UN Informed about Hydrography
In August 2012, the second meeting of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) took place in New York, USA. The GGIM invited the IHO, through the IHB, to provide information that can be incorporated into the continuing work on the GGIM report on the status of mapping in the world. This provided an opportunity to inform senior representatives of UN Member States of the current global situation regarding hydrography.
It also emphasises the importance of continuing to improve the information and the use of IHO publication C-55 - Status of Hydrographic Surveying and Nautical Charting Worldwide.
Following a discussion on international standards, the ISO, IHO, and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) were invited to develop proposals on issues related to standard setting in the international community for consideration by the next session of GGIM. This is another important development for the IHO because it will highlight the role that the IHO is playing in global geospatial standards setting, and in particular its recent work on establishing the S-100 standard.
The work of the UN-GGIM is becoming increasingly relevant to the IHO. There is now an acknowledgement of hydrography and the maritime domain in its work. This, in turn, provides an opportunity to bring the work of the IHO Member States’ Hydrographic Services to the attention of the top levels of the UN system. Also, an active discussion is taking place at UN-GGIM on the development of spatial data infrastructures around the world. The IHO MSDI Working Group can so monitor world developments in SDI and to promote the role that Hydrographic Offices can play in the provision of fundamental data and information covering the maritime domain.
The third session of the GGIM will take place from 24 to 26 July 2013 in Cambridge, UK. A UN high-level forum on geospatial information management will also be held in Doha, Qatar from 4 to 6 February 2013.
