Hughes Clarke
(Funded through Land Information New Zealand)
With the increasing information content and potential uses of swath sonar systems, application of historic survey standards is neither appropriate nor clearly interpretable. New practical interpretations of the current IHO standards (Ed. 4) have been devised for the conduct of contract swath sonar surveys in New Zealand. See: http://www.omg.unb.ca/~jhc/LINZ_spec/
These recommendations allow a more rigorous definition of the survey requirements in a manner easily interpretable by a third-party contractor. As an increasing percentage of nautical charting surveys are being conducted by contract rather than government staff, the need for such clarity is especially pressing.
These standards are now being used as a guide for current large scale mapping surveys on the Irish continental margin and proposed large scale mapping of the Canadian Margin.