international hydrographic organization 2003 - IHO

33
No meetings were held during the year. No subjects were brought to the attention of the Group.
IHO-IEC HARMONIZATION GROUP ON MARINE INFORMATION OBJECTS (HGMIO)
Chairperson:
Dr. L. ALEXANDER (Univ. of NH, USA)
Members: IHO: Canada, Estonia, Italy, Japan, Norway, UK, USA (NIMA and Navy),
IHB.
IEC: Caris (Canada), Navintra (Finland), SevenCs (Germany), C-Map
(Italy), Chartworx (Netherlands), Transas (Russia), Maptech (USA),
USCG.
The 2 nd HGMIO meeting was held at the IHB, Monaco, on 14 June. Issues addressed by the meeting
included:
Assessment of the current status of previously developed or proposed IHO S-57
objects/attributes and display aspects for each of the following MIO categories: Ice Information;
Tides and Water levels; Oceanographic Information; and Meteorological Information. For
each MIO category, a Task Leader has been assigned and tasked to prepare a short “white
paper” that describes the status of IHO S-57 objects, product specifications, proposed colours
and symbols, test dataset, any required field trials etc.
Development of a work plan for the WG and establishment of work priorities.
Other potential topics for future investigation could include: Current Flow; Marine Environmental
Protection; and Marine Habitats.
The IHO contributed to the work of IEC/TC80/WG13 (Displays for the presentation of navigation
related information) through the Chair of IHO C&SMWG, Dr. M. JONAS (Germany), who represented
the IHO at a meeting of WG13 in St. Petersburg, Flo., USA, in May. IHO also cooperates with IEC on
the definition and display of Marine Information Objects (see 3.1.5).
DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION WORKING GROUP (DGIWG)
DGIWG, a collection of geographic information activities responsible for data standardization within
NATO, held its annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada from 7 to 11 April.
During the Industry Day/External Organizations Session, the IHB provided an overview of the IHO
and its role in the standardization of hydrographic information. A subsequent presentation
summarized a study sponsored by the UKHO and NIMA that provided a roadmap by which the IHO‟s
S-57 standards and the DGIWG‟s DIGEST standards could be harmonized and eventually converged.
The ensuing discussions addressed the re-establishment of a memorandum of cooperation between
DGIWG and IHO that was formulated in the early 1990‟s but had become dormant as both
organizations migrated their harmonization efforts to the ISO. As both organizations are currently
working on new editions to their respective standards, the opportunity exists to ensure further
divergence is avoided and substantive harmonization realized. Continued exchange of personnel
between the DGIWG Technical Panel and the IHO CHRIS TSMAD was agreed and near term
mutually beneficial efforts were discussed.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION (ISO)
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a non-governmental international
organization comprising a world-wide federation of national standards bodies from approximately 130
countries.