The agency is organised infourdivisions: geodesy, land mapping, cadastre and hydrography and has 13 offices nationwide.

Norwegian Hydrographic Service

The Hydrographic Service is ­responsible for surveying the Norwegian coast including polar waters, and for preparing and updating nautical charts and descriptions of these waters. The activities also include studies of tides and currents and publishing tide tables.
During the last decade, the main task has been to cover the Norwegian coast by electronic nautical charts and paper charts based on modern surveying. A decade ago, more than half of the electronic charts along the coast were based on measurements up to 115 years old. In the middle of 2008, all areas surveyed before 1960 were resurveyed. The last chart based on this modern surveying is to be published in 2009. Navigation critical areas are prioritised during hydrographical surveys, and some areas are therefore marked as not surveyed.

Hydrographical surveys

Hydrographical surveys are carried out using very advanced equipment such as multi-beam echo sounders and laser technology from airplanes with exact positioning based on differential global positioning system (DGPS). Both internal and external resources are used.

The Hydrographic Service delivers articles and reports on tide modelling, filtering of sea level data and calculation of nautical chart datum.

Production of ENCs

Electronic navigational charts (ENCs) are produced in accordance with international requirements regarding contents and structure. They are delivered in accordance with theENC Product Specificationof the S57 standard, which regards the exchange of hydrographic data. The data are part of a seamless database, where the data are divided into chart cells (identified by a unique cell number) with defined limitation and data amounts. The data are continuously updated by distribution of revision files.

In addition to data obtained through surveys carried out by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service itself, information on changes to infrastructure along the coast is also collected from various public bodies. This includes cable data, lights and navaids, aquaculture structures and bridges. Changes of significant navigational importance are published consecutively in the ­publicationNotices to Mariners.

PRIMAR

The Norwegian Hydrographic Service has the operational ­responsibility for the international electronic nautical chart service PRIMAR. On behalf of 36 nations, PRIMAR delivers Electronic ­Navigational Charts to the international shipping community. The core aim of PRIMAR is to enhance safety at sea and protect the maritime environment. The ENC Service is delivered via an international network of authorised distributors.

ENCs from PRIMAR meet International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) charts and carriage requirements when kept up-to-date and used on an approved Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) with appropriate backup. Vessels over a certain size are also obliged to use authorised charts issued by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service.

Navigational Safety

Navigational safety along the coast has the highest priority in the Norwegian Hydrographic Service. New technology and the establishment of a primary database with considerable updated information have also given rise to opportunities for use of this information for other purposes. Examples include coastal zone planning, fisheries management and aquaculture. There are many ways to make use of the Norwegian Mapping Authority data.

Martime geodata (primary data)

Maritime geodata or primary data consists of seamless bathymetry and coastline in a vector format. The data are continuously updated through the input of new ­information from internal and external sources, and have been subjected to scale correction and generalisation only to a limited degree. In principal, this is our best, unclassified data, subjected to extensive quality controls.

A dataset will consist of shallows, soundings, depth contours and bathymetry areas, coastline and skerries as well as land areas. The point density will vary depending on source and depth, and the minimum distance between soundings is 50m. The typical scales used are 1:10,000–1:30,000, but other scales can also be used. The quality of the data will vary depending on source and age.

MAREANO

As of today, there is a lack of knowledge regarding landscapes, environments and resources under the surface of the ocean in the northern area. Several governmental agencies want to remedy this with a portal for knowledge regarding the marine environment, known as MAREANO (marine area database for Norwegian coastal and marine regions).

MAREANO provides new ­information on coastal and maritime zones outside Norway’s shoreline within the following four main areas:

• detailed topographic charts of the seabed;
• ground conditions, geological resources and seabed types;
• pollution and the environment; and
• biological diversity and types of nature and marine resources.