IHO Technical Standards

The IHO technical Working Groups, Project Teams and Correspondence Groups conduct the work under the guidance of the HYDROGRAPHIC SERVICES AND STANDARDS COMMITTEE (HSSC).   Please see the HSSC page for additional information on the technical standards development activities of the Organization.

PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR MAKING CHANGES TO IHO TECHNICAL STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS

These principles and procedures are intended to be applied to all proposals for development of and changes to IHO technical standards and for new technical standardization work items.

The principles and procedures set in place by means of M-3 2/2007 resolution for IHO technical standards are not intended be applied for IHO GIS services, publications, catalogues or supporting documentation of general or non-technical nature which form a separate group.

Any reference to “standards” in these principles and procedures follows the ISO/IEC definitions for standard and guide and may therefore also include some IHO “specifications” and “guidelines” as appropriate.

IHO Product Specifications, including test data sets for validation checks, are considered to be standards. The list of IHO standards that must follow the principles and procedures described in the technical resolution is provided in the M-3, 2/2007 Appendixes.

1. The list of those IHO standards that must be developed and maintained with the provision of an impact study, endorsement of the relevant Committee and endorsement by the Council if deemed appropriate by the Committee and the approval of Member States, is provided in M-3, 2/2007 Appendix 1.

2. The list of those IHO standards that must be developed and maintained with endorsement of the relevant Committee and the approval of Member States, without the compulsory requirement for conduction of an impact study and not subject to the Council’s endorsement, is provided in M-3, 2/2007 Appendix 2.