Johannes Melles
Coordinator for Spatial Data
German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH)
Germany

Biography
Johannes Melles joined the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in 1986, having obtained a Master of Science degree in Geophysics from the University of Hamburg. During his first year at the BSH he worked on the development of a GIS system for German research vessels. In 1987 he started to work as a marine geophysicist in the Circum-Pacific region for the German company Preussag. Two years later he rejoined the BSH and started his work in the hydrographic department, where he was responsible for the first German ECDIS projects and the development and introduction of the new BSH production system for nautical publications and charts (NAUTHIS). During that time he was heavily involved in the development of the IHO data exchange standard (S57) that is used primarily for electronic navigational charts. Since 2005 he is working in the oceanographic department as the coordinator for Spatial Data at BSH. In this function he is responsible for the development and operation of the Spatial Data Infrastructure for BSH (GDI-BSH) and the Marine Data Infrastructure for Germany (MDI-DE). In Germany these systems are used to provide marine spatial data to the public and to National, European and World-wide organizations.