CENTRE OF STUDY FOR SURVEYING SCIENCE AND GEOMATICS

FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND SURVEYING

SPATIAL DATA ACQUISITION (SUG 711)

IMPORTANCE OF MARINE GEOSPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE

PREPARED BY:

SITI NUR ADILA BINTI ISHAK 2013913353

PREPARED FOR:

ASSOC. PROFESSOR DR. HJ. JUAZER RIZAL BIN ABDUL HAMID

Write a brief and concrete essay on the importance of the marine geospatial

data infrastructure.

Introduction

Spatial data has been recognized as an important resource to improve decision-

making and resource management in both the land and marine environments in

terms of sustainable development. Many countries are developing Spatial Data

Infrastructures (SDIs) to improve access and sharing of spatial data, however

most of these initiatives stop at the coastline. Recently global and regional

activities such as the 3rd United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

(UNCLOS) and the Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia

(SDS-SEA) have brought to international attention the importance of effective

administration of the marine and coastal environments.

In the field of marine cadaster, maritime boundaries and limits play a crucial role

in delimiting the rights and responsibilities of the sovereign state as well as

those of different levels of government: federal, state/province or municipal, for

example. Maritime boundaries may also outline extents of individual or group

rights – i.e., the use, exploitation and management of the maritime space is also

shared by different user communities and stakeholders whose rights must be

considered, weighed, adjudicated and preserved.

A clear representation of a border, legal boundary or limit is difficult without a

map or chart to display it clearly. By providing easy-to-use tools and geographic

visualization of this type of data, modern geospatial software and GIS tools can

enhance the efficiency of maritime boundary delimitation1. Long time geospatial

software2 users have accumulated large archives of maritime boundary and

limits data. This data may reside in data files with different datums, different

projections or different resolutions. These files may also follow the extent of

existing nautical charts and thus have overlapping redundant information that

needs to be kept up-to-date, doubling the work where redundancies occur. The

desktop GIS software approach, despite its efficiency, is confronted with

limitations that make the management of a large number of digital maritime

limits and boundaries a serious challenge.

The technology available to acquire geo-referenced datasets keeps pace with

the evolution of geospatial software. The world is also rapidly going digital with

massive volumes of geospatial data generated each year. These developments

call for a database solution that can handle geographic data while allowing

geographic display. As mentioned above, in the case of maritime limits and

boundaries, the marine sector is not spared in this need for better data

management tools but has some specific requirements due to the 3- or 4-

dimensional nature of rights in the water column and sub-surface, and the lack

of physical boundary markers over the possible in the ocean and seas. A

modern geospatial technology, known as a hydrographic production database,

addresses some of these special needs and offers increased value for marine

cadaster managers.

Importance of Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure

According to Dr. Russel Shipman, Hydrography is the branch of applied

sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical

features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the

prediction of their change over time, for the primary purpose of safety of

navigation and in support of all other marine activities, including economic

development, security and defense, scientific research, and environmental

protection. Meanwhile the term SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) is often used to

indicate the relevant base collection of technologies, policies and institutional

arrangements that facilitate the availability of and access to spatial data. The

SDI provides a basis for spatial data discovery, evaluation, and application for

users and providers within all levels of government, the commercial sector, the

non-profit sector, academic and by citizens in general.

Geospatial analysis is the gathering, display, and manipulation of imagery, GPS,

satellite photography and historical data, described explicitly in terms of

geographic coordinates or implicitly, in terms of a street address, postal code, or

forest stand identifier as they are applied to geographic models. Geospatial

analysis originated in Canada for cataloging natural resources in the 1960s used

the first geographic information systems (GIS). Geographic information systems

are used to predict, manage and learn about all kinds of phenomena affecting

the earth, its systems and inhabitants. The many applications of geospatial

analysis include crisis management, climate change modeling, weather

monitoring, sales analysis, human population forecasting and animal population

management. Geospatial analyst will filter out relevant from irrelevant data and

apply it to conceptualize and visualize the order hidden within the apparent

disorder of geographically sorted data.  Doing so allows them to provide

accurate trend analysis, modeling and predictions. However, analysts must

remain vigilant to try to avoid spatial fallacies, biases or misunderstanding

effects and causal relationships: Geospatial analysis is sometimes considered to

encompass as much intuition as it does science.

Global Warming and Climate Change leading to increased risk of natural

disasters and rising sea levels are important indicators of a changing worldwide

marine and coastal environment. The role hydrographic and oceanographic

spatial data plays in supporting global, regional and national environmental

programmed by providing tools for decision making is absolutely critical. To

understand the forces of change, one need’s to be able to provide accurate and

timely base reference information comprising, as a minimum, the topography

and characterization of the seabed upon which temporal information such as

wave, tide and current can be referenced. Whilst the Hydrographic community is

the prime holder of much of this important information, it has yet to identify and /

or appreciate the role it might have in the disseminating this information.

In the broader sense hydrographers, geologists, biologists and oceanographers

can be brought together to provide solutions through enabling frameworks such

as Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI’s). It is important that organizations work

together to ensure best practice is achieved and that spatial data can be made

“interoperable” to ensure multidisciplinary use.

Geospatial data serve many purposes in the marine planning process, including

visual context, spatial analysis, and cartographic representation. Marine

geospatial data (marine geodata) is essential for marine planning at the local,

regional, or national levels, planning for the future of the ocean and coasts,

science and more. The accessible marine geospatial data are Hydrographic

survey data, traditionally called fair sheets, contain the soundings from the

hydrographic survey, marine primary data consists mainly of seamless depth

data and coastline data in vector format, terrain models of the seabed: 5x5

meter, 25x25 meter and 50x50 meter regular grids of northern Norway (north of

67 degrees) are available.

Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) is the component of a National SDI

that encompasses marine and coastal geographic and business information in

its widest sense.  An MSDI would typically include information on seabed

bathymetry (elevation), geology, infrastructure (e.g. wrecks, offshore

installations, pipelines, cables); administrative and legal boundaries, areas of

conservation and marine habitats and oceanography. Some of the features in

MSDI are metadata, interoperability of spatial datasets, network services, data

and service sharing, monitoring, reporting and coordination.

The four main components of a successful coastal and ocean information

network (COIN), as an important component of an SDI are online access to data

using recognized standards, metadata catalogues used to search for geospatial

data, a web interface that allows users to search, access and retrieve

information from the most reliable sources and lastly active participation of data

providers and data users to ensure that the right data are available to contribute

to more effective decision-making.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) highlights the

need for better management of the Worlds’ oceans environmentally and socially,

as well as economically. It also specified marine jurisdictional boundaries, and

their associated rights, for a coastal state. Since UNCLOS III there has been

activity worldwide on marine management focusing on sustainable development,

boundary definition and Integrated Coastal Management (ICM). There has also

been improvement in information and communication technology, which is

globally driving the exchange and sharing of data and information. It is just

recently that these ideas are beginning to come together as countries begin to

think about marine administration and spatial data management. Having access

to this spatial information is regarded as essential or important to the majority of

stakeholders in the marine and coastal environments.

Figure 1: The Development of Marine Administration

Conclusion

Our increased use and improved understanding of the marine and coastal

environments has leads to the realization that we need better management and

administration systems to deal with these areas. SDI is an initiative that allows

access and sharing of spatial data for decision-making, management and

administration. In the terrestrial environment SDI is developing to improve

coordination and sharing of land related datasets. Developing a seamless SDI

that can include data from the land, coast and marine environments will improve

access and sharing of data between these environments. The ability to access

and integrate data has been identified as a problem by people involved in

coastal zone management, as can be seen from the development of ICM

initiatives.