Does anyone have a keep a list of lengths of the world's international
boundaries?
The CIA Factbook, Gideon Biger's International Boundary Encyclopedia,
and our Office of the Geographer's vintage International Boundary
Studies differ, sometime substantially for the same boundaries. We are
supposed to keep an authoritative list for the US Government that is now
woefully out of date -- and based, I suspect, from even more vintage
materials (circa 1960s) of unknown provenance. Calculating lengths from
medium or large scale GIS databases is equally spurious as the lines
were crudely digtitized from 1:1M maps (World Vector Shoreline or
VMAP0). To add salt to the wound, I have encountered disparities with
common boundary lengths reported by adjacent states.
What is a humble synorologist supposed to do? Your suggestions and
recommendations are warmly welcomed.
Ray Milefsky
Office of the Geographer and Global Issues
US Department of State
202.647.1205
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