Survey conference plumbs new depth

By Graham Davis

It is called Rapid Environmental Assessment (REA) and it is something Defence managers planning a troop landing or littoral operations need.

There is a new emphasis on REA and it is a requirement of naval commanders seeking to carry out effective mineware, amphibious, surface and sub-surface operations, the Chief of Navy, VADM Chris Ritchie, told 220 delegates attending the Shallow Survey 2003, conference staged at Cockle Bay, Sydney from November 17 to 20.

VADM Ritchie officially opened the conference.

It was the third international conference on high resolution surveys in shallow water.

The conference was organised by DSTO with strong support from the RAN’s Hydrographic Division (CAPT Bruce Kafer).

It attracted civilian and defence scientists and uniformed officers from as far afield as Denmark, Trinidad, South Africa, the US, UK, South Korea and Japan.

The esteemed gathering stemmed from a luncheon meeting in 1999.

This year’s conference was enhanced by static displays of scientific detection equipment as it relates to the sea and what is below the waves.

When not attending lectures, delegates did a number of tours including a visit to the Hydrographic Division in Wollongong and a tour of the hydrographic survey ship HMAS Melville (LCDR Anthony Withers) which, in a rare happening, had been secured beside DSTO’s Pyrmont office.

The conference was devoted to the exploration of new technologies and processing methods for mapping and characterising the seabed in shallow water areas.

It was this theme that VADM Ritchie highlighted when he discussed the relevance to the way the RAN does it job in littoral waters.

He said it was vital for those planning a landing or littoral operations to know what was on the shallow seabed and to have that data quickly transferred to electronic charts on a warship.

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