The Nippon Foundation—GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project: The Quest to See the World’s Oceans Completely Mapped by 2030

Abstract

Despite many of years of mapping effort, only a small fraction of the world ocean's seafloor has been sampled for depth, greatly limiting our ability to explore and understand critical ocean and seafloor processes. Recognizing this poor state of our knowledge of ocean depths and the critical role such knowledge plays in understanding and maintaining our planet, GEBCO and the Nippon Foundation have joined forces to establish the Nippon Foundation GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, an international effort with the objective of facilitating the complete mapping of the world ocean by 2030. The Seabed 2030 Project will establish globally distributed regional data assembly and coordination centers (RDACCs) that will identify existing data from their assigned regions that are not currently in publicly available databases and seek to make these data available. They will develop protocols for data collection (including resolution goals) and common software and other tools to assemble and attribute appropriate metadata as they assimilate regional grids using standardized techniques. A Global Data Assembly and Coordination Center (GDACC) will integrate the regional grids into a global grid and distribute to users world-wide. The GDACC will also act as the central focal point for the coordination of common data standards and processing tools as well as the outreach coordinator for Seabed 2030 efforts. The GDACC and RDACCs will collaborate with existing data centers and bathymetric compilation efforts. Finally, the Nippon Foundation GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project will encourage and help coordinate and track new survey efforts and facilitate the development of new and innovative technologies that can increase the efficiency of seafloor mapping and thus make the ambitious goals of Seabed 2030 more likely to be achieved.

Cold‐water coral assemblages on vertical walls from the Northeast Atlantic

“…In addition, many smaller features, or steep walls in other geomorphic categories, would add to these estimates. Although overlapping modelled coral habitat suitability distributions with potential occurrences of vertical walls can only provide very coarse estimates, it allows us to examine the conservation importance of these features until global initiatives such as GEBCO Seabed2030 can provide higher resolution global bathymetric datasets (Mayer et al, ). To put these estimates into perspective, a world‐wide assessment of shallow tropical coral reefs, based on 500 m resolution data, estimated that they covered 212,340 km 2 (Burke, Reytar, Spalding, & Perry, ).…”

“…Considering the bathymetric resolution available, it is to be expected that not all areas with slopes greater than 20° are likely to represent vertical or overhanging walls, but these first estimates are obtained using a plan view, with the true surface area represented by vertical structures remaining underestimated. In addition, many smaller features, or (Mayer et al, 2018). To put these estimates into perspective, a world-wide assessment of shallow tropical coral reefs, based on 500 m resolution data, estimated that they covered 212,340 km 2 (Burke, Reytar, Spalding, & Perry, 2011).…”

Citizen-Science for the Future: Advisory Case Studies From Around the Globe

“…Yet, most of the seafloor remains unmapped and unexplored. Less than 18% of the oceans have been directly measured (Mayer et al, 2018). The vast majority of the data used to compile seafloor maps are estimated depths derived from satellite gravity measurements.…”

Caracterización de la geoforma submarina Galera durante el proceso de extensión de plataforma continental ecuatoriana

“…Adicionalmente, en los últimos años, muchos países costeros han llevado a cabo ambiciosos programas de mapeo de fondo marino con el fin de extender los derechos soberanos más allá de las 200 millas náuticas, además de proyectos enmarcados en la caracterización de todos los fondos marinos como el proyecto SeaBed 2030 [4].…”