International Geospatial Briefing July 11th: 1. Quarter of Earth’s Seafloor Mapped; 2. Seabed Mapping App; 3. NOAA Joins Effort to Map Ocean Floor; 4. UN Satellite Centre and NVIDIA Boost Sustainable Development Goals; 5. Geospatial Workforce Challenges; 6. Digital mapping settlements in the pre-Columbian Amazon
Nearly a quarter of Earth’s seafloor now mapped
The Seabed 2030 project aims to have the entire earth’s seafloor mapped by 2030, the project has recently reached a new milestone at nearly a quarter of the ocean floor (23.4%) mapped to modern standards. Over the past year alone, the project added 10 million square kilometres of bathymetric data which is equivalent to the area of Europe. The data gathered from this project is important because it can assist with safe navigation, help with the management of fisheries and conservation efforts, and it can improve climate change models.
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UKHO introduces the new Seabed Mapping App
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has recently created a Seabed Mapping App to support the Seabed 2030 project. The Seabed Mapping App is part of the UKHO’s Marine Data Portal, this portal is home to many data sets, including seabed profiles, seabed geology, seabed infrastructure and much more. This app will help improve marine location decision-making by providing more access to bathymetry data.
Source: ADMIRALTY Marine Data Solutions
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NOAA Formally Joins International Effort to Map Ocean Floor
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) administrator recently signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in the Seabed 2030 project. This will be a collaboration between NOAA and the United Nations Ocean Conference. All data collected will be publicly available at the IHO Data Centre for Digital Bathymetry (DCDB).
Multibeam sonar bathymetry mapping data. Source: NOAA
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UN Satellite Centre Works With NVIDIA to Boost Sustainable Development Goals
NVIDIA has teamed up with the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) to promote climate action and to boost sustainable development goals. This will assist the UN in its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and will focus on using artificial intelligence to improve the management of climate-related disasters such as wildfires, floods, cyclones and hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, etc. This will not only help with analyzing near-real-time data but will also work to reduce the impact of climate change and improve climate resilience. UNOSAT is also offering a free self-paced online course called Disaster Risk Monitoring Using Satellite Imagery that teaches how to create a deep learning model to detect flood events.
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Report outlines geospatial workforce challenges
The UK’s Geospatial Commission and Frontier Economics have released a report titled Demand for Geospatial Skills Report, that outlines a few workplace challenges in the geospatial industry. The report found that there has been significant growth in the industry within the last 10 years, geospatial skills are becoming more recognized and that the demand for these skills is outweighing the supply of geospatial professionals. The report also mentions, however, that in some industries there is still an issue with expressing geospatial demand in the recruiting process and that some businesses have not yet realized all opportunities and uses of location-based data.
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Digital mapping reveals network of settlements thrived in pre-Columbian Amazon
Using remote sensing, archaeologists have found settlements that once existed in the Bolivian Amazon. They have described this as evidence of urbanism in the Amazon which was once considered unsuitable for larger settlements. During their research they found many villages, causeways, monuments, canals and have found many structures and pyramids, some of which are as high as 20 meters.
Source: Heiko Prümers / DAI
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