OceanWise to Supply Marine Mapping
UK-based OceanWise has been awarded the framework contract for the supply of marine mapping data to the Scottish government. This award means that OceanWise is now the supplier of choice to all UK government organisations requiring marine data for use in desktop and web GIS, including the Welsh government, Northern Ireland government, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Natural England and the Environment Agency.
The framework contract will involve delivery and maintenance of OceanWise’s Raster Charts and its third generation marine mapping product, Marine Themes, which includes a high-resolution Seabed Digital Elevation Model. The data will be delivered as OGC-compliant web services via OceanWise partner and distributor, FIND Mapping, as well as in file-based open and proprietary formats such as GML, Esri Geodatabase and MapInfo TAB.
Marine Themes is as close as possible to a seamless definitive marine base map. The dataset addresses the numerous issues associated with data captured from nautical charting. This includes resolving fragmented geometry across chart boundaries, tracking multiple links back to source data and presenting these to users, and replacing chart data with authoritative source datasets, such as Traffic Separation Schemes and Particular Sensitive Sea Areas supplied under license to OceanWise by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
The aim under this framework, as with OceanWise’s other government frameworks, is to make marine data as widely accessible as possible to all public sector bodies including local authorities and emergency services, as is currently the case with land mapping data provided by Ordnance Survey, for example, under the various Public Sector Mapping Agreements.
