Education and Research
Universities and other higher education establishments in Britain will soon be able to access marine geographic information in easy to read formats for the first time, as a result of a 3 year agreement between the Joint information Systems Committee (JISC) and SeaZone.
JISC is the funding body behind the Digimap service through which academia gains access to data from Ordnance Survey. The service, which is currently run by the Edinburgh University Data Library (EDINA), is in the process of being upgraded to include Ordnance Survey's definitive geospatial database, MasterMap Topography Layer. As part of the upgrade, EDINA will be loading SeaZone data onto the Digimap service and making it available for map creation and download to subscribing organisations.
The United Kingdom is home to a number of world leading university departments and academic institutes that undertake education and research in oceanography and other marine sciences covering a diverse range of topics including climate change, deep sea biology, ocean circulation, coastal erosion and ecological sustainability.
Traditionally, like many others, the marine science community has relied on paper charting for their marine geographic needs, or on datasets especially created from navigational source data, such as the General Bathymetric Chart of the Ocean (GEBCO).
By subscribing to the new Digimap Marine Service, researchers and students will have access to Admiralty charts and SeaZone's award winning geographic information product, SeaZone HydroSpatial. As well as providing base reference mapping, the data will support the creation of higher level datasets, such marine habitats, which are associated with a definitive geographic base. In this way, users will be able to contribute to, and benefit from, being part of a spatial data infrastructure that covers both land and sea.
To access the new Digimap Marine Data Service students and academics should contact EDINA through their Digimap representative. For all other inquiries, please contact SeaZone directly.
Please note that the Digimap service is available only for academic research and education. For commercial or sponsored research projects using SeaZone data, a standard digital data agreement is required.
