Authorship and Acknowledgements

This document was commissioned out of the 16th annual meeting of the Crowd Sourced Bathymetry Working Group held in March 2025 in Wellington, New Zealand. These efforts are the result of a request by new and interested Crowd Sourced Bathymetry (CSB) initiatives within various member organizations for clear guidelines and examples for how to create, recruit, operate, and maintain a CSB program. This document draws on the knowledge and resources of several major Trusted Nodes and Hydrographic Offices and highlights the information found to be most pertinent by these entities through trial-and-error. All information reflected here is an amalgamation of experience, but not necessarily the only path to success. 

We would like to acknowledge the work of organizations which have contributed majorly to this effort including the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), Seabed2030, NOAA’s NCEI and DCDB, University of New Hampshire's Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM), University of South Florida’s Center for Ocean Mapping and Innovative Technologies (COMIT), Orange Force Marine, and the International SeaKeepers Society, as well as other partner organizations which have contributed to amassing the knowledge contained in this document. We would also like to recognize the role of Seabed2030, the Nippon Foundation, the IHO, and GEBCO for their roles in bringing together interested parties to contribute to the overall use and compilation of global crowd sourced bathymetry data.