Hydrography in East Asia

The second East Asia Hydrographic Symposium and Exhibition was held in the Legend Hotel in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) on from 20 to 22 October 2009. The Symposium was opened by the assistant to the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Yang Berhormat Dato’ Saifuddin Bin Abdullah. The previous Conference, also held at the same venue, took place in 2001. The Symposium was jointly sponsored by the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru and the Royal Malaysian Navy, and was entitled ‘Common Challenges: Addressing Global Issues’.

The primary aspirations for the Conference as outlined in the promotional brochure stated that this event would gather professionals and industry from hydrography-related fields to discuss their challenges, solutions and hopes for the future. A total of 21 commercial booths were set up in and around the entrance to the Grand Ball Room of the Legend Hotel and were staffed by experts from Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Norway and, of course, Malaysia itself. These exhibitors displayed a variety of products from survey equipment for hydrographic data gathering and processing, to land survey equipment for use in settlement of boundary disputes, and other cartographic and charting enterprises for the exploration and exploitation of the worlds seas.

Two of the technical papers were entitled ‘Implementation of marine geospatial data derivation of sea level anomalies using satellite altimeters' and ‘A feasibility study on real-time water level corrections by using Starfix.MSS', and, of course, there were many more. In total, 37 technical papers were delivered over the 3-day session offering an attentive audience of over 150 attendees - a very good cross-section of topics that appealed to all levels of interest. The chairman of the Symposium, Prof. Sr Dr Mohd Razali Mahmud, and his organising committee of 21 people deserve to be congratulated for a fine Conference.