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11 th International Symposium for GIS and Computer Cartography for Coastal Zones Managementenvironment (VE) contains the Point Grey ocean disposal site offshore of Metro Vancouver (Figure 1A). Thisvirtual environment is made possible by the use of high-resolution multibeam bathymetric data imported into theUnity3D game engine as a height-map terrain. The user is given the ability to select the type of material (andassociated mass/buoyancy), the quantity of said material, as well as the location of deposition. This allows theoperator to examine exactly how ocean currents of varying directions and strengths affect debris’ trajectory. SinceUnity is currently unable to adequately simulate ocean currents, volumetric meshes (authored in Google Sketch Upand imported to Unity3D) are used to force debris in a given direction (Figure 1B). Providing users with tools to seehow debris interacts with ocean currents in real time allows them to examine how varying deposition points affectthe paths these objects follow to the bottom of the sea.Figure 1. (A - left) –A map showing the location of the Point Grey disposal site. (B - right) – A schematic illustration of how thegeovisualization depicts bathymetric space, segmenting it into differential ocean current zones (stacked volumetric boxes), actingupon debris released at surface. The dark grey paths denote the path debris takes as it falls through the water.Bathymetric environments are very difficult to access due to the equipment and training required for navigation,which is inaccessible to a vast majority of people. As such, one is blissfully unaware of the fate of disposed debris.They rely on external organizations to simulate the fate of materials disposed of at sea. However, EnvironmentCanada personnel would not be the only people to benefit from this visualization. Citizens concerned about disposalat sea practices will have the ability to use this application to learn more about normally unseen bathymetricenvironments. Creating a virtual environment of the study area gives the user a greater sense of immersion throughincluding their real-world cognitive processing strategies (Slocum, 2009).The primary goal of Debris in the Deep is to assist in ideation and sense making of a three dimensional,bathymetric environment. This requires a robust inter-VE navigation system because, in many virtual environments,users have issues maintaining spatial knowledge and must devote more of their cognitive load to wayfinding insteadof their specific objectives (Chen and Stanney, 1999). Large, mostly empty spaces are more difficult to navigatebecause they contain few landmarks for the user to situate themselves with (Darken and Cevik, 1999). Using a mapto alleviate this problem is the obvious choice because maps have been an integral part of many recreational gamesthroughout history, and have functioned to support game mechanics and rules (Ahlqvist, 2011). A key differencebetween physical, paper maps and maps in VEs is that VE maps always know exactly where the user is, it can bedynamically altered (Darken and Cevik, 1999). The real-time, forward-up map divides the environment in a spatialhierarchy to assist in navigation. Furthermore, the map aims to emulate Darken and Cevik's three principles toproduce meaningful maps of VEs: (1) divide the world into small, distinct parts to preserve the sense of place; thesecond (2) is to organize the small parts as a grid; and (3) the map must provide directional cues (Darken and Cevik,1999).Ongoing researchBeing able to simulate and visualize each stage of marine dumping, and the ability to interactively modifyscenarios, enables us to reveal this otherwise out-of-sight, out-of-mind process. This work in progress has so faryielded an extremely powerful, functioning, low-cost prototype which has considerable potential to support more204