Practical analysis of geomatics standards, risks, and decision-making – written by experts.
The 10th MED Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1434 updates test standards for gyro, GMDSS and more. What it means for survey vessel certification and refits.
How X-band radar sea-state inversion estimates depth, where it meets and misses IHO S-44, and how to blend it with multibeam for nearshore monitoring.
DMAC 31 covers accelerated emergency decompression from saturation. We unpack the decision logic, the gas and medical planning it demands, and where teams get it wrong.
Most people encounter the world through maps long before they travel internationally. Maps appear in classrooms, textbooks, atlases, navigation systems, websites and mobile phones. Because maps are ubiquitous, it is easy to assume they provide an objective representation of reality. In truth, every map is a compromise. The Earth is roughly spherical, while a map is flat. Converting a curved surface into a two-dimensional representation is one of the fundamental challenges of cartography. No matter how sophisticated the mathematics, it is impossible to flatten a globe without introducing distortion somewhere. This principle is well recognised in geodesy and surveying, where projections are understood as mathematical transformations that preserve some properties while sacrificing others. As noted in internal geodetic training materials, "it is impossible to graphically represent a surface with double curvature on a plane surface without distortion of some kind."
Synthetic data can fix scarce defect samples in pipeline MFL inspection – but only if you validate against real digs. How to specify and buy it without importing risk.
As Prime Minister Andy Burnham seeks to reconcile energy security, affordability, industrial competitiveness and climate commitments, the UK has entered a new phase in its offshore energy debate. This article examines the government's evolving position on North Sea oil and gas, the expansion of renewable energy, plans for large-scale energy storage, and the competing visions offered by the Conservative Party and Reform UK. It also explores what these developments could mean for jobs, skills and the future of British manufacturing.
Oshen's C-Star USV mapped a Mississippi channel for the US Navy. We unpack what the sea-state envelope really means for planning rapid singlebeam bathymetry.
A senior engineering read on extreme sea level estimation for offshore design – datum integrity, extreme value method choice, non-stationarity and the air-gap consequence.
A senior engineering read on contact-aided factor-graph localization for low-altitude AUV seafloor sampling – what it does, where it helps, and its limits.
BSEE Safety Alert 524 flags production safety system training gaps. We unpack the competence-assurance lessons for offshore survey and positioning crews.
A senior engineering analysis of why isolation and permit-to-work failures keep producing lost-time injuries in survey, inspection and diving operations.
The TGS and GTI collaboration promises one integrated seismic dataset from surf zone to deepwater. We unpack the positioning, timing and QC standards that must hold.
New BGS North Sea ground models expose the layered seabed that single-soil burial assessments miss – and reshape route-clearance and burial-depth decisions.
GMV UK's LUPIN project fused IMU, RF, vision and DEM aiding for lunar rovers. We unpack the geodesy – reference frames, geometry and integrity – behind the result.
The Jackdaw gas field has hit the headlines recently as a standoff between the environment activists, ‘Big Oil’ and the UK government in approving its development.
How does someone in the large freelance market for offshore survey demonstrate competence. Are CVs enough still, and are CVs even believable?
‘Silly season’ used to be a regular, repeating cycle. Larger companies would pick off the competition or companies with vaguely similar products to strengthen their global position. Those who have been working in the downturns will know this to be true – going offshore for one firm and returning with a letter of redundancy on the return.
More survey schools are disappearing, and fewer surveyors are entering the market from them. More who work offshore on survey projects have limited schooling in survey and more have some tangential exposure to the core disciplines found in survey.
Fugro's Timor-Leste award over 3,000m of water frames a wider client decision: how to scope geophysical and geotechnical work into a FEED-ready ground model.
Geomatics, Offshore Survey, Hydrography - are they all the same?
How USBL, INS/DVL aiding and sound-velocity control decide close-standoff AUV work near glaciers – and what that transfers to subsea structure inspection.
Message spoofing can inject a large position bias into DGNSS without touching velocity. We unpack the SBAS standards gap and the countermeasures survey spreads can apply now.
A HUGIN AUV located a Pan Am DC-4 at 610m off Puerto Rico on its first pass. We unpack what that means for scoping deep-water search-and-survey work.
When multibeam water column data can quantify seabed gas flux, where it can't, and how to decide between MBES acoustics and dedicated in-situ methods.
Drift ice, no icebreaker, a non-ice-class tanker on the berth window. How operators decide when unescorted transit is defensible – POLARIS, Baltic practice, ice advisors, and the metocean discipline the decision deserves.
Every multibeam survey records backscatter alongside depth. We assess when it is worth processing into seabed classification, what governs data usability, and how to decide.
The Plymouth SSCS trial shows multi-vehicle marine autonomy working. We analyse the positioning and coordination choices that decide survey coverage.
Thales Alenia Space wants to move SBAS from GEO into a LEO network. We assess what spatialised augmentation means for DP accuracy, integrity and remote offshore work.
Norway's HUGIN Superior brings deep-sea AUV mapping in-house. We unpack the navigation, bathymetry and assurance decisions owners face at 6,000 m and high latitude.
A client-decision guide to visual AUV navigation when acoustic aiding drops out – estimator consistency, geodetic traceability and how to specify and accept it.
Norway's expanding GNSS monitoring network exposes a positioning failure mode offshore teams must design around: jamming and spoofing in a contested spectrum.
A senior engineering read on DNK's LEO-based A-PNT programme with Iridium – where backup positioning against GNSS jamming and spoofing earns its keep, and where it doesn't.
How the 2026 revision of DNV-RP-0585 reshapes geotechnical and geophysical survey scope for offshore wind in seismically active regions.
DP position-loss incidents keep repeating not because the technology is immature, but because concealing them is still rational. A failure analysis of the industry's broken learning loop – and what operators can do about it.
A senior engineering read on synthetic aperture sonar versus multibeam for wreck and obstruction surveys – where cm-scale imagery justifies the cost, and where it does not.
ICAO now treats GNSS jamming as a chronic aviation risk. We unpack what that framework means for offshore DP positioning and PNT resilience.
The US Space Force may cancel RTX's GPS III ground control contract. We unpack what OCX uncertainty means for offshore positioning continuity and backup strategy.
The 2026 SWF counterspace report puts GNSS interference centre stage. We analyse how jamming and spoofing break offshore survey positioning, and how to harden it.
IMCA S 026 out-of-straightness survey guidance, unpacked: the checks, error budget, deliverables and QC it actually specifies for rigid subsea pipelines – and where it leaves the numbers to your project procedures.
USV launch and recovery (LARS) reliability, not launch, sets the threshold for designing crewed vessel days out of an uncrewed survey campaign.
Geoportal alternatives to Esri and ArcGIS, by archetype – open-source, commercial and cloud – and why the lock-in that bites is your data, not the licence.
Cellula and DRDC's 385-hour Envoy AUV run signals a shift. We analyse what changes in survey planning when your platform stays submerged for weeks.
Surveying free spans on subsea pipelines: almost any method gives the span length, but the gap beneath the pipe – the number VIV fatigue turns on – is the hard part.
The common operating picture in offshore crisis response runs on geomatics, not "a map layer" – and operators who overlook it carry a risk they cannot see.
Two subsea contractors on a third party's vessel, each contracted only to the operator and to no one else aboard. The gap left by the missing contract between them – and the machinery that has to fill it before anyone gets in the water.
Underwater 3D scanning is not NDT and sizes no crack. As a visualisation aid alongside NDT and UT, it adds a full-field view of a subsea weld repair – with honest limits.
TGS's Equatorial Guinea MegaSurvey hinges on reconciling decades of legacy positioning. We unpack the geodetic control behind a 'harmonised' regional dataset.
GNSS jamming and spoofing are now persistent in conflict zones from the Baltic to Hormuz. We analyse the failure mode and how offshore operators harden positioning.
GNSS-INS for subsea: how IMU grade, gyrocompassing and DVL/USBL aiding decide ROV and AUV positioning against IHO S-44 survey orders.
How operators qualify, contract and manage integrated subsea contractors: single-integrator vs multi-vendor, IMCA/IOGP gates and build-vs-buy for resident ROV.
PXGEO and Equinor begin autonomous subsea inspection trials with Saab's Sabertooth drone. What operator readiness for intervention drones requires.
Space-based GNSS jamming creates a common-mode failure that DP integrity monitoring is not designed to catch. What it means for offshore positioning.
Industry Hormuz transit guidance flags GNSS jamming and spoofing. Practical positioning-integrity steps survey managers should verify before mobilisation.
Uncrewed hydrographic surveys raise IHO S-44 compliance and quality-control questions the IMO MASS Code does not yet answer for commercial work.
Van Oord's VO:X Barentsz ran a multi-day USV survey at an active wind farm. What the milestone reveals about endurance claims and oversight gaps.
S-100 Phase 1 in force: dual-fuel transition, S-101/S-102 deliverables and tender impact for survey contractors.
GNSS interference has shifted from episodic to persistent across the Baltic, Strait of Hormuz and South Asia. What it means for offshore survey positioning.
NPL-Vodafone fibre timing trials reduce GNSS reliance onshore. We analyse what terrestrial timing means for offshore PNT resilience.
Australia's first live S-100 bridge trial puts S-104/S-111 tide and current data on Carnival ECDIS in Sydney Harbour. What it means for survey data clients.
IHO S-100 Phase 1 is live (Jan 2026): seven product specs released. What hydrographic survey contractors must change in data workflows now.
GNSS integrity monitoring goes big-data: ESA's RIGOUR project and what crowdsourced receivers mean for offshore positioning QA.
GeoAcoustics names Seafloor Systems its US channel partner – what channel deals mean for equipment access, training, and survey support.
Deep-sea mining EIA baseline monitoring with ADCPs: what ISA rules require for currents and sediment plumes, and where survey managers under-scope.
S-100 and S-101 give USV autonomy machine-readable hydrographic data, not just a chart format. What structured products change for autonomous survey work.
Shore-approach depth-of-burial surveys: why single-method pipeline DOB surveys fail across the beach, surf and nearshore transition zone.
How multi-sensor nearshore survey actually works: LINZ's three-year topobathymetric programme maps up to 40% of New Zealand's coast.
Brazil's first S-101 ENC at Suape begins its dual-fuel transition. What survey contractors in Brazilian waters should plan for in deliverables and QC.
Arctic GNSS above 70°N fails on satellite geometry, ionospheric scintillation and INS drift. What DP, survey and subsea operators must specify instead.
Why icebreaker escort and ice forecasts fail non-ice-class vessels on the Northern Sea Route, and where operators consistently misjudge Arctic risk.
ASOG, IMCA M 220 and DP drift-off: why crews bypass the activity-specific guidelines they helped write, documented in IMCA DP event bulletins.
Separating platform subsidence from wellhead growth needs geodetic precision. Ekofisk learned it the hard way. How compaction shifts your survey datum.
Offshore platform deformation monitoring: GNSS, levelling and seafloor transponders to separate subsidence, wellhead growth and structural movement.
GNSS jamming at Finnmarksløpet shows how fast satellite positioning fails. What it means for offshore survey and DP teams relying on GPS.
UK £180M National Timing Centre backs up GNSS timing on land. What it means for offshore positioning assurance, and why it does not remove GNSS redundancy.
IMCA D 002 on battery packs in pressure housings: thermal runaway, housing design, lithium-ion risk and emergency response for subsea systems.
Why operators install ROV and diving spreads on chartered PSVs instead of hiring dedicated subsea vessels – and the Bridging Document most get wrong.
Remote bathymetry economics: when uncrewed survey platforms beat crewed vessels on mobilisation, weather and accuracy trade-offs for basin-scale mapping.
Subsea electromagnetic sensing and positioning: Kongsberg's Listen upgrade moves EM from specialist add-on to core survey tool – and what QA must check.
IOGP SSDM Version 3 (Report 462) is in development for 2027. What the ArcGIS Pro and dynamic-CRS overhaul means for seabed survey data teams.
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