Development of the Subregions of IBCWP
With the support of the IOC and IOC/WESTPAC and the cooperation of all the participating countries/organizations, the IBCWP project has made progress. The participating countries are compiling the sheets that they wish to do. Most of sheets of subregions 1, 2 and 3 have been compiled by 2006. The following information on the progress of each Member State was updated by 2006 except China.
1. Russia is the Responsible Country of the subregion 1.
They have already prepared 16 plotting sheets at the scale of 1:500,000 and have compiled on these basis 3 sheets of the chart at the scale 1:1M, namely 1-12, 1-13 and 1-14. The compilation of the sheets 1-10 and 1-11 were in progress in 2006.
2. Japan is the Responsible Country of the subregion 2.
Japan has compiled the sheet of 2-11. However, certain amount of compilation work is still required to meet the specifications of the IBCWP. China participates in the production of seven sheets (2-4, 2-8, 2-9, 2-10, 2-11, 2-12, 2-13) of this subregion. China has completed five compilation sheets of 2-4, 2-8, 2-11, 2-12 and 2-13. The compilation of 2-9 and 2-10 is in process which is going to be completed in 2008. Korea has surveyed west and south area of Jeju Island in the Area of sheet 2-8, and the compilation has been completed.
3. China is the Responsible Country of the subregion 3.
China would like to undertake 16 sheets of this subregion (3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 3-6, 3-7, 3-8, 3-9, 3-11, 3-12, 3-13, 3-14, 3-16, 3-17, 3-18, 3-19). Up to now, China has completed the compilation of all the 16 sheets. The Philippines worked on five sheets: 3-7, 3-12, 3-13, 3-17 and 3-18. Compilation of sheet 3-12 according to IBCWP standards was complete, while that of sheets 3-17 and 3-18 was expected to be completed by August 2006. Integration of multibeam and other bathymetric data for Sheets 3-7 and 3-13 was ongoing. Vietnam has completed the compilation of the sheets 3-6 and 3-11.
4. Australia is the Responsible Country of the subregion 4.
New Zealand had agreed to take charge of the subregion 5. SOPAC has accepted the invitation of the IOC as the responsible organization for the subregion 6. But no more information was from all of them after 2003.
Future tasks of the IBCWP project include Undersea feature nomenclature, the connection of boundaries of the neighboring sheets, data sharing, publication and so on. The IBCWP project will go further with the coordination and support of the IOC/WESTPAC.