GEBCO in Busan, South Korea, 13-17 November 2017
As a nautical cartographer, I am sometimes involved in international meetings dealing with international standards. In November 2017, I spent a week participating in meetings of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Ocean ( GEBCO ), organized under the International Hydrographic Office (IHO) and the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). Most of the attendees were academics, representatives from hydrographic offices, or professional sonar/data management vendors. Presentation by Dr. Martin Jakobsson, Stockholm University A major topic was the Seabed 2030 project to map the World Ocean by the year 2030. Project lead Dr. Martin Jakobsson from the University of Stockholm pointed out that current ocean models are really based on sparse data. (Dr. Jakobsson can be seen presenting on this issue in the image at left.) The goal of the Seabed 2030 project is to enjoin organizations worldwide to work together to collect sonar data in the World Ocean so that nothing bigg...