The hydrographic brigade of Tianjin Maritime Safety Administration (abr. Tianjin MSA) is a professional unit in charge of the surveying and mapping in the coastal ports and channels in the North China. According to the current job division assigned by the China MSA, Ministry of Communications of the People's Republic of China, Tianjin MSA has charge of the periodic hydrographic surveying and mapping to renew the 98 maps of the 18 ports in the region in order to guarantee the navigation safety, to assume the salvage survey in case of offshore accidents, the sweeping in channels as well as the engineering surveying for the construction of big ports. The business scope of Tianjin MSA covers port control survey, geological survey, sounding, dredging survey, hydrological observation, channel sweeping survey, detection of submarine obstructions, marine positionning, compiling and drawing of maps and piloting charts of ports, digital maps and producing the related products.
Formerly the Harbor Hydrographic Brigade of the Shipping Administration, Ministry of Communications, the brigade was founded in 1955 and came under the jurisdiction of Tianjin Dredging Bureau in 1959. With the establishment of Tianjin Marine Safety Supervision Bureau in July 1988, the brigade was transfered to it together with the former A to N and hydrographic department of Tianjin Dredging Bureau then, was renamed the Hydrographic Brigade of Tianjin Marine Safety Supervision Bureau. In July 1999, Tianjin Marine Safety Supervision Bureau, Ministry of Communications along with the hydrographic brigade and some other related units formed Tianjin Maritime Safety Administration. In January 2001, the hydrographic department of Tianjin MSA amalgamated with the brigade.
The hydrographic brigade has now 72 officers with professional knowledges, counting 55% of its 132 staff members. Between them, 54 have their technical titles, intermediate of advanced and 18 are senior engineers. One of them has acquired the Class-A cartographer certificate issued by FIG, 5 with the Class-B certificate, 3 with the engineer certificate of engineering supervision and aministration and, one with the international consulting engineer certificate issued by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC).
During the past forty years after its establishment, especially since the foundation of the Marine Safety Supervision Bureau, the brigade has made big progres with the support of the Ministry of Communications and the bureau. The brigade possesses now over 40 millions Yuan of fixed assets and a variety of advanced surveying and mapping equipments, domestic and imported, including precision theodolites, levels, infrared range finders, total-stations, GPS receivers, single and dual frequency echo-sounders, sub-bottom profilers, side scan sonars, multibeam echo-sounders, automatic plotters, etc. In October 1997, the brigade has passed the authentification of ISO-9000 standard quality system by China Great Wall Quality Assurance Center.
In the past forty years, the brigade had carried out the surveying and mapping almost all over the coastal areas of the country, from the mouth of Yalujians Riveer to the so-called "end of the world" (Sanya of Hainan and Xisha Islands in the South China Sea), in contributing to the construction of ports and the water transportation of the country. In the recent years, beside the surveying and mapping mission assigned by the government, Tianjin Hydrographic Brigade has undertaken the underwater topographic survey for the 2nd and 3rd nuclear power plants in Guangdong province, the pre-construction surveying of Qingdao trans-sea bridge, the sub-bottom scanning for the 3rd and 4th stage berth construction of coal transportation channel in Qinhuangdao port as well as the seabed surveying for the berth construction in the channel in Huanghua port. During the sub-bottom survey in ports of Qinhuangdao, Yingkou, Yantai, Dalian and Qingdao, the Brigade has located and helped to remove dozens of objets such as wrecks, dredging tubes, anchors, etc. which were harzadous to the navigation. Moreover, the brigade has detected several wrecks including Lubodu No.2, Shenglu, Hailasi No.3 Yuantong No.1, Tonghui, Xingguang, etc. When the "May 7 air disaster" happened in Dalian in 2002, Tianjin brigade has contributed its efforts to locate the submerged plane and its "black box" and to clean the channels of Dalian port.
In the recent years, Tianjin Hydrographic Brigade has equiped itself with sophisticated equipments and optimized the pereformance of its staff and its management in response to the new situation after China's admission into the WTO. At present, it has set up new targets for itself: strict quality standard and accuracy in surveying, incessant inovation in the management, cordiality and promptitude in services and always guaranteed safety. With its persistent efforts in innovation, progress, improvemenet on the quality of products, the management and its own competitive power in the market, the brigade also decides to make more contribution to the construction of new ports, to the navigation safety and to the development of marine transport in line with the modernization in China.
Address: No. 31 Dongting Road, Hexi District, Tianjin, China