We used the Clip Tool to extract all factors and constraints that overlay the EEZ, so that only features within the EEZ will be shown.
A number of files were obtained from the ESRI database. For the base map, this included the shapefile of China, last updated in 2015, and country boundaries of Southeast Asia, last updated in 2011, to determine the coastline of China, as well as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of China, last updated in 2016.
As for the factors, we have obtained bathymetric data from GEBCO (fig. 1) based on 30 arc-second global grid of elevations, published in 2014. The data was generated by combining quality-controlled ship depth soundings with interpolation between sounding points guided by satellite-derived gravity data (GEBCO, n.d.). The data was downloaded as an ASC file, and was converted into a raster file through ArcGIS. For wind speed, we obtained it from OpenEI (fig.2). The data was based on global NOAA blended sea winds and monthly wind speed at 30 km resolution, with annual speed values for China in meters per second, using a 0.1 wind shear to extrapolate for 10 m – 90 m above sea level, which the data was last updated 2 months ago. For distance to shore, we utilized the base map layer of the coastline of China to determine distance.
fig 1. Bathymetry
fig. 2 Wind speed
For constraints, based on the study done by Hong and Moller (2011), we have included oil and gas platforms, last updated in 2007 (fig. 3); protected ecosystems, last updated in 2008; and submarine cables and pipelines, last updated in 2017 (fig. 4)
fig. 3 Oil and Gas Fields
fig. 4 Submarine Cables and Pipelines