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Simplified Marine Regions v12 dataset

Source: R/data.R
marine_regions.Rd

A tibble with the ISO codes and names derived from Marine Regions v12, to be used by get_regions() and get_region_id() to extract numeric EEZ codes (MRGID)

Usage

marine_regions

Format

A tibble with 285 rows and 5 columns

iso

ISO Code derived from the different ISO code columns in the Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase v12

name

Territory name derived from the different Name and Geoname columns in the Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase v12

MRGID

Original numeric id for EEZs from the Marine Boundaries Geodatabase v12. This numeric code should be used in the region argument when using functions get_raster() and get_event(), when region_source = "EEZ".

GEONAME

Original GEONAME field from the Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase v12

POL_TYPE

Original POLygon TYPE from the Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase v12. Possible value are "200NM", "Overlapping claim" and "Joint regime"

Source

Marine Regions https://www.marineregions.org/. https://doi.org/10.14284/632

Details

The main source data for EEZ shapefiles and information across Global Fishing Watch's data and platforms is Marine Regions v12.

The main variable of interest of this dataset is MRGID, the unique identifier for each one of the polygons comprising Marine Regions. MRGID is necessary to retrieve apparent fishing effort data and all event types from other gfwr functions when region_source = "EEZ"

Functions get_region_id() and get_regions() facilitate fetching region ids from ISO codes and region names.

However, the original Marine Region dataset includes several columns that can refer to the ISO of the territory itself (ISO_TER1), the entity that has sovereignty over the territory (ISO_SOV1) or the territories that operate Joint regime areas, or claim Overlapping claims areas (ISO_SOV1, ISO_SOV2, ISO_SOV3).

The table marine_regions unifies all these ISO markers into a single column without modifying the original data, in a reproducible way.

  • Joint regime and overlapping claims with no ISO receive an NA: iso = NA

  • Territories within the 200NM with an ISO receive it: iso = ISO_TER1

  • Overlapping claims with an ISO receive it: iso = ISO_TER1

  • Territories within the 200NM and no ISO receive the ISO of their mainland: iso = ISO_SOV1

Likewise, marine_regions also derives a name column from the different names and GEONAME columns present in the original dataset.

  • Countries and territories within the 200NM EEZs receive their name: name = TERRITORY1

  • Overlapping claims with a name receive their name: name = TERRITORY1

  • Joint regimes and overlapping claims with no name receive their GEONAME: name = GEONAME

The code implementing this synthesis can be found in the data-raw/marine_regions.R file.

References

Flanders Marine Institute (2023). Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase: Maritime Boundaries and Exclusive Economic Zones (200NM), version 12. Available online at https://www.marineregions.org/. https://doi.org/10.14284/632