20.6% of World’s Ocean Floor Now Mapped in Seabed 2030 Project

The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, which aims to complete the mapping of the world’s ocean floor by 2030, has released the latest GEBCO Grid figure, showing 20.6% of the world’s entire seabed has now been mapped.

The figure, released on World Hydrography Day on June 21, represented an increase in the area covered of 1.6% from last year’ total of 19%. It may look like a small increase, but it equates to around half the size of the United States and represents commendable progress in light of　the limitations the novel coronavirus pandemic imposed on research cruises during the past 12 months.

We remain humbly aware, of course, that the latest achievement leaves almost 80% of the world’s seabed still to be mapped.

Speaking to BBC News, Mr. Jamie McMichael-Phillips, Seabed 2030 Project Director, said: "It doesn't matter whether you operate a high-tech fleet of ships or you're just a simple boat-owner－every piece of data matters in this giant jigsaw we're making," calling on everybody to get involved and contribute to the project.

The release of the latest grid figure coincided with the announcement that the Seabed 2030 project has entered a technical cooperation agreement with the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO), a world-leading center for hydrography specializing in marine geospatial data, and Teledyne CARIS, the leading developer of marine mapping software.

UKHO specializes in marine geospatial data, from seabed to surface, to help others make the best use of the marine environment. This includes partnerships with governments and researchers to support the sustainable growth of the Blue Economy and the protection of our oceans. UKHO also makes this data available through their portfolio of ADMIRALTY Maritime Data Solutions, which includes a world-leading range of navigational products that can be found on over 90% of ships trading internationally.

Teledyne CARIS, headquartered in Fredericton, Canada, has been the leader for over 40 years in the development of hydrographic and marine geospatial software, including its flagship Hydrographic Production Database (HPD) which is used extensively by the UKHO to produce its charts. One of Teledyne CARIS’ newest products–-CARIS Onboard360–is a near real-time and autonomous data acquisition and processing package.

I am greatly encouraged by the new tie-up as it opens the way for a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool to be used by Seabed 2030 to clean bathymetric data of "noise,” making it easier to pull out reliable depth soundings.

Mr. Peter Sparkes, Chief Executive of UKHO said: “Through use of this new capability, we hope to significantly reduce the time it takes to process this foundational data from days to hours–-allowing us to build our understanding of the world’s oceans at a greater pace.”

A complete map of the world’s ocean floor is imperative to facilitate a heightened understanding of fundamental processes including ocean circulation, weather systems, sea-level rise, tsunami wave propagation, tides, sediment transport, benthic habitat distributions and climate change.

UKHO and Teledyne CARIS will join more than 130 official partners, contributors and supporters from industry, governments, philanthropy and academia around the world now having officially signed on to Seabed 2030.

When The Nippon Foundation launched Seabed 2030 with GEBCO at the United Nations Ocean Conference in 2017, only 6% of the world’s seabed had been mapped to modern standards.

Seabed 2030 will continue to seek out new partnerships and technological advancements. The more organizations and individuals that get involved in the project, the more confident I will be of achieving our ambitious goal of mapping the world’s entire seabed by the end of this decade.