ABSTRACT
Applications of GIS technology in the various oceanographic disciplines are multifaceted. They deal with data acquired with a variety of different methods and integration principles from different technological disciplines in an attempt to facilitate the resolution of the dynamics of the marine environment. Oceanographic GIS propose solutions to an ever-increasing number of marine problems and at the same time provide new insights to the unknown abyssal depths of our oceans. Ocean dynamics (oceanographic processes) as well as marine problems (e.g. conflicts in the coastal zone and pollution) have inherent spatiotemporal characteristics. Oceanographic data have two essential parts (location and attributes) that make them highly suitable for input to geospatial databases, which in turn open new ways for data storage, analysis and visualisation. The majority of oceanographic data often have a geographic location, are digital, uneven in distribution, originate from multiple institutions and can have resolutions that vary over many orders of magnitude. The spatial attribute of oceanographic data makes them highly suitable for GIS analysis as GIS provides a natural framework for the acquisition, storage and analysis of georeferenced data. GIS databases can store and manipulate several environmental parameters about ocean processes and present their effects on the marine environment in graphical format.
