<p>It is not really worth worrying about unless you are proposing to walk along it, or let your pet ant walk along it, for the ant will have to walk a much greater distance than you as it follows all the wiggles that you just stride over. </p>

<p>Nor does it matter a jot for coastal management, which is always concerned with water bodies or areas and never with the purely conceptual length of the coastline. Coastal reporting sometimes summarises water quality by length of affected coastline, but that is merely an administrative convenience and has no significance otherwise.</p>

<p>The geometric length between two points defining a straight line does not depend on the size of the intervals we use to pace it out. </p>

<p>However, the length of a fractal coastline is quite different. The smaller the step, the greater the length. There are mathematical ways to express this and if you google around you will find them. Try looking for Koch Snowflake for example.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-23T22:56:43.490Z
2014-10-23T22:56:43.490Z
Anton
<p>One standard that has be used by the USA is to measure the distant between points on the coast at intervals of 30 latitude minutes, as measured on a 1:1,200,000 scale map.  </p>

<p>See chapter 5 of <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=lT4q8-MKrrEC&amp;pg=PA66&amp;source=gbs_toc_r&amp;cad=3#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">Measurements from Maps: Principles and Methods of Cartometry</a> by D. H. Maling for further information and other standards that have been used.  </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-28T01:22:34.183Z
Wow. Thanks, but while that seems like a helpful answer to the question as posed, it sounds like a bizarre practice. It seems like the effective measurement interval along the coastline would vary by the angle of the coastline, being most frequent for a N-S coastline, and infinite for a perfectly E-W coastline. Is this practice designed to be relevant for some specific purpose for which this isn't an issue?
nealmcb
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-23T15:40:24.860Z
2014-10-23T15:40:24.860Z
DavePhD
<p>Measuring the length of a coastline depends on the scale of the measuring tool. The smaller the scale of your tool, the longer will your measured coastline be. The reason for this is the fractal property of coastlines. This is well known since a paper by Benoît Mandelbrot <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Long_Is_the_Coast_of_Britain%3F_Statistical_Self-Similarity_and_Fractional_Dimension" rel="nofollow">"How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension"</a>.</p>

<p>Now I was wondering if there is a standardized mapping scale to come up with global or country wise numbers of coastline length?</p>

<p>And furthermore, if there even is a general rule for all mapping purposes, which scale is to be used in mapping?</p>

<p>Is there maybe even something like an ISO standard for this?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-19T22:04:51.143Z
Given the widely fluctuating values for coastline length, and given the coastline paradox the ultimately belies these widely varying numbers, the only reasonable answer is no. We do have arbitrary standards for things such as mass, length and time, but those are important. (The only non-arbitrary standard for mass, length, and time would be to use natural units, and those would be completely useless for commerce.) For how to measure a coastline? How is that important?
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-20T13:02:30.373Z
I think this question would be appropriate for http://gis.stackexchange.com/
Gimelist
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-23T16:10:26.217Z
@DavidHammen There is a number of elements of industry, economy and ecology that may rely on the length and/or shape of the coastline. Coastal management, marine engineering (harbors, shipyards, water plants), transport engineering (roads, railroads, bridges), agriculture, fisheries, tourism etc. Importance is relative.
milancurcic
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-23T16:15:10.560Z
@IRO-bot - And that is not going to be some silly ISO standard. The mechanism used to measure the length of the coastline by an agency that manages an intracoastal canal is going to be very different than that used by an agency that manages wildlife in a tidal zone. The coastline paradox dictates that there can't be a standard.
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-23T16:17:16.620Z
@DavidHammen For sure, definitely not ISO! However, having some standard would remove the paradox problem, because the paradox arises from using different units of measure (resolution, if you wish).
milancurcic
<measurements><geography><mapping>
Standardized scale for coastline length or mapping in general?
mace
# Standardized scale for coastline length or mapping in general?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-10-19)

Measuring the length of a coastline depends on the scale of the measuring tool. The smaller the scale of your tool, the longer will your measured coastline be. The reason for this is the fractal property of coastlines. This is well known since a paper by Benoît Mandelbrot ["How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Long_Is_the_Coast_of_Britain%3F_Statistical_Self-Similarity_and_Fractional_Dimension).

Now I was wondering if there is a standardized mapping scale to come up with global or country wise numbers of coastline length?

And furthermore, if there even is a general rule for all mapping purposes, which scale is to be used in mapping?

Is there maybe even something like an ISO standard for this?

**Tags:** measurements, geography, mapping

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Given the widely fluctuating values for coastline length, and given the coastline paradox the ultimately belies these widely varying numbers, the only reasonable answer is no. We do have arbitrary standards for things such as mass, length and time, but those are important. (The only non-arbitrary standard for mass, length, and time would be to use natural units, and those would be completely useless for commerce.) For how to measure a coastline? How is that important?  
> **username_2**: I think this question would be appropriate for http://gis.stackexchange.com/  
> **username_3**: @username_1 There is a number of elements of industry, economy and ecology that may rely on the length and/or shape of the coastline. Coastal management, marine engineering (harbors, shipyards, water plants), transport engineering (roads, railroads, bridges), agriculture, fisheries, tourism etc. Importance is relative.  
> **username_1**: @IRO-bot - And that is not going to be some silly ISO standard. The mechanism used to measure the length of the coastline by an agency that manages an intracoastal canal is going to be very different than that used by an agency that manages wildlife in a tidal zone. The coastline paradox dictates that there can't be a standard.  
> **username_3**: @username_1 For sure, definitely not ISO! However, having some standard would remove the paradox problem, because the paradox arises from using different units of measure (resolution, if you wish).  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2014-10-23. Score: 12 | Accepted answer

One standard that has be used by the USA is to measure the distant between points on the coast at intervals of 30 latitude minutes, as measured on a 1:1,200,000 scale map.

See chapter 5 of [Measurements from Maps: Principles and Methods of Cartometry](http://books.google.com/books?id=lT4q8-MKrrEC&pg=PA66&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false) by D. H. Maling for further information and other standards that have been used.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: Wow. Thanks, but while that seems like a helpful answer to the question as posed, it sounds like a bizarre practice. It seems like the effective measurement interval along the coastline would vary by the angle of the coastline, being most frequent for a N-S coastline, and infinite for a perfectly E-W coastline. Is this practice designed to be relevant for some specific purpose for which this isn't an issue?  

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### Answer by username_4 on 2014-10-23. Score: -4

It is not really worth worrying about unless you are proposing to walk along it, or let your pet ant walk along it, for the ant will have to walk a much greater distance than you as it follows all the wiggles that you just stride over.

Nor does it matter a jot for coastal management, which is always concerned with water bodies or areas and never with the purely conceptual length of the coastline. Coastal reporting sometimes summarises water quality by length of affected coastline, but that is merely an administrative convenience and has no significance otherwise.

The geometric length between two points defining a straight line does not depend on the size of the intervals we use to pace it out.

However, the length of a fractal coastline is quite different. The smaller the step, the greater the length. There are mathematical ways to express this and if you google around you will find them. Try looking for Koch Snowflake for example.


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