## 3 Structure of the Nippon Foundation--GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project  
To achieve its goal, the Seabed 2030 team will need to compile all available bathymetric data into a high-quality, high-resolution digital model. Inasmuch as bathymetric data and survey activities are dispersed across many countries and organizations, including governmental agencies, industry, academia and research organizations, the Nippon Foundation--GEBCO--Seabed 2030 Project will act as a coordinating body for aggregating existing data and prioritizing survey operations through the development of tools and products that highlight gaps in data coverage and facilitate new mapping expeditions, specifically targeting the poorest mapped areas. The project sits within the existing and well-functioning IHO-IOC GEBCO framework making full use of existing bodies such as the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Regional Undersea Mapping (SCRUM), the Technical Sub-Committee on Ocean Mapping (TSCOM), the Sub-Committee for Regional Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) and the newly founded Sub-Committee on External Relations and Communications. This structure will support Seabed 2030, by contributing to the governance structure and allowing it to benefit from the large networks already provided by the IHO and IOC. This is particularly important since all hydrographic offices of IHO's member states, with their mandate to map within their countries' territories, become de facto partners in the effort. Without the collaboration of the world's hydrographic offices, there is little chance of reaching the goal of portraying the world ocean bathymetry. IOC, on the other hand, is a self-standing body within UNESCO with a mandate to organize marine science within the UN system. This provides Seabed 2030 with a strong global network that reaches beyond the hydrographic agencies and includes the broader marine scientific community that also collects and utilizes ocean bathymetry. The project structure is based on GEBCO's experience working with Regional Mapping Projects (e.g., IBCAO and IBCSO) that have contributed substantially to GEBCO by delivering regional bathymetric gridded compilations. Seabed 2030 is divided into four regions (Figure 1) for which data assembly, processing, and compilation fall under the responsibility of a dedicated team of experts based at globally distributed institutions that we call Regional Data Assembly and Coordination Centers (RDACC) each working in coordination with a Regional Mapping Committee:  
* The North Pacific and Arctic Oceans Center, based at the University of Stockholm, Sweden and University of New Hampshire, USA
* The South and West Pacific Oceans Center based at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington, New Zealand
* The Atlantic and Indian Oceans Center (Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, USA)
* The Southern Ocean Center (Alfred Wegner Institute, Bremerhaven, Germany)  
The RDACCs will be responsible for assembling a regional database of cleaned bathymetric data and the production of a regional bathymetric grid for incorporation into the ultimate product of the project, the Nippon Foundation GEBCO Seabed 2030 global grid. A Global Data Assembly and Coordination Center (GDACC), located at the British Oceanographic Data Center at the National Oceanographic Center in Southampton, U.K., will ultimately be responsible for assembling the regional grids and producing and delivering the Seabed 2030-GEBCO gridded product through the Internet. The GDACC will host and maintain the Seabed 2030-GEBCO website ([[https://seabed2030.gebco.net/](https://seabed2030.gebco.net/)]([https://seabed2030.gebco.net/](https://seabed2030.gebco.net/))) including sub-pages for the RDACCs as well as be responsible for handling user inquiries regarding the Seabed 2030 website and products.