Bathymetry data and metadata migration techniques

Many organizations involved in hydrography and oceanography hold large repositories of bathymetric data. Many of these organizations are migrating from legacy, often in-house built systems, to modern off-the-shelf GIS products. This has created the need to migrate the metadata as well as the bathymetric datasets themselves, if the data is to be discovered and used again in the future with confidence. The metadata can be held in various formats and will have varying levels of detail so it is essential that migration strategies, workflows and tools are developed to meet the needs of the organizations in question. This paper will describe some real world use cases that highlight the migration steps involved in moving legacy bathymetry and associated metadata to new software systems. Attention will also be given to how additional metadata can be added during the migration task, with a view to adding further value and knowledge to the bathymetry, which can facilitate subsequent analysis activities. With an increasing awareness in the oceans, bathymetric metadata is essential if there is a desire or need to share, view and utilize bathymetric information in an interoperable and appropriate way.