Large areas of sea around the UK have not had their depth measured for more than a century. In many countries, including the UK, the amount of coastal waters that are adequately surveyed is below 50%. The situation is caused by the high cost of hydrographic surveying – about €25 000 per square mile – and also because the remit of many hydrographic offices is aimed at the needs of large SOLAS ships and defence. TeamSurv is a way to help fill this gap.

Published 11 years ago, updated 6 years ago

TeamSurv wants to harness the hundreds, maybe thousands, of boats out on the water to start collecting up-to-date information about what lies beneath the surface.

TeamSurv is a project where mariners help create better charts of coastal waters, by logging depth and position data whilst they are at sea, and uploading the data to the web for processing and display. The TeamSurv website shows the data provided by all data loggers, overlaid over Google Maps. They are currently implementing corrections for tide height etc., and so short it will be possible to see both the logged and the corrected data.

By providing a small data logger to put onboard, Teamsurv can collect and collate the voyages of boats and build up a more detailed map.

Teamsurv has been granted funding for its project from the UK Satellite Navigation competition, an initiative set up to support start-ups that use satellite data.

To get involved and/or find out more information about this project go to http://www.teamsurv.eu/