The XXVII Meeting of the International Advisory Board on
the Standards and Competency of Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical
Cartographers
The International Advisory Board prepare for their busy week in Malaysia
The annual meeting of the Advisory Board recently took place at the
Palm Resort Hotel, Johore Bahru, Malaysia, from 4 to 9 May 2004. The
meeting was hosted by the Faculty of Geoinformation Science and
Engineering University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and there was a full
attendance with the following Board members present:
- Mr. Svante Astermo (Chairman) (FIG) (Sweden)
- Capt. Andy Armstrong (Vice-Chairman) (IHO) (USA)
- Capt. Federico Bermejo (Secretary) (IHB) (Spain)
- FIG Members
- Mr. Gordon Johnston (UK)
- Dr. Razali Mahmud (Malaysia)
- Ms. Tiina Tuurnala (Finland)
- Dr. David Wells (Canada)
- IHO Members
- Cdre. Jayaraman (India)
- Dr. Luciano Surace (Italy)
- Dr. Delf Egge (Germany)
- ICA Members
- Mr. Ron Furness (Australia)
- Dr. Lysandros Tsoulos (Greece)
At the meeting Capt. Andy Armstrong (IHO) was elected to the Chair
of the Advisory Board and Gordon Johnston (FIG) as the Vice Chair.
The Secretary is Capt. Federico Bermejo (IHB).
Opening of the meeting
Professor Dr. Mohd Ibrahim Seeni Mohd, Dean of the Faculty of
Geoinformation Sciences & Engineering (UTM), inaugurated the meeting,
stressing the importance of the Board's mission.
Mr. Astermo highlighted the action items completed following the XXVI
meeting, including the finalization of the course reviews and the forwarding
of Recognition Certificates to the UK Royal Navy, EPSHOM (France), Dalian
University (China) and the Portuguese Hydrographic Service.
He also recalled the promulgation of the new Standards of Competence for
Nautical Cartographers, new Standards (M-8) which, after two years' work,
had been successfully finalized.
Inter-sessional Activities
The Board Members and the Secretary reported on the activities related to
training and education carried out between meetings. A summary of these
activities is given here below:
IHB/IHO – Capacity Building and training-related activities were
discussed during technical visits to the Dominican Republic, Vietnam,
Thailand and Brunei Darussalam. A project concerning training in multibeam
is now under consideration. Numerous activities in the academic field
concerning provision of courses and refinement of the Master's Degree at the
Universities of New Hampshire and Southern Mississippi, and the National
Hydrographic School of India.
FIG – the successful involvement of two FIG members (Dr. Wells and
Mr. Johnston) in the first meeting of the IHO Capacity Building Committee
representing Academia and Industry. Dr. Wells had been very active in
running multi-beam courses in Seattle, Hong Kong SAR and Stavanger. Other
courses were currently under negotiation.
ICA – Involvement in the Australasian Conference in Australia.
Proposal from Greece to the National Research Committee in Greece to solve
problems related to the automatic compilation of nautical charts and to
produce a prototype worldwide.
Review of M-5 “Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors”
The Board examined a set of amendments and incorporated a number into the
text of the 9th edition of the Standards, which will be M-5, 9th edition -
2004. The Board also wished to review and generate a more complete update of
the current 9th version of the Standards and this process is now underway in
order to complete the task during the inter-sessional period.
The Standards of Competence for Nautical Cartographers is to be held over
until next year while the initial version is made available and adopted.
Recognition of Courses
The Board discussed several pending courses known to them and reviewed 5
courses submitted against the Hydrographic Standards M-5 and Nautical
Cartography Standards, M-8.
Notification of the organisations submitting the Courses for recognition
will take place over the next few weeks.
Social
In weather that was relatively warm for the time of year the Board
visited the excellent facilities at the University (UTM) and were fortunate
to be invited onboard the Royal Malaysian Navy hydrographic vessel - KD
Perantau. Dr. Razali Mahmud also hosted a very pleasant evening at his home
where the many delightful fruits of Malaysia were experienced.
At the end of our busy meeting the Board had covered all the agenda items
and had been made very welcome by a the generous hosts and their families.
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