I am delighted to be able to chair this conference which seeks to expose ports and coastal hydrography to a wider audience’, said William Heaps, also the Hydrographic Manager for Associated British Ports.

The conference, which is supported by The Hydrographic Society UK, Society for Underwater Technology and the UK Harbour Masters Association, will cover developing technology and experiences of very shallow water surveying. The driving factors behind coastal and ports surveying are the Civil Hydrography Programme new stakeholders input into the survey programme; the pressure on ports to comply with regulations and dredge cost effectively in a competitive ports environment; and the use of new technology for surveying in very shallow and hostile environments.

Strategic papers will be presented by Rob Spillard, Hydrography Manager of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on the Civil Hydrography Programme, and Edwin Danson, Surveyor and President of the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors, on compliance with hydrographic survey standards and the Port Safety Marine Code.

Other papers include cost effective surveying and dredging from Steve Johns, UK Dredging, and multibeam surveying from John Dillon-Leetch, Port of London. Duncan Mallace of Netsurvey will talk on high accuracy surveys of damaged quay walls. Autonomous and remotely operated survey vehicles, both surface and underwater, will be covered by speakers from GeoAcoustics, Atlantas Marine and Autonomous Surface Vehicles.

A last word of welcome from William Heaps, ‘ It also gives me special pleasure to welcome delegates to ABP’s Port of Southampton, which has benefited from a dedicated Hydrographic Survey Section for almost 100 years. Much has been learned in that time, but as the conference will demonstrate, there is always something new and interesting happening in hydrography’.

The conference is organised by The Conference Business which organised Shallow Survey 2005 in Plymouth on behalf of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Programme and booking form can be downloaded from www.seawork.com or emailed from enquiries@conferencebusiness.co.uk. For additional information contact Howard Evans or Elliott Gibbs at Tel, +44 (0)1737 559 892.