To support coastal communities in collecting and using bathymetric data in the nearshore areas they depend on for travel, hunting, and fishing, the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) launched its Community Hydrography Program in 2022. As a part of that ongoing program CHS commissioned IIC Technologies to develop a Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) Extension to Help Create Bathymetric Community Maps. The CHS desired to provide these communities, particularly those in the remote northern areas of Canada, with the ability to create community maps/charts using their own data in areas where no large-scale charting was available. The objective of the extension is to greatly streamline the processing and visualization of bathymetric data collected by the public for their own purposes and to encourage bathymetric data gathering in these remote areas, ultimately improving safety of navigation.

The UMap Plugin that has been developed, allows any user to drag and drop existing bathymetric data, newly collected bathymetry from simple bathy data loggers, and other source information into a tool that automatically interprets and visualizes all supplied inputs. Although not an official chart, the system automatically generates a chart-like community map product that includes color-coded depth areas, depth contours and a selection of soundings, making understanding of local bathymetry more accessible to the public.

This free plug-in is already available for public use in the QGIS repository under IIC Technologies ( https://github.com/umap-iic/UMap) and, although it was commissioned by the CHS for use in Canada, it can be utilized anywhere in the world, as long as there is a suitable vector shoreline and bathymetric data for the area of interest.

A short demo on how to use the tool can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/QiiiLgZRaO4.