Seventy New Wrecks Found off Cornwall

A common thread to the event was one of data sharing. Where possible, the MCA works with other government bodies, so surveys are specified to meet the needs of the Hydrographic and scientific communities, and data is shared between departments. Presentations were made about the MEDIN and EMODNET programmes, aiming to ease finding out what data is available. MEDIN are the marine front end for the UK’s INSPIRE work, and they are also encouraging departments to make their data available free of charge to users under the Open Government licence – a welcome move instead of the 'pay twice' approach generally taken to access government data in Europe. The Irish INFOMAR project’s presentation was interesting in how they are adding value to the survey data for specific user groups, and making the data available free of charge through their web site.

There was a lively discussion about the TeamSurv project, using crowd sourcing to gather survey data. Although not claiming to be nearly as accurate as multi-beam surveys, some voiced concerns that politicians would want to adopt this approach instead of the much more expensive multi-beam surveys, and some objected to a crowd-sourcing approach on principle. More constructively, others could see its benefits as a low-cost means of monitoring depth changes to trigger a full multi-beam survey, as well as its use in areas which are unlikely to benefit from a multi-beam survey, whether that is off the beaten track areas in the developed world, or developing countries that do not have the resources for a multi-beam survey.

Finally, there were presentations from other government departments who engage in Hydrographic surveys, reporting on the work they were carrying out. This included the British Geological Survey, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Channel Coastal Observatory (expanding to cover all of England and Wales), and Natural England.

Copies of presentations made at the seminar, and also the MCA’s 2011 Civil Hydrography Programme, will be made available on the MCA’s web site in due course.

The assertion about "... the pay twice approach generally taken to access government data in Europe ..." is misleading. The fact is that the collection, processing, storing of data relevant to hydrographic services are generally paid by the tax payers as most Hydrographic Offices operate as public services. In order to have the data readily accessible to the users, additional investments are required and must also be funded and it is up to national governements to decide how this should be financed (i.e. by the tax payer again or by the end user through access fees). This is not paying twice for the same thing. Gilles Bessero - 17/03/2011 - 08:07