REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF MARITIME BOUNDARY DELINEATION AND DELIMITATION, INCLUDING UNCLOS ARTICLE 76 ISSUES (ABLOS), MONACE, 9-10 SEPTEMBER, 1999.

Seventy-six attendees from twenty-nine countries were present at the Conference. In addition the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) personnel, members of the UN Commission on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf and the UN Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea participated. The sessions and papers were organised by the Conference Committee chaired by P. Vaniçek, chairman of ABLOS, and the Conference Proceedings, containing the 26 paper presented, will be produced by the IHB.

The Conference was divided into four sessions over a span of two days. In the first session, “Issues concerning the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf”, convened by G. Carrera, topics related to the approach of the UN CLCS to submissions made by coastal states were considered in contributions presented by members of the Commission. The following papers were delivered: CROKER, Peter, CLCS Member (Ireland), “The mandate and work of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf”.HINZ, Karl, CLCS Member (Germany), “A review of continental margins of the world”. LAMONT Iain, CLCS Member (New Zealand), “Formulating the New Zealand Continental Shelf Claim: A First Step”. BREKKE, Harald, CLCS Member (Norway), "Uncertainties and errors in sediment thickness”. CARRERA, Galo, CLCS Member (Mexico) “Wide continental margins of the world: a survey of marine scientific requirements and international regional cooperation needs posed by the implementation of Article 76 of UNCLOS”. ALBUQUERQUE, Alexandre and CARRERA, Galo, CLCS Members (Brazil and Mexico) “Information on the outer limits of the extended continental shelf”.

The second session, “Geodetic issues, with emphasis on errors in maritime boundaries and how to reduce them”, convened by B.G. Harsson, dealt with specifically geodetic problems of delineation and delimitation of maritime boundaries. The following papers were delivered: CARRERA, Galo, (Canada) "The impact of the seabed roughness on the location of the outer limits of the extended continental shelf". GROTEN, Erwin, (Germany) "Coastal Boundaries and Vertical Datums. VANIÇEK, Petr, (Canada) "Propagation of errors from shore baselines seaward”.SJOBERG, Lars, M Fan and Milan Horemuz, (Sweden) "Accuracy of computed points on a median line, factors to be considered", MURPHY, Brian, Philip Collier, David Mitchel andl Bill Hirst., (Australia) "Maritime zone boundary generation from straight baselines defined as geodesics”. OSZCZAK, Stanislaw, A.Wasilewski, Z.Rzepecka (Poland) " RTK/ DGPS service in maritime boundary delimitations". ELEMA, I. and Kees de JONG, (The Netherlands) "The determination of boundaries at sea between Belgium and The Netherlands".

The third session, “Tools needed for boundary delimitations”, convened by R. Macnab, dealt specifically with hardware and software that would be necessary to obtain the data to substantiate a continental shelf claim. The following papers were delivered: PALMER, Hal, Lorin Pruett, and Kurt Christensen, (USA), "GIS applications to maritime limit and boundary delimitation”. MONAHAN, David, Michael S. Loughridge, Meirion T Jones, Larry Mayer, (Canada, USA, UK)   “A model for using publicly available data and methodologies to begin preparing a claim to an extended continental shelf under article 76 of the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)”. MONAHAN, David and Larry Mayer, (Canada) “An examination of publicly available bathymetry data sets using digital mapping tools to determine their applicability to Article 76 of UNCLOS”. HIRST, Bill, Brian Murphy and Phil Collier, (Australia) "An Overview of Australian Maritime Zone Boundary Definition”. BORISSOVA, Irina Philip A. Symonds, Robin Gallagher, Bruce C. Cotton and Gail Hill, (Australia) "A set of integrated tools based on ArcView for defining the outer limit of Australia's continental shelf". BENNETT, John, (USA) “Contrast of the ‘Surface of Directed Gradients’ with the ‘Surface of Maximum Curvature’ to compute the foot of the continental slope”. HARDING, Jennifer, Herman Varma, John Hart and Ron Macnab, (Canada) “The HH code: facilitating the management, manipulation, and visualization of bathymetric data”.

In the last session, “Other issues and case studies (not necessarily related to Article 76)”, convened by C. Rizos, specific issues and case studies were the subjects of discussion. The following papers were delivered: MONAHAN, David and David Wells, (Canada) “Achievable uncertainties in the depiction of the 2500m contour and their possible impact on continental shelf delimitation”. MACNAB, Ron, (Canada)

 "Article 76 in the Arctic - a catalyst for international collaboration". CHERKASHOV, Georgi, A., Gramberg I.S. Makorta A.P., Kaminsky V.D., Naryshkin G.D., Poselov V.A., Sorokin M.Yu. (Russia) “Bathymetry and Deep Structure of the Arctic Continental Margin of Russia in the context of article 76 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”. COAKLEY, Bernard, (USA) “Contribution of the SCICEX Project Towards the Implementation of Article 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in the Arctic Ocean”. SYMONDS, Phil, (Australia) “Austalia’s approach to defining its extended continental shelf: progress and issues arising”.

The Conference, staged in the beautiful new offices of IHB, was considered a great success and a possibility that a bi-annual ABLOS-sponsored conference could become a regular international venture in Monaco was discussed. It was the first time that the IHB offices have been utilised for a conference of this format and it was evident that the facilities would not be adequate to support a conference wit a larger number of participants. It is anticipated that the assistance of the Principality of Monaco will have to be sought if this was to become a regular venture.

P. Vaniçek

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