Welcome to, The Wave, Esri's e-newsletter for marine GIS, current events, publications, and opportunities. This issue focuses on marine GIS activities at the Esri International User Conference (Esri UC), which took place August 4–8, 2008, in San Diego, California.

Note that the call for presentations for the next Esri UC, July 13–17, 2009, is currently under way. If you would like to share your marine GIS work as part of a paper presentation, submit an abstract by October 17, 2008.

2008 Special Interest Group Meeting

Marine GIS users gathered at the Marine GIS Special Interest Group meeting on Thursday, August 7. About 40 people attended. We hope you'll find it helpful to learn more about the topics and resources discussed at the meeting.

Introduction [PDF]
Katsura Iizuka (Esri) talked about the idea of creating a training course for Arc Marine, one of Esri's data models. If there is enough interest, having an Arc Marine workshop before or during the Esri UC might be possible.

If you have any questions or suggestions on how we should establish an Arc Marine workshop, please contact Katsura Iizuka.

Ocean Globe [PDF]
Joe Breman (IUE) talked about his 3D bathymetry map services.

Extending the Arc Marine Data Model [PDF]
Dawn Wright (OSU) gave us updates on the Arc Marine data model, giving more depth to the idea of an Arc Marine training course/workshop.

Interagency Ocean and Coastal Mapping Activities [PDF]
Robert Wilson (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]) informed us of the activities that are going on with ocean and coastal mapping.

Tsunami Inundation Digital Elevation Model Development [PDF]
Nazila Merati (NOAA/National Geophysical Data Center [NGDC]) talked about the use of digital elevation models (DEM) as a useful way to model various environmental activities including tsunamis.

More Information
In addition to the user meeting, there were moderated paper sessions and demo theater presentations on marine GIS topics at the Esri UC. To view descriptions and more, search the online agenda.