Hydrospatial Information | Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure

Hydrographic offices are contributing authoritative hydrospatial geographic information to a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI), which better supports national economic development and a blue economy. A nation's blue economy covers diverse industries and sectors such as communications, marine surveys, hydrography, marine renewables, security, energy, aquaculture, fishing, and offshore mining.

Supporting Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure

What types of content does an MSDI support?

MSDIs support the use of content on a large variety of topics including bathymetry, geology, marine infrastructure, ocean environment, boundaries and limits, and oceanography.
How does an MSDI help the maritime community?

By supporting national MSDIs, hydrographic offices are currently evolving from chart producers to geospatial organizations that support a broader community.
What is the benefit?

The national advantage of supporting an MSDI is the ability to provide a geospatial infrastructure with the building blocks for a responsive national system that supports decision-making.

Change detection and analysis
Scaling operations
Driving the blue economy
Enabling business continuity

Coastal and shoreline change analysis

Coastal and shoreline areas are rapidly changing and provide unique challenges for mapping. Due to the dynamic environment, authoritative and timely information is essential to making informed decisions and ensuring safety of life and property. National mapping and geospatial authorities need trusted information to identify critical impacts from natural and human-made changes that affect local communities. To support coastal and shoreline change analysis, a geospatial infrastructure is required to sense, understand, and respond intelligently. The use of GIS provides the ability to plan and mitigate organized responses that support the best use of local and national resources.

A monitor displaying a coastal map marked in purple

National scalability and real-time management

National geographies are large, varied, and hard to chart. Natural resources, population dynamics, and rising sea levels shape these areas as they face economic and environmental adaptations to climate change. To deal with mapping these changes, ArcGIS enables geospatial organizations to scale operations using the cloud (public, on-premises, and hybrid) for production, real-time operations, planning, management, and effective mitigation/response efforts.

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Transformation to support the blue economy

Hydrographic and oceanographic organizations are evolving from their traditional roles, being asked to go beyond hydrographic data collection and production. Traditionally, they are seen as custodians and producers of marine geospatial information. These hydrospatial offices are modernizing their efforts through an MSDI, moving beyond production and enabling information that supports a blue economy. These efforts include provision of information where elevation doesn't stop at the shoreline, management of national resources through the offices' marine cadastre and exclusive economic zones (EEZ), and production of navigational and scientific products.

A shipping port overlayed with location icons, markers, and text

Challenges to business continuity

Minimizing the impacts of disasters on the maritime ecosystem can only be possible by utilizing continuous geospatial data feeds, performing impactful analysis, enabling artificial intelligence, and disseminating data and knowledge in effective ways. Disruptions to the maritime industry can have significant consequences for local and global economies. These consequences affect the trade of goods, services, and commodities. Understanding the impacts of disasters on the maritime supply lines is required to increase the resilience of maritime economies in order to hasten disaster recovery. Geographic accuracy is essential in detecting and responding to any natural or human-made disaster. GIS should be used to support many national recovery efforts at all levels of government:

Assess risks
Evaluate threats
Track and maintain situational awareness
Efficiently allocate resources
Provide community awareness
Minimize disruptions

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Products and solutions for MSDI

ArcGIS Hub

This easy-to-configure community engagement software as a service helps organize people, data, and tools through data-driven initiatives.

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ArcGIS Online

Share interactive maps privately with your groups or publicly with everyone.

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ArcGIS Enterprise

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Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure

Supporting Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure

What types of content does an MSDI support?

How does an MSDI help the maritime community?

What is the benefit?

Access and understand hydrospatial information