We introduce a new dataset and algorithm for fast and efficient coastal distance calculations from Anywhere on Earth (AoE). Existing global coastal datasets are only available at coarse resolution (e.g. 1-4 km) which limits their utility. Publicly available satellite imagery combined with computer vision enable much higher precision. We provide a global coastline dataset at 10 meter resolution, a 100+ fold improvement in precision over existing data. To handle the computational challenge of querying at such an increased scale, we introduce a new library: Layered Iterative Geospatial Hierarchical Terrain-Oriented Unified Search Engine (Lighthouse). Lighthouse is both exceptionally fast and resource-efficient, requiring only 1 CPU and 2 GB of RAM to achieve millisecond online inference, making it well suited for real-time applications in resource-constrained environments.
@article{arxiv.2506.18842,
title = {LIGHTHOUSE: Fast and precise distance to shoreline calculations from anywhere on earth},
author = {Patrick Beukema and Henry Herzog and Yawen Zhang and Hunter Pitelka and Favyen Bastani},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.18842},
year = {2025}
}