Crowdsourced Bathymetry Manual (2026)

Created as an output of the Crowd Sourced Bathymetry Working Group Work Item G

Work Item Contributors - Haley Davis, Kristin Erickson, Sophia Chernoch, Jennifer Cheveaux, Aileen Bohan, Colin Thomson, Pauline Weatherall, Jennifer Jencks, Nicolette Le Roux, Anders Bergstrom, Natalie Cornish, Abukar Aminu Giginya, Jaya Ramirex, Guillaume Morissette, Lee Shoemaker, Anthony Klemm

Glossary Authorship and acknowledgements Goals and objectives Definition and important uses ...

Glossary

B-12 A guidance document created by the CSBWG and IHO to provide an outline of the technical “ho...

Authorship and Acknowledgements

This document was commissioned out of the 16th annual meeting of the Crowd Sourced Bathymetry Wor...

Goals and Objectives

The goal of this document is to fulfill a request put forth by the 16th annual Crowd Sourced Bath...

Definition and important uses of CSB

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) defines Crowdsourced Bathymetry (CSB) as the...

Legal considerations

This section is not intended to provide legal advice, but rather to provide examples of some comm...

Finding Your Crowd

This section is designed to help guide a program creator through the process of finding vessels t...

Vessel features

The suitability of a vessel for CSB depends on both its onboard hardware and the engagement of it...

Motivating vessels and overcoming hesitation

Depending on a vessel’s ownership, motivations to participate in CSB may be vastly different. Bas...

Maintaining vessel engagement

Tools to maintain vessel engagement may include communication and contact, personalization of mis...

Recruitment and onboarding

When initiating engagement with a recruited vessel, it is important to include information about ...

Hardware Options

For ease of explanation, we will divide loggers into “First Generation” and “Next Generation,” wh...

First generation loggers

First Generation loggers are characterized by the need to un-install an SD card from the logger a...

Next generation and WiFi enabled loggers

Next Generation loggers are characterized as having more than just an SD card to eject and manual...

Comparison of logger options

Depending on a CSB program’s needs at a given time, one type of logger may be preferred over anot...

Installation and Setup

Installation prep

At least a week before an installation is scheduled, check that the installation kit and equipmen...

Installation Kit

Prior to leaving for a logger installation, ensure that the installation kit contains the followi...

Installation guide: OFM

OFM has provided detailed Installation and Operating Instructions for their Mussel Kits. A hard ...

Installation guide: YDVR

Locate a NMEA 2000 backbone or T-connector with an open port. If a port is available, simply pl...

Installation guide: NEMO30/WIBL

Confirm that the NMEA network starts when the vessel is powered on. Remove the backplate/cover...

Collecting metadata

When installing data loggers, it is important not only to focus on the data that is being collect...

Data Retrieval and Management

Frequency of data transfer

Depending on logger type, CSB data will be transferred at varying intervals. For first-generation...

Offload mechanisms

The method of retrieving data varies with the type of logger. For first‑generation loggers, or wh...

Data Transformation and Submission

WIBL and YDVR data processing

Getting Set Up You will need to install the following programs to run the WIBL processing script...

Submission of GEOJSON data to the DCDB

All data submitted to the DCDB need to be in .geojson (preferred) or XYZ format and contain appro...

Graphical user interface

As of March 2025, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is being developed to aid in the processing an...

Data Extraction and Processing

If your stakeholders would like to see their data for themselves, it may become pertinent that yo...

NCEI/DCDB data extraction

Perform the following steps to extract CSB data from the DCDB: Go to the IHO Data Centre for D...

Pydro tidal corrections

Support Contact: Anthony Klemm, NOAA Office of Coast Survey anthony.r.klemm@noaa.gov Perform th...

Data Visualization

Tidal-corrected data should be edited using GIS software and uploaded to a central location which...

ArcGIS: Editing tide-corrected CSB data

For Trusted Nodes that have access to ESRI software licenses, tide-corrected CSB data can be edit...

ArcGIS: Generating CSB data shapefiles

This section provides instructions on how to export shapefiles of CSB data for specific participa...

QGIS: Editing tide-corrected CSB data

For Trusted Nodes that prefer to use free and open-source GIS software, the following section des...

QGIS: Data visualization

Motivation Some crowdsourced bathymetry participants may have a clear idea of how they intend to...

Use Cases and Effective Communication

NOAA data scrape

In 2025, NOAA Hydrographic Systems and Technology Branch, in collaboration with University of New...

Tampa Bay community mapping efforts

NOAA’s hydrographic health model is a risk-based framework that evaluates the safety of navigatio...

Templates

Example recruitment email for stakeholder meeting

For inaugural stakeholder meeting: [Fill in highlighted areas with details appropriate to your o...

Example stakeholder meeting agenda

For inaugural stakeholder meeting: Crowdsourced Bathymetry (CSB) in Tampa Bay/Florida Devel...

Example stakeholder input session prompts