Having access to accurately mapped submarine cable routes has become essential following the increase in seabed usage from industries such as telecoms, renewable energy, oil & gas and resource mining. With vast quantities of data being collected every day, the question has to be asked, whose responsibility is it to keep it updated?
Throughout each stage of the planning, installation and operation of a submarine cable, project data is created and collected. This data remains in a state of flux, with several changes over the project’s lifecycle that must be continually captured. However, managing records is often overlooked. It is either low on the list of priorities or wrongly assumed that someone else, such as a member of the maintenance consortium,
is doing it.
It is the responsibility of the cable owner to maintain records for their cable system. This extends to its location, straight line diagrams, cable armour type, fiber maps, burial depth, etc. Not just for the installation, but for changes that result from repairs on the system or from new cables and pipelines that are laid across an existing system.
