World Country Polygon Datasets

The Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU) has released several new datasets that leverage the Office of the Geographer‘s work on mapping International Boundaries. The Large Scale International Boundaries (LSIB) dataset, maintained by the Geographic Information Unit (GIU), is a vector line file that is believed to be the most accurate worldwide (non-Europe, non-US) international boundary vector line file available. The lines reflect U.S. government (USG) policy and thus not necessarily de facto control (cited from metadata attached to files). In September 2011, the HIU first released the boundaries publicly for download. Working with colleagues at DevelopmentSeed after that release, they made some substantial improvements to the underlying data structure that helped lead to this work.

The LSIB dataset is designed for cartographic representation and map production. However, this poses a problem for GIS analysis, because the dataset is only composed of vector lines of terrestrial boundaries between countries. This means they do not contain coastlines, and could not be converted into polygons for GIS analysis. To address this issue, the HIU combined the LSIB dataset with the World Vector Shorelines (1:250,000) dataset. The combination of these two datasets is one of the highest resolution country polygon datasets available. Additionally, the LSIB-WVS polygon file is believed to be the most accurate available dataset for determining island sovereignty. It corrects the numerous island sovereignty mistakes in the original WVS data (cited from metadata attached to files).

Two other modifications were made to the datasets. First, the large cartographic scale of the data also introduces a problem in that the data are too detailed for global scale mapping. Therefore, the HIU also created “generalized” versions of the original LSIB-WVS polygons that are suitable for smaller scale mapping. Second, in order to facilitate the ability to “join” data to the polygons in a GIS, several attributes were added to the database, including Country Name and several ISO 3166-1 Country Codes (ISO Alpha 2, ISO Alpha 3, and ISO Number). After a year of work, the data have been released into the public domain.

All datasets can be downloaded from the HIU Data page or the links below:

LSIB – WVS Country Polygons

High Resolution LSIB-WVS Country Polygons (Americas) :: https://hiu.state.gov/data/Americas_LSIBPolygons_2013March08_HIU_USDoS.zip

High Resolution LSIB-WVS Country Polygons (Africa/Eurasia) :: https://hiu.state.gov/data/EurasiaAfrica_LSIBPolygons_2013March08_HIU_USDoS.zip

Simplified Versions

Simplified Global World Vector Shorelines :: https://hiu.state.gov/data/Global_SimplifiedShoreline_2013March08_HIU_USDoS.zip

Simplified Global Country Polygons :: https://hiu.state.gov/data/Global_LSIBSimplifiedPolygons_2013March08_HIU_USDoS.zip

LSIB Lines

Large Scale International Boundaries (LSIB), AFRICA and the AMERICAS :: https://hiu.state.gov/data/AFRICAandAMERICAS_LSIB4b_2012Sep04_USDoS_HIU.zip

Large Scale International Boundaries (LSIB), EURASIA :: https://hiu.state.gov/data/EURASIA_LSIB4b_2012Sep04_USDoS_HIU.zip

Cartographic Guidance

Note, both the polygon and line datasets are useful for cartographic representation. This is due to the variety of different boundary classifications that are in the LSIB. Below is a subset from the metadata attached to the datasets that describes USG cartographic representation of the boundary lines.

From the LSIB lines metadata:
The “Label” attribute field provides a name for any line requiring non-standard depiction, such as “1949 Armistice Line” or “DMZ”

The “Rank” attribute categorizes lines into one of three categories:
a) A rank of “1” (includes most of the 320 international boundaries) for those which the USG considers “full international boundaries.”
b) A rank of “3” for other lines of international separation. Most are considered by the US government to be in dispute.
c) A rank of “7” for other lines of separation such as DMZ’s, No-Mans Land (Israel), UNDOF zone lines (Golan Hts.), Sudan’s Abyei, and for the US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay on Cuba.

Any line with a rank of “3” or “7” is to be dotted or dashed differently and in a manner visually subordinate to the normal rank “1” lines.

Additional information about how the LSIB dataset is produced, and the processes that went into the production of the new datasets are included in the metadata.

And for more information about the Office of the Geographer, see the article from State Magazine below:

State Magazine (March 2009) Office of the Geographer
Article about the Office of the Geographer from State Magazine in March 2009
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39 thoughts on “World Country Polygon Datasets”

  1. Interesting dataset but the Simplified World Polygons in KML format has Canada missing. I wouldn’t recommend this dataset until the problem is rectified.

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