
Responsible Party
Description
Activity Time
Activity Type
Responsible Party
Description

Issues

Issue Date
Author
Issue
Issue Date
Author
Issue
Issue Date
Author
Issue

Technical Environment

Description  
 

Data Quality

Representativeness
Accuracy

Untested
Analytical Accuracy
Horizontal Positional Accuracy

Compiled to meet 10 meters horizontal accuracy at 95% confidence level
Vertical Positional Accuracy
Quantitation Limits
Bias
Comparability
Completeness Measure
Precision
Analytical Precision
Field Precision
Sensitivity
Detection Limit
Completeness Report

Untested
Conceptual Consistency

These data are logically consistent
» Quality Control Procedures Employed

Data Management

» Have Resources for Management of these Data Been Identified?  
» Approximate Percentage of Budget for these Data Devoted to Data Management  
» Do these Data Comply with the Data Access Directive?  
» Is Access to the Data Limited Based on an Approved Waiver?  
» If Distributor (Data Hosting Service) is Needed, Please Indicate  
» Approximate Delay Between Data Collection and Dissemination  
» If Delay is Longer than Latency of Automated Processing, Indicate Under What Authority Data Access is Delayed  
 
» Actual or Planned Long-Term Data Archive Location  
» If World Data Center or Other, Specify  
» If To Be Determined, Unable to Archive, or No Archiving Intended, Explain  
 
» Approximate Delay Between Data Collection and Archiving  
» How Will the Data Be Protected from Accidental or Malicious Modification or Deletion Prior to Receipt by the Archive?  
 

Lineage

» Lineage Statement

Sources

Citation Title Coastal Zone Management Act
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), Office for Coastal Management (OCM)
Publish Date 2013-12-12
Extent Type Discrete
Extent Start Date/Time 2013-12-12
Extent End Date/Time  
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL ftp://ftp.coast.noaa.gov/pub/MSP/CoastalZoneManagementActBoundary.zip
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

The official, published seaward boundary for the Coastal Zone Management Act. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title coastline.zip
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
Publish Date  
Extent Type  
Extent Start Date/Time  
Extent End Date/Time  
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL  
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

Shoreline for the state of Alaska. Received data via email. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title Energy Policy Act
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), Office for Coastal Management (OCM)
Publish Date 2016-05-11
Extent Type Discrete
Extent Start Date/Time 2016-05-11
Extent End Date/Time  
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL ftp://coast.noaa.gov/pub/Legis-Atlas/FederalGeoregulations/EnergyPolicyAct.zip
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

The official, published boundary for the Energy Policy Act. This boundary was used as an equivalent delineation for the Exclusive Economic Zone boundary. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title International_Boundary.zip
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name Department of the Interior (DOI), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Publish Date 2010-01-01
Extent Type Discrete
Extent Start Date/Time 2010
Extent End Date/Time  
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL http://txpub.usgs.gov/BEHI/Data_download/Boundaries_Layers/International_Boundary.zip
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

Delineation of the U.S./Mexico international boundary. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title OCS 3nm line
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), Office for Coast Survey (OCS)
Publish Date  
Extent Type  
Extent Start Date/Time  
Extent End Date/Time  
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL  
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

The official OCS 3nm line, for Alaska and Hawaii. Received data via email. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title shapefile13w.zip
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
Publish Date 2009-01-01
Extent Type Discrete
Extent Start Date/Time 2009
Extent End Date/Time  
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL http://msi.nga.mil/DNCSiteContent/StaticFiles/shapefiles/shapefile13w.zip
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

Shoreline for the state of Hawaii, and a small portion of northeast Alaska at the border with Canada. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title Submerged Lands Act
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
Publish Date 2006-01-01
Extent Type Range
Extent Start Date/Time 2006-02-10
Extent End Date/Time 2012
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL http://www.boem.gov/Oil-and-Gas-Energy-Program/Mapping-and-Data/Alaska/fedstate.aspx
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

The official, published seaward boundary for the Submerged Lands Act in the Lower 48 and Alaska. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title us_medium_shoreline.zip
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Publish Date 2008-01-01
Extent Type Discrete
Extent Start Date/Time 2008
Extent End Date/Time  
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL https://coast.noaa.gov/htdata/Shoreline/us_medium_shoreline.zip
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

Medium resolution shoreline for the Lower 48 states. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title USMaritimeLimitsAndBoundariesSHP.zip
Contact Role Type  
Contact Type  
Contact Name Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), Office for Coast Survey (OCS)
Publish Date 2013-09-13
Extent Type Discrete
Extent Start Date/Time 2013-09-13
Extent End Date/Time  
Scale Denominator  
Citation URL https://maritimeboundaries.noaa.gov/downloads/USMaritimeLimitsAndBoundariesSHP.zip
Citation URL Name  
Citation URL Description
Source Contribution

Delineation of the U.S./Canada international boundary. | Source Geospatial Form: vector digital data | Type of Source Media: online
Citation Title
Contact Role Type
Contact Type
Contact Name
Publish Date
Extent Type
Extent Start Date/Time
Extent End Date/Time
Citation URL
Citation URL Name
Citation URL Description
Scale Denominator
Citation Title
Contact Role Type
Contact Type
Contact Name
Publish Date
Extent Type
Extent Start Date/Time
Extent End Date/Time
Citation URL
Citation URL Name
Citation URL Description
Scale Denominator
Citation Title
Contact Role Type
Contact Type
Contact Name
Publish Date
Extent Type
Extent Start Date/Time
Extent End Date/Time
Citation URL
Citation URL Name
Citation URL Description
Scale Denominator

Process Steps

Process Step Number 1
» Description

1. Acquired national shoreline/s from authoritative sources (NOAA, BOEM, and NGA) to use as the inland extent of the Submerged Lands Act (SLA) boundary.

2. Acquired international borders (Canada and Mexico) from authoritative sources (OCS and USGS, respectively).

3. Acquired the seaward Submerged Lands Act line work from BOEM (Lower 48 and Alaska only). Acquired NOAA 3nm line work from OCS (via email) for Hawaii and those areas of Alaska that do not have a BOEM-defined SLA boundary. (NOTE: some western Hawaiian islands have a 3nm line based on reefs, rather than the source shoreline (via NGA) extents.) The Exclusive Economic Zone (derived from the Energy Policy Act boundary) was used in places like Maine, Texas, and Washington state, where unclosed polylines in the BOEM SLA occurred over open water.

4. Created a national polygon shoreline, using the various shoreline sources and international borders. This was used as the landward extent of the SLA boundary. (NOTE: in northeast Alaska, the BOEM shoreline and OCS international boundary did not intersect. Used the NGA shoreline to close the small gap between these two sources.)

5. The seaward extent of the SLA boundary was generated in various ways, depending on the region and the respective data available. The methods are detailed as follows:

6. For the Lower 48, manually combined the BOEM SLA boundary, the OCS US/Canada boundary, and the USGS US/Mexico boundary. The Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) boundary was used where the BOEM SLA boundary was discontinuous (Florida) or did not connect with other boundaries (Washington State).

7. For Alaska, manually combined the BOEM SLA boundary and the OCS 3nm line. Where different component boundaries (polylines) did not meet/coincide, a line was drawn between the two at a perpendicular angle, based on the bearing of the line segment formed by the last two vertices of the "more official" boundary. For example, this was done in Alaska where the BOEM SLA and OCS 3nm lines did not line up. In such a case, the connecting line(s) was derived by adding a line perpendicular from the final line segment of the BOEM SLA boundary, per location.

8. For Hawaii, the respective features within the OCS 3nm boundary were extracted, as no published SLA boundary previously existed.

9. Combined all seaward extents of the varying regions into one national feature class.

10. Combined the seaward and landward (i.e. shoreline) segment boundaries into one feature class, then converted to a polygon. Before converting to a polygon, had to address 13 topology errors within the BOEM SLA data, where very small gaps within the polyline existed. (Five errors were in Alaska and eight were in the Gulf of Mexico.) These gaps were closed by creating a straight line between the two end nodes.

11. Generated a Great Lakes polygon, using the NOAA medium resolution shoreline and the US/Canada international boundary.

12. Visually inspected boundary extents to make sure they were coincident to respective data source boundaries.

13. Added fields and populated according to data dictionary.

2022-10-25

14. Executed REPAIR GEOMETRY function to remove non simple features and duplicate vertex features.

15. Executed the INTERSECT function with a one degree reference grid.

16. Adjusted the field sizes to better reflect the actual size of each field
Process Date/Time 2016-01-01 00:00:00
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Email Address  
Source  
Process Step Number
» Description
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Email Address
Source

Acquisition Information

Instruments

Instrument Unavailable Reason  
Identifier
Docucomp UUID
Instrument / Gear
Instrument Type
Description
Identifier
Docucomp UUID
Instrument / Gear
Instrument Type
Description
Identifier
Docucomp UUID
Instrument / Gear
Instrument Type
Description

Platforms

Platform Unavailable Reason  
Identifier
Docucomp UUID
Description

Mounted Instruments
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Description

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FAQs

Date
Author
Question
Answer

Child Items

Rubric scores updated every 15m

Score Type Title
  Entity (ENT) USStateSubmergedLands
     
     
     

Related Items

Item Type Relationship Type Title
     
     
     

Catalog Details

Catalog Item ID 48928
Metadata Record Created By Anne Ball
Metadata Record Created 2017-11-14 15:56+0000
Metadata Record Last Modified By SysAdmin InPortAdmin
» Metadata Record Last Modified 2025-05-15 19:16+0000
Metadata Record Published 2018-02-08
Owner Org OCM
Metadata Publication Status Published Externally
Do Not Publish? N
Metadata Workflow State Published / External
Metadata Last Review Date 2018-02-08
Metadata Review Frequency 1 Year
Metadata Next Review Date 2019-02-08
Tags