A cartographical perspective to the engineering works at the Sulina mouth, the Danube Delta

From 1856 to 1939, the European Commission of the Danube (ECD), was responsible for technical surveys at the mouth of the Sulina arm. During this period, the ECD prepared general maps of the Danube Delta as well as detailed charts for all the Danube mouths: Chilia, Sulina and Sf. Gheorghe (St. George) that were published in various reports or atlases. ECD used a local grid network benchmarked at Sulina, divided in 500 feet units. The reference point was the old lighthouse located on the right bank of the Danube. After the Second World War, the Romanian authorities elaborated new cartographical products using the Gauss-Kruger projection or Stereo-70 like national grid. Our goal is to generate a cartographical background database necessary for refining the coastal evolution model of the Sulina mouth. To handle the large number of available maps, we chose a GeoNetwork-like solution for catalog service, indexing and defining metadata. The service is operating at geo-spatial.org.