Oceans Protection Plan: The Canadian Hydrographic Service Contributes to Modern and Safe Navigation

By 2022, the Oceans Protection Plan will enable the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) to make significant improvements to its entire production chain so that it can provide maps and other navigation products that are up to date, relevant and on the cutting edge of technology.

This is an enormous task that requires additional skilled workers. In the past year, the staff at the Mont-Joli office of the CHS–located in Maurice Lamontagne Institute–has increased from 50 to nearly 70 people. And that is not all. To manage and support this considerable growth, a new section was created to oversee and assist with training new employees and their activities.

Through the Oceans Protection Plan, the expertise of the Mont-Joli office of the CHS will be used to achieve the following objectives:

Key harbour facilities for the Canadian economy

Seven harbours are targeted in Quebec. To date, new multibeam data have been obtained for the Trois-Rivières, Port-Cartier, Havre-Saint-Pierre and Port-Alfred harbours. The surveys of the Sept-Îles, Baie-Comeau and Cap-aux-Meules harbours will be completed by the end of 2018. The new surveys obtained in 2017 are already being processed and will be entered into the CHS bathymetric database. After that, the map production department will update existing products and publish new maps and other products for these harbours. Users will be able to rely on an up-to-date representation of the sea floor at the targeted harbour facilities.

An up-to-date and accurate coastal bathymetry
Air surveys using LiDAR optical technology were conducted between August and November 2017. Nearly 700 km of coastline were covered with this airborne technology between Port-Cartier and Saint-Augustin on the Lower North Shore. The first data collected have just arrived at the CHS and are being analyzed by hydrographers. They will also be added to the CHS bathymetric database in the coming year and will be used to fill significant gaps in nautical maps of the region, particularly in areas located between 0 and 20 metres.

Dynamic products accessible in real-time

The main products resulting from this initiativse will measure surface currents, water levels and the sea floor of Canadian waterways. Unlike mountain topography, depth bathymetry is not a static measurement for many waterways. To provide hydrographic map users with the most accurate and up-to-date representation of sea floors, the CHS will produce high-definition bathymetric surfaces in accordance with international standard S-102. A number of these surfaces will be frequently updated in horizontal resolution of up to two metres. The same strategy will be applied to the distribution of water levels, for the S-104 range of products and for surface currents that make up the S-111 product line. The S-112 standard makes it possible to provide a dynamic system for using water level data in continuous mode, which is an essential tool for planning the shipping of goods in Canadian waters. The CHS intends to distribute all these dynamic products online.

Canada’s North as a future continuous waterway

Although this component is under the Burlington office’s leadership, the Mont-Joli office of the CHS is actively contributing to updating and producing new maps of the Arctic. In 2017, two hydrographers participated in survey missions in the Arctic for the Oceans Protection Plan, and a third one worked on validating the new data acquired and incorporating them into the Bathymetric DataBase. In 2018, the Mont-Joli office will contribute again by sending hydrographers to join the survey teams in the Arctic and assigning two others to producing new charts. The combined efforts of the various CHS offices will contribute to establishing a safe waterway for the Arctic.

For more information about the Canadian Hydrographic Service

Serge Gosselin
Science