On behalf of the entire Hydro international team, may I wish you a healthy and prosperous New Year. And to those readers who celebrate the start of a new year on a date other than 1 January, our best wishes are meant for you too, both now and on that special day. As Hydro international is mailed to 170+ countries I realise that this may pertain to quite a number of you.
This coming year will bring some visible steps in the GNSS Galileo project. In mid- 2005 the first (prototype) Galileo satellite will be ‘baptised’ and launched into orbit before the end of the year. We will follow the developments of this
€3 billion project of which the industry takes 2/3 (decision on the tenders is February ‘05). Also, it will be interesting to see what it brings to our profession. For a look ahead, go to http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/galileo.
This issue pays special attention to ‘Deepwater Surveys’ which is a relative term. For the articles published in this issue, the depth criterion was surveying aspects beyond the continental shelf. This deepwater criterion even covers an enormous area (>65%) of the earths surface. To survey this vast area will take hundreds and hundreds of ship years. And, it is not just measuring depths. Other data like sub-bottom classification and water constituents/parameters are equally important.
It is also good to realise that it is not just science or the military who are driving forces to do deepwater surveys. Forty percent of the deepwater multi-beam systems are commercially owned/operated. Commercial considerations also motivate collecting more deepwater data. For instance, EEZ-surveys to locate the 2,500 metre isobath can be of interest for a coastal state, the Oil & Gas industry which is moving to deep waters, or for submarine cable laying. Market analysts are predicting that approximately 100,000 route kilometres/year will be installed.
A structure to share and analyse available data could save a lot of work, and also give data added value if used in combination with other data. Products from this organisational structure can form a good basis for a lot of disciplines. GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Ocean) is a good example of how individual bathymetric datasets from various sources can grow over the years into a very valuable world-wide dataset (see Monahan’s November ‘04 article). The increasing use of (web-based) GIS should also facilitate things (see Joseph and Hussong’s article in this issue). A way to have more data at limited extra costs is to use ships of opportunity. Examples include the SCICEX program (see Newton’s article in this issue) or the Chilean fishery by collecting and updating a depth database not only for their own benefit (www.inpesca.cl).
In the Oil & Gas industry the present usual split between operators, contractors and suppliers is a drawback for efficient UUV-navigation. Introducing a financial structure for an underwater reference system for UUVs in subsea oil and gas fields will not only benefit efficiency for the industry, but also science in those specific area’s when they want to bring their sensors close to the seafloor for more detailed data. Perhaps this financial structure can be expanded to submarine cable routes as well.
One lesson from the last decades: do not throw away data thinking you do not have the computing power to analyse it. Better to store and migrate it to the next data storage media. As we know from Moore’s Law, computing power doubles roughly every 18 months, while the cost of storage is fractional to the collecting costs.

Enjoy reading,