My first association with 'Surveys in extreme conditions', this issues theme, is surveying in the hostile cold of the Arctic or the Antarctic waters. However when talking to people from the private surveying sector one person mentioned as the first association with 'extreme conditions': surveying without getting your bills paid! The article by Simon Squibb throws another interpretation at extreme conditions: “Whenever .... Wherever” (free after Shakira): hydrography is always extreme.
Those of our readers looking for surveying in icy waters will get their opportunity in the near future. Global warming results in decreasing ice cover of the North West Passage and the North East Passage (also known as the Northern Sea route). If the melting of the ice flows continues at the present rate, it is expected that by 2015 a regular summer trade can be seen in the NE-passage and on a longer time scale, 20-30 years, the marginal reachable places may be open for trade.
Arctic trade routes are long sought for see amongst others the expeditions to find a shorter route to the Orient and the Spice Islands. Two names attached to these routes are: Willem Barentz who gave his name to the Barentz Sea in his efforts to find a North East Route and Henry Hudson hired about 15 years later by the Dutch to find the still undiscovered North East Route but disobeyed his orders and turned to the North West and gave his name to the Hudson Bay and River. This could be done in the pre-Satcom and AIS era without being noticed.
The opening of the Arctic trade routes may require some international laws to be clarified. US and Canada have a dispute on right to access of the NW passage which is in Canadian waters. Likewise the status of the NE-passage will be a point of discussion; will it be considered as an international route or will it be subject to national law?
The opening of the NE-passage will connect the West to the giant fisheries of the Aleutian Islands and economic powers like Japan and Korea will have direct access from the West. The present route from Europe to Japan is 12,000 miles; this distance can be halved via the Northern Sea Route. In the short term the main shipping activity is and will be related to the opening up of the giant oil, gas and mineral fields and forests of Northern Russia which would have significant economic and environmental consequences.
The Arctic routes are mostly far from surveyed to modern standards and there are parts where under keel clearance for medium sized cargo ships is rather small. The river delta's like the Lena-delta not only force ships to worse ice conditions but river delta's in general also have shifting sandbanks, which means regular surveying. In total there is a tremendous surveying job waiting in very hostile and hydrographic challenging conditions. Positioning, long a problem in high latitudes both for navigation and for
hydrography, is solved by GPS and GLONASS. These systems can also give heading/attitude information, thereby overcoming the limitations most gyrocompasses have at high latitudes.
If you enjoy surveying in these challenging conditions prepare your self and look for an exchange program. I estimate most of the surveys will be done by national hydrographic services due to the (military) strategic values which are connected to these routes.
While talking about cold extreme conditions, I would like to draw your attention to the Antarctic Exploration & the Southern Ocean International Symposium, which will be held at Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton UK from 28-30 June 2004 to commemorate the return 100 years ago of H.M.S. Discovery commanded by R. F. Scott (see www.soc.soton.ac.uk/Discovery).

Enjoy reading!