The uncertainty of a bathymetric contour: implications for the cut-off line
The determination of the outer limit of the juridical shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, as defined in Article 76 of the Law of the Sea, is an exercise were the bathymetry of the sea floor play a major role. One of the main components that need to be defined is the cut-off line; the 2500 m isobath plu...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.365.1000 http://www.gmat.unsw.edu.au/ablos/ABLOS01Folder/Jakobsson_et_al.pdf |
| Summary: | The determination of the outer limit of the juridical shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, as defined in Article 76 of the Law of the Sea, is an exercise were the bathymetry of the sea floor play a major role. One of the main components that need to be defined is the cut-off line; the 2500 m isobath plus 100 nautical miles. Isobaths are mostly either “human based ” interpolations of underlying sparse track data or are derived from a bathymetric model (grid or TIN), which in turn may be based on sparse track data. The interpolation between soundings and the actual uncertainty of the underlying depth data plays an important role in the accuracy of any derived isobath. Therefore, all isobaths are subject to interpretation and there is always an uncertainty associated with an isobath. We have addressed the question of variability of isobaths derived from bathymetric grid models by investigating how the random errors in the source data propagate through the gridding process to the final derived isobath by the use of a Monte Carlo simulation method. We have focused this experiment on the 2500 m isobath derived from a subset of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) around Svalbard. |
|---|