Seabed Project by UN will create ocean map by 2030

[Lurker]

The U.N.-backed project, called Seabed 2030, is urging countries and companies to pool data to create a map of the entire ocean floor by 2030 which will be freely available to all.

“We obviously need a lot of cooperation from different parties – individuals as well as private companies,” said Mao Hasebe, project coordinator at the Nippon Foundation, a Japanese philanthropic organization supporting the initiative.

The project, which launched in 2017, is expected to cost about $3 billion. It is a collaboration between the Nippon Foundation and GEBCO, a non-profit association of experts, which is already involved in charting the ocean floor.

The end result would be greater knowledge of the oceans’ biodiversity, improved understanding of the climate, advanced warning of impending disasters, and the ability to better protect or exploit deep-sea resources, said Hasebe.

High tech sonar technology will be put into use to map the whole ocean floor.

“With advanced sonar technology it really is like seeing. I think we’ve come out of the era of being the blind man with the stick,” said Robert Larter, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey.

“We can survey much more efficiently – and, not only that, but in much greater detail,” he further added.

 

source:

https://www.geospatialworld.net/news/the-un-backed-seabed-project-aims-to-create-entire-ocean-map-by-2030-to-explore-deep-sea-resources/

[3dbu]

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