Help Create Better Charts

[timtwickham]

TeamSurv is a project to help create better charts of coastal waters, by getting sailors to log GPS and depth data - see www.teamsurv.eu for more information. For example, in Britain the UKHO states that only 50% of Britain's coastal waters are adequately surveyed, and they concentrate on areas used by commercial shipping. Join TeamSurv and help update the charts and fill in the gaps.

We are asking for people to get involved by logging data and uploading it to the web site - as a logger you will be able to see not just your data, but also that contributed by everyone else in the project.

You can log the data by using either logging software that runs on a PC, or a small hardware logger that writes the data to a memory stick, uploading the data through our web site.

The software is a free download from our web site. For the hardware logger, we have a limited number that we can provide on free loan to those who go to sea in our trial areas, otherwise you can purchase one at cost.

Regards,

Tim Thornton

[Nausikaa]

What a good idea!

Yachtsmen and women are a tremendous resource and, in European waters, there are so many of them and so few survey vessels.

After having looked (maybe not carefuly enough) at the website I do have a couple of questions left:

1. Who gets the information? It looks like this is stored by TeamSurv for future use in their chart production. Am I right or will this information be shared (at no cost) with the IHO or the appropriate national hydrographic offices?

2. Given that all the trial areas are tidal, with the exception of those surrounding the Curonian spit where, even here, sea levels alter due to meteorological conditions, how will deapth readings be adjusted for height of tide and sea levels above or below CD?

3. The areas chose for the trial, with the exception of the Lithuanian coastline, are all areas of high density pleasure craft useage. Why then, in the Baltic, choose the Curonian lagoon with half of it being in Russia, where I would not like to be accused of illegal surveying, and the surrounding coastal area which has probably the lowest density of pleasure boat usage in the entire Baltic? Why not run the test arround the German or Danish coasts?

Aye // Stephen

[timtwickham]

Stephen,

Apologies for the tardy reply, but answers below:

>1. Who gets the information? It looks like this is stored by TeamSurv for future use in their chart production. Am I right or will this information be shared (at no cost) with the IHO or the >appropriate national hydrographic offices?

At present all of the data is available to everyone on the web, and we will always make data available free of charge to those who are contributing to the project by logging data.

Although we are partially funded by grant money until the end of next year, after that we need to cover our operational costs, e.g. the costs of manufacturing the data loggers, maintaining the servers, developing algorithms, coding and promoting the service. We will aim to recoup those costs by sale of data and services to commercial bodies.

>2. Given that all the trial areas are tidal, with the exception of those surrounding the Curonian spit where, even here, sea levels alter due to meteorological conditions, how will deapth >readings be adjusted for height of tide and sea levels above or below CD?

Yes, we use a combination of predicted tides and also observed sea levels from around the coast. For example, in the Curonian lagoon, although this is nopn-tidal, we are using sea level gauges in Klaipeda port at one end, and a university research station at the other.

>3. The areas chose for the trial, with the exception of the Lithuanian coastline, are all areas of high density pleasure craft useage. Why then, in the Baltic, choose the Curonian lagoon >with half of it being in Russia, where I would not like to be accused of illegal surveying, and the surrounding coastal area which has probably the lowest density of pleasure boat usage in >the entire Baltic? Why not run the test arround the German or Danish coasts?

Actually there are a reasonable number of fishing boats and also ferries/commercial plpeasure boats on the lagoon - we are just covering the Lithuanian end, as the Russian end is closed off except for a race round the lagoon once a year. The decision to include Lithuania was driven by the requirement in EU research projects to have partners from at least 3 states, and we found a good partner in Lithuania who is also covering France. However people are free to log data in Denmark or elsewhere in the Baltic - we've just signed up a boat in Sweden, for example.