{"id":5340,"date":"2017-02-06T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T08:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/?p=5340"},"modified":"2017-03-13T10:59:29","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T10:59:29","slug":"coast-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/?p=5340","title":{"rendered":"Coast Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cartogram<\/a>
\n(click for larger version)<\/a><\/p>\n

The question about the length of the world\u2019s coastlines is not as easy to answer as it would initially seem. The British mathematician and meteorologist Lewis Fry Richardson was among the first to investigate this phenomenon of the fractal nature of boundary lines in the early twentieth century. The rougher coastlines are, the more of a fractal nature they have and the more difficult it becomes to determine their length since this changes when looking at it using different scales and resolutions.
\nRichardson\u2019s fellow mathematician, Benoit Mandelbrot, further investigated this phenomenon by looking at the length of the coast of Britain. He explained how the length of a coastline increases the smaller the ruler used for measuring. This has become known as the Coastline Paradox, since it suggests that the length of a coastline theoretically is infinite, or undefinable.
\nThese theoretical notions do not even consider the dynamic nature of planet Earth. The geography of coastlines constantly changes, and sometimes quite significantly within a short period of time. In addition, the large differences in tidal influences add to the difficulty in getting more precise approximations, even with geospatial technologies having improved our capabilities of measuring such phenomena considerably in recent times.
\nMeasuring the length of a coastline therefore is complex, and any induction will remain imperfect. Any statements of length need to be treated with caution as the totals vary depending on the approach used. For example, the World Factbook<\/a> states the total length of coastlines in the world as 1.16 million kilometres. The World Resources Institute<\/a>, meanwhile, states a total figure of 1.63 million kilometres in one of its studies.
\nWhen comparing the lengths of coastlines of different countries, it is therefore more important to use a consistent mathematical approach to measuring to get a clearer picture of how countries and continents compare globally. For the data used in this month\u2019s cartogram, the estimates from the previously mentioned sources were both taken into account and combined to avoid under-representation of smaller islands but also to get a more complete picture of the varying estimates that exist.
\nThe cartogram shows each country of the world resized according to the total length of its coastline. It is therefore a representation of each country\u2019s share of the world\u2019s coastlines. In addition, the different regions are coloured in shades of blue, with the darkest shade (the Americas) representing the region with the largest share of the world\u2019s coastlines and the lightest shade (Africa) the smallest share. Africa\u2019s relatively small share might look surprising given its land area, but can be explained by it having a much more regular coastline that has far fewer indentations such as inlets, bays or gulfs compared to other regions. Canada, by contrast, has the most complex geography of its coastlines and is therefore the country with the longest coastline regardless of which estimations are used in our calculations.
\nCoasts are the locations where land meets the world\u2019s oceans. The fact that we find it almost impossible to determine their real lengths only adds to the fascination of these areas where about 44 per cent of the world\u2019s population live within a distance of 150 kilometres.<\/p>\n

A modified version<\/a> of this map was published in the October 2016 issue<\/a> of Geographical Magazine<\/a>. The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig. Please contact me<\/a> for further details on the terms of use.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(click for larger version) The question about the length of the world\u2019s coastlines is not as easy to answer as it would initially seem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[15,388,560,380,559],"class_list":["post-5340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maps","category-publications","tag-cartogram","tag-coast","tag-coastline","tag-geographical","tag-maths"],"yoast_head":"\nCoast Lines - Views of the World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/?p=5340\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coast Lines - Views of the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(click for larger version) The question about the length of the world\u2019s coastlines is not as easy to answer as it would initially seem.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/?p=5340\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Views of the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/geoviews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-06T08:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-13T10:59:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/CoastlinesCartogram.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"worldmapper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@geoviews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@geoviews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"worldmapper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/?p=5340\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.viewsoftheworld.net\/?p=5340\",\"name\":\"Coast Lines - 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