- Navy
- Hydrographic Service
- About Hydrographic Service
Developments
In addition to the primary task of delivering hydrographic products for the military and civilian customer, the Netherlands Hydrographic Service also endeavours to achieve the widest possible re-use of the hydrographic source data, for example for commercial, governmental and scientific purposes. This data management policy is subject to intergovernmental directives derived from several European directives based on European guidelines. The leading departments for these intergovernmental directives are the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment.
The Netherlands Hydrographic Service is acknowledged as an important partner for the supply of data on the domestic waters and as a centre of excellence for hydrography, geodesy, tides and nautical charting. In the future, there will hopefully be a special Hydrography and Nautical Charting Act, on the analogy of the Land Registry Act. Such legislation will guarantee efficient data acquisition and dissemination along the lines of the INSPIRE EC directive.
At present, the Defence Staff is evaluating the future demand and capabilities for geographic products. For the Netherlands Hydrographic Service this means an evaluation of the joint demand-supply chain and closer cooperation with the geographic department of the Royal Netherlands Army in the field of operations and the management of adequate knowledge.
Hydrography and the specific maritime Meteorology and Oceanography (METOC) are acknowledged as essential operational capabilities. The Netherlands Hydrographic Service has developed a concept of operations for Rapid Environmental Assessment (REA-CONOPS). These concepts also support the initiatives for Ideation and civil-military cooperation to serve the society and maintain civil order.
The production of the specific military hydrographic products, the NATO standard Additional Military Layers (AMLs), shows many similarities to the production of the civil products for safe navigation to be used by the merchant fleet. The AMLs are based on the same source data as the civil products and the nautical cartographers use similar applications and knowledge. The new production system SHIP2 and the organisational implementation of the REA-CONOPS guarantee a much more flexible and efficient environment for both the military and civil components from 2010 onwards.
The Netherlands Hydrographic Service endeavours to be an innovative organisation and to offer niche capabilities for military geography, hydrography and METOC in remote areas for any future coalition of the willing. This ambition is acknowledged by the latest strategic documents of the Defence Staff (MSV 2006).
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