Arctic RHC

Brief History

Following initial discussions in the margins of the 1st meeting of the Inter-Regional Coordination Committee meeting of the IHO in June 2009 in Monaco, the Arctic Regional Hydrographic Commission was established on October 5, 2010 with an area delineated by INT Chart Region N. The first meeting was held in Ottawa, Canada. The ARHC is the most recently established hydrographic commission supporting the mission of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and its Resolutions for navigation safety and collaboration. IHO Member States with charting responsibilities in the Arctic are Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russian Federation, and the United States. Members of the Arctic Council are afforded Associate Membership at their request. Working Groups established include those for charting (AICCWG), operations and technology considerations (OTWG), and Marine Spatial Data (ARMSDIWG). After its initial scoping work, the Strategic Planning Working group became dormant, but with the advent of the IHO Strategic Plan and certain global priorities in the Arctic (including the existence of the Arctic Council, Seabed 2030, the U.N. Ocean Science Decade, and others), as of 2021, new attention is being placed to the contributions of the ARHC to improved hydrographic awareness, nautical charting and marine environmental protection in the Arctic.  

Meeting Documents

Only documents for upcoming, current and previous years meetings are listed left. All earlier meeting documents are available from the IHO Document Archive.

Member States map

Please see the disclaimer in the Hydrographic Geoinformation Services. 

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