Neb Map Service 
DOI: 10.23784/HN117-03 
The European harmonised bathymetry 
grid EMODnet Bathymetry 
Introduction, outlook and contribution 
from German partners 
Anarticle by THIERRY SCHMITT, DICKSCHAAP, GEORGE SPOELSTRA, PATRICIA SLABON, PAUL WINTERSTELLER and KNUT HARTMANN 
The EMODnet Bathymetry portal provides open and free access to the bathymetry of 
the European seas. This article presents the current status of the EMODnet Bathymetry 
project, its impact on the marine stakeholders, with examples from the German com- 
munity, and provides an outlook to future developments. 
zMODnet | HR-DTM | metadata | WMS 
-MODnet | hochauflösendes DGM | Metadaten | Web-Map-Service 
Das EMODNet-Bathymetrie-Portal bietet einen offenen und freien Zugang zur Bathymetrie der europäi 
schen Meere. Dieser Artikel stellt den aktuellen Stand des EMODnet Bathymetrie-Projekts und seine Aus 
Wirkungen auf die marinen Akteure mit Beispielen aus der deutschen Community vor und aibt einer 
Ausblick auf zukünftige Entwicklungen 
Authors 
Thierry Schmitt, PhD, is Expert 
rn DEM products at SHOM in 
3rest, France. 
Dick Schaap is Managing 
Director of MARIS in Nootdorp, 
The Netherlands. 
3eorge Spoelstra is Managing 
Director of GGSgc in Breda, 
The Netherlands. 
Ir. Patricia Slabon is Scientist 
at the German Federal 
Maritime and Hydrographic 
Agency (BSH) in Hamburg. 
?aul Wintersteller is Senior 
Deep Water Surveyor at the 
Jniversity of Bremen. 
Dr. Knut Hartmann is COO at 
:OMAP in Seefeld. Germanv 
hartmann@eomapn.de 
m 
‚Nntro 
EMODnet Bathymetry is being developed in the 
"ramework of the European Marine Observation 
and Data Network (EMODnet) as initiated by the 
zuropean Commission. EMODnet Bathymetry 
3aims at facilitating the access to bathymetric data 
zovering all the European seas and which are held 
2y multiple organisations such as Hydrographic 
Dffices, research organisations and private compa 
les. In order to do so, the EMODnet Bathymetry 
jortal (www.emodnet-bathymetry.eu) provides 
apen and free access to the bathymetry of the 
zuropean seas at 1/16 arc minute which is approxi- 
mMately 115 m resolution depending on latitude 
‚EMODnet Bathymetry Consortium 2018), along 
with metadata of surveys and pre-gridded prod- 
Jcts held by the partners. 
ıhe original data sets themselves are not dis- 
"ributed without the consent of the data provider. 
Inly the metadata are publiclhy available through 
services, giving clear information about the back- 
ground survey data used for the digital terrain 
nodel (DTM), their access restrictions, if any, origi 
nators and distributors. The semi-distributed infra 
;tructure of SeaDataNet facilitates requests from 
Jsers to data providers with metadata harmonised 
and centralised in dedicated and controlled cata 
oques (Schaap and Lowry 2010). 
Viewing and downloading services give users 
wide functionalities to interact with EMODnet 
DTM and all its constituents. They are also made 
available by means of OGC (Open Geospatial 
Consortium) web services (e.g. WMS, WFS, WCS, 
WMTS) 
This article presents the current status of the 
EMODnet Bathymetry project, its impact on the 
narine stakeholders, with examples from the Ger 
nan community, and provides an outlook to fü 
ture developments. 
The user experience 
The current EMODnet DTM, which was released at 
che end of September 2018, has a grid resolution of 
/16 arc minute X 1/16 arc minute (approximately 
“15 m width and 60 to 90 m height, depending 
on latitude). It contains approximately 12.3 billior 
grid nodes organised in 64 tiles. From all the data 
sources gathered (> 30,000), a total of 9,456 unique 
data set references have been sampled for use in 
the current common EMODnet DTM (see method- 
ology below). This DTM is available free of charge 
or viewing and downloading, and for sharing by 
OGC web services from the EMODnet Bathymetry 
aortal (Fig. 1). The OGC services include a recently 
published world baselayer (EBWBL) covering both 
water and land at a global scale (https:/tiles 
emodnet-bathymetry.eu). 
On top of the EMODnet DTM, selected areas are 
covered with higher resolution DTMs (HR-DTMs), 
which again follow the same grid geometry, but 
then with resolutions of 1/32 to 1/512 arc minute, 
depending on the data policy of the data pro- 
vider or prevailing national policy and physica 
constraints related to the limitations of the sen 
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