We Visited for You

US HYDRO 2005 was the tenth in the well-known series of Hydrographic conferences, workshops and exhibitions that alternate between the United States and Canada. It was this year organised and sponsored by the Hydrographic Society of America (THSoA) with co-sponsorship by NOAA, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Western Dredging Association, the Canadian Hydrographic Service and the Canadian Hydrographic Association. The conference was held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego from 29th to 31st March 2005, followed on 1st April (no April fool!) by a NOAA Hydrographic Services Review Panel meeting.

The technical programme opened with welcoming words by THSoA president Andrew Armstrong. These were followed by an opening session with senior professional speakers, notably dynamic and providing short and interesting insights into their views on the future of hydrography. Once again it could be observed how the field of hydrography is widening and becoming more and more important for adjacent scientific activities and oceanography. Paul Hornsby, president of the International Federation of Hydrographic Societies, in his keynote address also indicated this trend.

Technical presentations following the opening provided wide coverage of hydrographic activities, with sessions on hydrography and charting, hydrographic operations, data management, GPS applications, airborne hydrography, seafloor mapping, vertical control, international partnership, electronic navigational chart activities and electronic charts of the future. As with all modern conferences, there was general use of power-point displays with excellent coloured graphics. Unfortunately proceedings were available only on CD-Rom, leaving those who had left their laptops at home without summaries during the presentations.

The important role of the Joint Hydrographic Centre/Centre for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (C-COM/JHC)
of the University of New Hampshire was reflected in many of the speakers being
in one or other way connected to C-COM/ JHC. NOAA too provided quite a number of presentations and as a result percentage participation by non-US personnel was slightly disappointing. This was particularly true for Canada, which in previous conferences has been very active.

The workshops, organised in parallel, were well attended and covered contracting, side-scan sonar, RTK, tides, multi-beam, analysis tools for Lidar, determination of silt and uncertainty management in data processing.
Exhibition stands attracted many attendants, partly due to the organisers having arranged for all breaks to take place in the spaces they occupied. On-the-water demonstrations allowed interested visitors to see equipment in operation onboard launches.
Organisational arrangements worked very smoothly, with little apparent fuss or problems. This included registration and arrangements for the technical sessions and social occasions. As may be expected (or has come to be expected almost as a tradition?) with any hydrographic conference, the latter were excellent. There was an ‘ice-breaker’ party, an exhibitors reception and a conference dinner beginning aboard the square rigger Star of India with drinks and sea chanties and moving on to dinner aboard the ship that serves as the Maritime Museum.

Finally, some statistics and a reminder: over five hundred attendees and some fifty exhibitors made US HYDRO 2005 a meeting very worthwhile having visited. We look forward to the next US HYDRO in 2007 in Norfolk (VA) but special attention is drawn to the next, Canadian, event to be held in Halifax, Canada in 2006.
On 31st March and after the conference, on 1st April, a meeting was held of the NOAA Hydrographic Services Review Panel. This panel, formed under US law, is mandated with review of the Hydrographic Service provided under the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). Meetings and proceedings of the panel are open to the general public. The agenda of this meeting focused strongly on the process of contracting out some of the agencies’ surveys, it being reported that funds made available for this activity had increased from US$ 8.9 million in 1997 to US$ 22.4 million in 2004. This contracting out goes side by side with the deployment of NOAA’s own ships and staff. One issue of discussion was the findings of a study done in 2001 comparing the two methods of operation. Other matters proposed for future study included the use of emerging technologies as a means to increase productivity.