Marine data is a vital asset in the fight to protect our oceans, defend our coastlines, and curb shipping’s carbon impact. The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) shares insight into its work that explores how enhanced marine data can help the maritime industry to reduce its emissions, improve our ocean stewardship, and realize the potential of the blue economy.
When we look at the remarkable potential of digitalization, set against the stark challenge of decarbonization, it opens several important possibilities — from a hydrographic perspective, from a marine data perspective, and from a navigational perspective.
It is clear that marine data is a powerful asset in our fight to protect our oceans, coastlines, and environment, while ensuring that the maritime industry remains the engine of international trade in a sustainable and efficient way. The next step is to discover exactly how we can realize the potential of this data to support these goals.
Marine geospatial data for decarbonization
With global shipping accountable for around 3% of the world’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, we must continue the momentum behind reducing the industry’s impact on the planet through regulation and technology. Navigational data has a big impact on driving decarbonization, and is an important part to play to facilitate it.
At the time of writing this, the all-important United Nations COP26 summit is taking place, bringing parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The United Kingdom was joined by the United States of America and several other states calling on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to introduce more ambitious climate targets for shipping by adopting climate-neutral goals by 2050, as well as sub-goals by 2030 and 2040. The global net-zero call by 2050 was also supported by UN Secretary-General António Guterres who appealed for increased climate ambitions for shipping.
UKHO is proud to be participating in these discussions to communicate with world leaders on the importance of seabed mapping and marine data on a national and international level, while demonstrating our ability to support it.
Seabed mapping sits at the heart of nearly everything we can do to improve our understanding of the world’s oceans, and the many ways in which we can better manage our marine activities to help reach our climate goals. Marine geospatial data provide crucial insights that help to reduce the carbon impact of shipping and other ocean industries, as well as map, monitor and manage precious marine habitats – including blue carbon sinks – while also mitigating the impact of climate change on coastal communities.
UKHO provides geospatial information to support initiatives to combat climate change and its impacts. One prime example of the work we do is with our ADMIRALTY Marine Innovation Programme, where we support innovators and start-ups to develop new solutions that keep our oceans safe, secure, and thriving. UKHO selected HydroSurv as the winner for the Coastal Inundation Challenge for its solution that uses data collection and automated change detection software to identify areas at risk of coastal inundation.
It has become clear that marine geospatial information can help protect our marine environment by securing habitats, supporting humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, and ensuring resilience against the forces of nature. UKHO has a leading role in the Overseas Territories Seabed Mapping Programme, which helps British Overseas Territories improve maritime safety, and the Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme which helps some of the most vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS) make the most of their natural maritime assets.
For example, we partnered with the Caribbean island of Anguilla to develop the Anguilla Data Hub. The Hub is a web-based portal that provides a user interface to an Anguilla MSDI (Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure). This cloud-based portal combines bathymetric data with complementary data sets such as that from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) fitted on most ships.
The portal provides the Anguillan Government and private sector with far greater knowledge of seabed and ocean conditions, including wrecks, obstructions, and seabed composition. This will help the authorities to predict and mitigate the impact of storm surges. It will also support planning for coastal infrastructure and port developments that allow larger cruise ships to dock — a significant boost for the economy.
Another example of the work UKHO is doing with data-driven tools to support marine decarbonization is a Digital Twin project in Plymouth. The technology allowed for UKHO to visualize how the growth of kelp in the water surrounding Plymouth, could capture a large volume of CO2 emissions from the city and shipping operations in the port.
Importantly for climate action, the seaweed plant kelp is the fastest growing plant in the world, with a growth of 28-61cm a day, and can allow up to five times as much CO2 uptake compared to trees. The potential area for planting kelp in Plymouth is 253km2, which would equal 632 000T per year, and this amount would not be recognized without data-driven technology and data visualization.
The future of navigation
The next generation of navigational and non-navigational technologies and marine data applications will be at the very core of how we can embrace the possibilities of the digital era and take significant steps towards addressing shipping’s carbon challenge.
UKHO has a leading role in developing the next generation of navigational solutions, including the new IHO S-100 data standard – the most significant advance in navigational technology since the rollout of ECDIS across the global fleet – and a shift towards far more dynamic products and services, with greatly reduced latency.
This new generation of tools will underpin a raft of innovations that will deliver significant improvements not just to vessel efficiency, but also to environmental performance. Smarter passage planning, route optimization solutions, and just-in-time port arrivals that reduce port congestion and waiting times can all make a big difference to the fuel consumption and carbon emissions from a single voyage.
For example, the tidal window for port arrivals has a big impact on port operations. If we can widen those windows through more accurate data — and ultimately real-time data — that will save time, money, fuel, and carbon. A combination of S-101 ENCs S-102 high-resolution bathymetry and S-104 tidal water levels working in harmony with S-100 ECDIS have the ability to deliver this.
Looking further ahead, autonomous shipping is an exciting prospect with its huge growth potential. Some sources are reporting that the sector will be worth £111 billion by 2030.
Autonomous vessels can transform shipping by increasing efficiency, improving safety, and supporting sustainability. Innovations in digitalization, ship to shore connectivity, and wider advances in autonomous navigation, are becoming a reality. The growth of LEO communications, driven by the UK Government with its investment in OneWeb, further demonstrates the cutting edge of the latest advances in space technology to support the maritime industry.
Enabling autonomous navigation will require the industry to embrace digitalization and utilize marine data. UKHO is already demonstrating how the industry can apply this through its prominence in providing marine data to support the autonomous ship Mayflower voyage from Plymouth UK to Plymouth Massachusetts. Our data spans high resolution gridded bathymetry, tidal height and surface current data, and geospatial restriction and constraints data for the Plymouth Sound region, providing the Mayflower with a definitive view of the seabed in UK coastal waters.
Collaboration is key
Marine geospatial data, both for navigation and non-navigation applications, has a central role to play in delivering shipping’s sustainability ambitions, particularly if we approach that challenge with a collaborative spirit.
Perhaps the most exciting thought is that we have barely scratched the surface of what can be achieved. 80% of our oceans remain uncharted, and as we learn more about our oceans, collect more data and discover new ways to deploy that information, the opportunities are boundless.
To support our industry in achieving decarbonization, we must embrace this era of digitalization by adopting next-generational navigational tools, partnering with other industry leaders and continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible.
