Crowd-Sourced Bathymetry in the Northern Canada Area

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provided $453,410 to the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Development of Ocean Mapping (CIDCO) via the Partnership fund for this two year project to advance the charting of remote areas of Canada.

Modern nautical charts are not yet available for large areas of Canada's Northern marine territory. The Northern waters charting challenge is ideal for a pilot project on data collected by stakeholders, such as area residents, shippers and tourism operators. Such 'crowd-sourced' data, including bathymetric (depth) data, tide levels, and other chart-related data could be used to inform and augment the work of the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS).

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) funded this pilot project to deliver training to Northern communities to gather data needed for nautical charts, and on how to conduct surveys using best practices; and to develop processing techniques for the data derived from these methods. The Canadian Ocean Mapping Research and Education Network (COMREN), is conducting the project under the direction of Dr. Nicolas Seube, Scientific Director, Interdisciplinary Centre for the Development of Ocean Mapping (CIDCO).

CHS is a member of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) working group investigating how to incorporate, manage and use bathymetric data acquired by non- conventional means. It is developing principles and guidelines to enable the appropriate collection and use of crowd-sourced bathymetry (CSB) for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Project number: NCR2017.4
Year(s): 2017-18; 2019-20
Partner(s): Interdisciplinary Centre for the Development of Ocean Mapping (CIDCO), Canadian Ocean Mapping Research and Education Network (COMREN)
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Nicolas Seube
Ecoregion(s): Arctic