The rising economies of countries such as India and some in the Far East, and increasing world trade, will further boost port construction. Likewise, the entry of new eastern European members of the EU will bring with them a significant increase in maritime traffic in this area. Building or improving the necessary infrastructure involves survey work for dredging or construction, and increasing concern for the environment and marine renewables bring work to our sector in the form of flood-control structures, and installing wind-farm or tidal technology.
From the many relationships between construction and hydrography we have selected for special notice this month, besides cable tracking in shallow water (page 25), two extremes: heavy seabed rigs for deep-push Cone Penetration Test (page 21) and the fragile NEMO “tower” (page 7). The latter swings on the current at 2,000-metre depth, requiring continual accurate positional measurement. Your first thought on NEMO may very well be the family animation film Finding NEMO, but the acronym also stands for NEutrino Mediterranean Observatory. Did you ever expect, working underwater, to be involved in astronomy?
Every now and then we remind everyone about UNCLOS, as in our May 2007 issue article Lines in the Sea. In this June issue it is the article Ocean Mapping for Article 76 (see page 29). I’d like to draw attention to the approaching deadline of 13th May 2009 for proposals to extend sovereign rights. Also to an UNCLOS-relevant summer school organised by the International Tribunal for Law of the Sea in Hamburg (Germany) particularly for nationals of developing countries, to be held from 29th July to 26th August 2007 (see for details).