CHS NON-NAvigational (CHS NONNA) Data Portal

The CHS NONNA Data Portal provides accessible non-navigational hydrographic data free of charge.

About

From scientific research to coastal resilience planning and beyond, knowledge of the seafloor is needed for many reasons.

The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) is committed to collecting and sharing quality bathymetric data – the information used to chart our underwater features and their depths. The CHS NONNA Portal is how we share this information for non-navigational purposes including ocean science, resource management and the growing Blue Economy.

The CHS NONNA data is available for free of charge via the CHS NONNA Data Portal. The non-navigational bathymetry products are available to anyone interested in Canada's marine space. Visit the Government of Canada's Open Data site to access the products and provide feedback on how you are using them.

Uses

To date, there have been over 8 million dataset downloads of CHS NONNA data. This data can be used for a variety of non-navigational scientific activities like:

• geographical planning for resource exploration, infrastructure, and industry considerations
• identification and mapping of environmentally sensitive areas and improving protections for species at risk
• numerical modelling to simulate habitat mapping or nutrient and sediment transport
• policy and program development for a wide variety of marine-related activities
• broader scientific research concerning ecology, climate change mitigation, geomorphology, and more

CHS NONNA Intensity Layer

The latest version of CHS NONNA includes a geospatial feature, the CHS NONNA Intensity Layer. The new intensity layer data is a measure of the strength of returning multibeam echoes or LIDAR pulses. It provides information on the ‘hardness' and “roughness” of the seafloor. This data can help us identify seafloor types such as hard rock or soft sediment.

Please note that this new CHS NONNA Intensity Layer will be continuously updated as more intensity products become available.

2024 CHS-NONNA Intensity Pilot Project

CHS is seeking user feedback on its intensity data accessibility to help:

• disseminate CHS' existing intensity products to support interested scientific communities
• gather feedback to better understand the community interested in intensity products
• collect metrics to be responsive to these clients' needs

Users are asked to provide their feedback upon downloading data via the CHS NONNA Data Portal.