IC-ENC 2024 Secondment

IC-ENC is once more showing its support for the IHO Empowering Women in Hydrography (EWH) initiative, this time with a project focused on eLearning. Kimberly Mason, from the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (BSH), was selected to join the initiative by doing a secondment with the IC-ENC as part of Production Support. Kimberly’s focus was on creating bitesize eLearning content on S-100 related topics to be uploaded to the IC-ENC Learning Management System (LMS).

During her secondment, she was able to gain first-hand experience with a variety of tools and activities. She was introduced to Articulate360—a software used to create eLearning courses. She was also briefed on IC-ENC’s activities and had the opportunity to tour the UKHO archives, where hundreds of thousands of hydrographic documents and charts are stored.

Finally, she presented her secondment experience to the UKHO Data Acquisition team and the UKHO National Hydrographer, where she successfully shared insights from the courses she had developed.

To know more about Kimberly’s experience with the EWH initiative, go check:  https://www.ic-enc.org/news/empowering-women-in-hydrography-2024-kimberlys-experience 

UKHO Improving Gender Balance in Hydrography Fund

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has established the Improving Gender Balance in Hydrography fund as part of the Empowering Women in Hydrography project. This fund aims to support opportunities for women in the field of hydrography to advance their careers, including assistance for progression into leadership roles. For the 2024/25 Financial Year, a figure of £100,000 has been assigned to this fund, recognizing that the UKHO sees achieving greater diversity in leadership positions as a key factor in the continued success of the IHO and the broader community.

The fund is available to IHO Member States and other coastal states, providing financial support for women’s participation in key meetings and development opportunities. This includes exposure to broader events, organizations, or projects to gain skills and experience. Proposals must support gender balance in hydrography and outline measurable benefits, such as progress toward leadership positions. The UKHO will evaluate applications based on geographic diversity and impact.

So far, the fund has supported the following initiatives for candidates from Comoros, Uganda, Suriname, and the Seychelles:

• Participation in the 20th meeting of the Southern African and Islands Hydrographic Commission.
• Attendance at the upcoming Maritime Safety Information Course.
• Attendance at the C-8 meeting.

SHOM (France)

Coming soon.

South African Navy Hydrographic Office (South Africa)

Coming soon.

Canadian Hydrographic Service (Canada)

Enabling more women to participate equitably and assume more leadership roles in the field of hydrography.

( More info ).

Gaining experience at-sea with NOAA

NOAA is helping women from around the world gain at-sea experience on its ships. Each year during the project’s lifespan, NOAA will select three women from a global pool of applicants to take part in the initiative. NOAA’s goal is to give women hands-on experience with hydrographic operations, equipment and software, survey specifications and deliverables, as well as data management processes and procedures. Thus far NOAA has hosted two women in 2022, Sub-Lieutenant Mercy Modupe Ogungbamila from the Nigerian Navy and Chiaki Okada from the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department, Japan Coast Guard.

Read more about Ms. Ogungbamila's at-sea experience ( Link ).

Read more about Ms. Okada's at-sea experience ( Link ).

Trainee from Suriname participates in survey of the Great Lakes

Firosa Tomohamat, who is the only woman in hydrography at the nautical department of the Maritime Authority Suriname, recently gained valuable hydrographic experience on board the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson during its survey of the Great Lakes in the United States. This included learning about different survey equipment and software to process data.   

( More info )

Nippon Foundation/GEBCO Scholar gains valuable experience aboard NOAA ship

Rebecca Formanek, an Australian Nippon Foundation/GEBCO Scholar pursuing a postgraduate degree in ocean mapping at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), recently spent time on the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson. During her time aboard, Ms. Formanek acquired a comprehensive knowledge of NOAA’s processes, procedures, and production stages as well as skills in survey launches.

( More Info )

Hydrographer Surveyor from the Philippines completes her NOAA at-sea experience

Lt.j.g. Liezel Bastez, a hydrographer surveyor from the Hydrography Branch under the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) of the Philippines, left her country for the first time to participate in NOAA’s at-sea-experience aboard the Thomas Jefferson. Read more to learn about the new insights and practical tools she plans to share with her home organization in the hopes of contributing to the efficiency of data acquisition and management.

 More Info 

Kenyan Hydrographer joins survey mission as part of EWH project

Victoria Obura, a Hydrographer from Kenya’s Hydrographic Office, embarked on NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson in June as part of an at-sea experience under the EWH project. Beyond learning about mapping, she benefitted from the holistic experience which included an emphasis on cooperation and human resource development.

 More info 

Hydrographer from Argentina participates in survey off the coast of South Carolina as part of the EWH project

Lt. Lucia Cattana, a hydrographer and geologist from the Argentine Naval Hydrography Service, embarked on the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster in July as part of an at-sea experience under the EWH project. The voyage was a learning experience for her as both a hydrographer and a geologist. As a hydrographer, she gained new practical experience and became familiar with hydrographic operations and various survey techniques, and from the perspective of a geologist, she was amazed to see underwater features related to the glacial environment that existed in the region many years ago.

 More Info 

IC-ENC contributes to the Empowering Women in Hydrography Project through IC-ENC Knowledgebase Secondment

The project

The International Centre for Electronic Navigational Charts (IC-ENC) is a global Regional ENC Coordinating Centre (RENC) which provides a set of services to its 50 Member Hydrographic Offices. As part of the ENC Validation service, IC-ENC has created, and maintains, the IC-ENC Knowledgebase, a key resource for Members and the Validation Team which provides a database of over 2,400 validation software error messages.

Under Work Plan item 12w, IC-ENC submitted an initiative to IHO to take part in the joint IHO-Canada Empowering Women In Hydrography project by offering an IC-ENC Knowledgebase secondment. Ms. Juliane Affonso, from Brazil, was selected to participate in the initiative.

My Experience

As part of this project, since July and September (one day a week virtually) and then in person at IC-ENC head office in Taunton, UK for the month of October, I have corresponded with IC-ENC Members to establish the current value and use of IC-ENCs Knowledgebase.

During this period, I have been involved in different activities related to the validation of S-57 and S-101 and have gained deeper understanding of the current process and what is to come.

In the first week of October, the IC-ENC Team gave me an overview of their services, supporting me and ensuring that all the process developed by the Team (Validation, Distribution, Production Support and S-100) were clearly defined.

As part of the IC-ENC Knowledgebase project, I created a survey to help highlight improvements to support IC-ENC Members/Validators and better understand their views and familiarity on the current use of this resource, and consequently identify and analyze potential issues. I also liaised with external and internal stakeholders via email and in person, to understand their needs and challenges. Following the collation of the survey results, I have been developing and implementing activities that will support users, these activities will be presented at Technical Conference (TC23_2) (taking place on Wednesday 25th October) as recommended improvement opportunities.

In parallel, another great opportunity was to gain deep insight into the S-57 to S-101 conversion and assess some of the S-101 trial datasets according to S-65 Annex B 1.1.0, S-101 DCEG and S-101 Product Specification 1.1.0 documents. I was fortunate to meet with the UKHO Production Engineering team, who gave me an overview of the current S-101/S-57 production options they are investigating, and their future plans, whether it would be better to produce S-101 products first and then convert the product back to S-57 (serial process) or whether to produce S-101 and S-57 in parallel from the S-101 Database, and then test separate or combined schema.

It is important to mention the incredible experience I have gained, meeting people with such brilliant minds, deepening my knowledge in nautical cartography, especially for the new S-101 validation guidelines. In this regard, I have no words to describe how amazing it has been to work with such a lovely and caring team of people who are experts in their fields. I hope to contribute to the development of IC-ENC activities, promote inclusive female leadership, and engage more women in hydrography.