Watch this short video by the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project Director, Satinder Bindra, as he explains the importance of crowdsourced data to better understand the shape of the seafloor and how to get involved.
Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project teams up with Fugro to kick start crowd sourced data contributions
The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project is teaming up with Fugro, one of the world’s leading private sector off-shore survey companies, to help map the entire ocean floor by 2030.
One of the main ways in which Fugro is participating in the project is through contribution of high resolution crowd sourced bathymetry datasets collected while its survey vessels transit between projects. Thanks to innovations in its technology platform, these ships are able to collect data without dedicated staff on board.
Fugro has contributed around 65,000km2 of data to date and has just doubled the number of vessels working on the project to four. It plans to eventually roll out the approach to its entire deepwater global survey fleet.
"We are proud to continue our support of the Seabed 2030 programme and to lead industry participation in this way," announced David Millar, Fugro’s government accounts director in the Americas. "As an appreciable portion of our work is ocean related, Seabed 2030 provides a perfect opportunity for us to contribute to global society and practice good ocean stewardship," he said.
Welcoming Fugro’s support, Seabed 2030 Project Director, Satinder Bindra noted: "Fugro has displayed exemplary corporate leadership by sharing transit data from two of its survey vessels. In the coming months we look forward to receiving more transit data from all its survey vessels, which we believe will serve as a shining example to others in the industry."
Fugro has announced its also working with its clients to investigate how proprietary data might be shared with the scientific community for the benefit of human kind. It is recognized that some datasets contain sensitive information. In such cases, the integrity of client-owned data can be protected by reducing the resolution of the datasets and/or delaying their release until sensitives are removed.
Companies that share data with Seabed 2030 will be issued a special commendation, be invited to our key forums and will become key stakeholders in the project, said Project Director Bindra. "Their contribution will ensure we can collectively support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal # 14 'to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.'"
