Late last month, GLOS attended the Lakebed 2030 conference in Traverse City, MI.

Hosted by Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) and organized by NMC, NOAA, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and GLOS, the conference gathered around 200 professionals to learn about the latest mapping efforts, new technologies, and continue to work towards mapping the remaining 85% of the Great Lakes at high-density.

A few highlights:

  • NOAA efforts were prominently featured this year. NOAA’s Rear Admiral Benjamin Evans presented a keynote on the Office of Coast Survey’s ongoing efforts in the Great Lakes, including sending the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson to map here for the first time in decades.
  • Denis Hains, from H2i, presented on the global hydrospatial movement and how it relates to Lakebed 2030.
  • From GLOS, Tim Kearns presented on the current state of Lakebed 2030 and on GLOS efforts to bolster the initiative.
  • Also from GLOS, Linden Brinks detailed the development of an interactive hex map layer for Seagull that will allow those contributing to the lakebed map to easily see unmapped areas.
  • Students from NMC’s Marine Technology program attended talks and demos and networked with potential employers.

See the presentations | Download photos

Three people sit in front of a wall of screens in a trailer.
The conference featured demos by leading survey technology companies, including Maritime Robotics, which used an autonomous mapping platform to map a shipwreck 1 km away in Grand Traverse Bay.

 

People talk to each other in a large hall

Two people in a crowd smile at the camera

A person in a uniform speaks at a podium in front of a NOAA slide

Two people sit at a table at a control center near the water

A conference room full of about 150 people

A two story building with green grass and a blue sky

 

 

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