At the time of writing this editorial, the top end of Australia is in the grip of two significant cyclones – Veronica and Trevor. I note this because in this edition, the first of the papers from the Philippines discusses the impact of cyclones and the research into understanding their influence on generating storm surges and increased water level heights. In an archipelagic island nation, with significant population density and increasing infrastructure projects along its coastline, storm surge has the potential to wreak havoc and destruction. In comparison, the two cyclones striking the sparse Australian coastline are impacting much smaller towns, but the precautions are still costly – whole town populations have been evacuated, mining ports shut down and bulk ore carriers have sailed from ports to safer offshore waters.
The origin of many of these cyclones is due to our ocean environment. Leaving the climate change debate alone, there is no argument about the impact that our oceans have on our climate. The more we study, the more we learn and can appreciate the importance of the ocean in our daily lives. The IHR was first published in March 1923 and the value of nearly 100 years of learned articles about all aspects of our profession provides a wealth of knowledge and an invaluable body of work. I encourage all in our profession to use this resource and ensure its ongoing value to our community by contributing articles and papers. We owe this to the next generation of hydrographers and all members of our profession who will benefit from our experiences and who have access to a consistent and rich resource of research material.
The second paper published as a Note in this edition comes from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and is a timely and practical discussion of the experiences of industry undertaking contract hydrographic surveys for national hydrographic offices (HO). With Australia planning to embark on a major contracted hydrographic survey program in 2020 (subject to final government approval), lessons learned from other HOs undertaking similar major contracting programs (e.g. New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, etc.) will be invaluable. Even after 20 years of contracting, close cooperation between LINZ and its two contractors, is reaping benefits to all parties. Of course, in a contracting panel that comprises several companies, cooperation and optimal fiscal budget management can be more difficult to achieve, but that shouldn’t stop all parties striving to improve. As more contract work becomes available, particularly for offshore nautical charting purposes, the industry will continue to rapidly evolve technology and processes. We are already seeing this with more use of autonomous vehicles and increased Research & Development into machine learning and artificial intelligence software solutions. It is definitely a most exciting time to be part of this profession.
I would like to thank the authors for their contributions, the willingness of my colleagues to review the papers and the staff of the IHO who compile the published version. I hope that you enjoy these papers and may be inspired to make your own contribution in the future. In my role as Editor, it is always a privilege to bring you a new IHR Edition.
Ian W. Halls
Editor