Hydro15 Highlighting Sustainable Hydrography in Africa

Hydro15 has got underway in Cape Town, South Africa, with a clear focus on sustainable hydrography in Africa. The event is being held at the Cape Town Convention Center from 23-25 November 2015. The theme of the conference is 'Defining the extent and ownership of maritime real estate for development in Africa'. In his plenary session, Robert van de Poll from Fugro demonstrated the urgent need to survey and resurvey large parts of the coast of Africa, not just for mapping purposes but also to solve possible maritime boundary disputes.

The South African hydrographer Abri Kampfer added in his keynote speech that Africa holds a great future for hydrographers and that new technologies like crowd sourcing and satellite bathymetry should be deployed as soon as possible.

An exhibition with close to 50 booths, just under 50 presentations, vessel demos at the Victoria & Albert Waterfront and a full social programme are giving the delegates plenty to do during the three-day event. The yearly conference is supported and co-organised by the International Federation of Hydrographic Societies (IFHS). The dates and venue of next year's conference are already confirmed. It will be hosted by the German Society of Hydrographers from 8-11 November 2016 in Rostock-Warnemünde.