383. DERIVED VALUES As measured, in accordance with the adopted definitions and techniques, the derived totals in the various categories are as follows (the categories follow the definitions outlined in note 63 supra): INLAND WATER Conterminous United States=45,259 square statute miles LAND AREA Conterminous United States=2,977,128 square statute miles LAND AND WATER AREA Conterminous United States=3,022,387 square statute miles STATE WATER Conterminous United States=74,364 square statute miles Table 2 shows the land and inland water area by states for the United States. Table 3 shows the state waters by states for conterminous United States onlyfigures for the then territories of Alaska and Hawaii were not computed in the 1940 Census. 175 175. The Census tables include a breakdown of the land and water area of the United States by counties and by minor civil divisions. See Tables 2 and 3 of BATSCHELET (1942) op. cit. supra note 170. Also included are land and water areas of the United States possessions and the Philippine Islands. Id. at 3 (Table I). World Areas. A value of 135,262,000 square kilometers (52,225,000 square statute miles) has been given for the land area of the world, exclusive of the polar regions and some uninhabited islands, but inclusive of the areas of inland waters. UNITED NATIONS DEMOGRAPHIC YEARBOOK 124 (1962). Since neither the exact method of determining each area nor the precise definition of its composition and time reference is known for all areas, the value may not necessarily be on a comparable basis for all countries. Some area figures are based on recent surveys while others are no more than conjectures based on random items of information. Furthermore, the concept of inland waters varies from country to country, some including the area of coastal bays, inlets, and gulfs, in addition to major rivers and lakes. Apparent inconsistency with previously published figures (for example, 135,369,000 square kilometers in the 1958 Yearbook) may be due to the introduction of improved estimates, to increases in actual land surface by reclamation, or to a change in the unit of measurement used. Id. at 14. Based on information furnished by the Hydrographic Office of the Department of the Navy, the area of Antarctica is reckoned as comprising 5,300,000 square statute miles. THE WORLD ALMANAC 594 (1963). TABLE 2.-Land and Inland Water Area of the United States—Continued 384. AREA OF THE TERRITORIAL SEA OF THE UNITED STATES Associated with the outer limits of the United States, as defined in 3811 for area purposes, is the territorial sea of the United States over which this country exercises full sovereignty. As such, it is part of the national territory, subject only to the right of innocent passage of foreign vessels (see Volume One, Part 1, 312). The territorial sea of any nation is an offshore zone measured from the low-water mark along the coast, or from the seaward limits of inland waters where there are embayments that qualify as such. This line, from which the territorial sea is measured, is known as the baseline and its delineation along a coast is dependent upon the application of certain principles that have been accepted in international law (see Volume One, Part 1, 33). The United States has traditionally recognized a zone of 3 nautical miles as the breadth of the territorial sea. Based on this distance, and using principles of delimitation adopted at Geneva on April 27, 1958, at the United Nations' Conference on the Law of the Sea (see Volume One, Part 3, 2211), the Department of State has computed the area of the territorial sea for conterminous United 176 Since the limiting States (see note 63 supra) to be 17,321 square nautical miles.' line for measuring the land and water area of the United States (see 3812 and 3813) is not identical with the baseline for measuring the territorial sea, this area cannot be superposed on the area of the United States to obtain a single value which will represent the full areal extent to the outer limit of the territorial sea.' 177 The Department of State has also computed the area of the territorial sea of Hawaii-that is, for those islands constituting the State of Hawaii-using the same principles and criteria as used for conterminous United States. This yielded a value of 3,069 square nautical miles.178 39. SHORELINE OF THE UNITED STATES In the measurement of any shoreline, an important consideration is the method and unit used. Unless these are known, and the scale of the maps used are given, the significance of the values derived will be lost. Thus, a 1-mile unit stepped off with dividers will give a different result from a 3-mile unit-the larger the unit, the lower will be the value. The result obtained by this method will differ from the result obtained by using an opisometer (recording measure), following all the indentations and sinuosities of the shore. The latter would obviously give the highest value. By contrast, a measurement based on straight lines joining principal headlands only would give the lowest value. There have been several published tabulations by the Coast and Geodetic Survey beginning with the 1915 tabulation. These will be briefly discussed and significant differences explained. (a) The 1915 Tabulation.—This tabulation included the shoreline of the United States and outlying territories. Unit measures of 30 minutes of latitude, 3 statute miles, and 1 statute mile were used to compute the general coastline, the tidal shoreline (general), and the tidal shoreline (detailed), respectively. Alaska, the Philippine Islands, and the United States Samoan Islands were not measured with a unit measure of 1 statute mile because 176. Pearcy, Measurement of the U.S. Territorial Sea, 40 DEPT. STATE BULLETIN 963 (1959). Separate computations were made for each coastal state, the delineation of the territorial sea being first drawn on the nautical charts of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, using the 1200 series charts (scale 1:80,000) for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and the 5000 series charts (scale approximately 1:180,000) for the Pacific coast. A total of 89 charts was used. 177. In measuring the land and water area of the United States, the high-water line along the coast is taken as the limiting line, whereas for the territorial sea it is the low-water line. Also, the limit of inland water in the first case is defined by an opening in the coast 1 nautical mile or less across headlands, whereas in the second case it is 10 nautical miles (24 miles according to the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone) (see Volume One, Part 3, 2211 C(c)). Therefore, under certain configurations a hiatus would exist between the two limiting lines. 178. Pearcy, Hawaii's Territorial Sea, 11 THE PROFESSIONAL GEOGRAPHER 2 (Nov. 1959). |