Laying the foundations for ecdis charts

European HOs are working through the folio of charts covering their own national waters to produce vectorised electronic navigation charts (ENC)s. The process of digitising the information is relatively fast, but then the charts have to be verified, as every HO will accept legal responsibility for their accuracy, in the same way as they currently do with paper charts.

One such HO is the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) which by early November, has compiled over 100 ENCs. Of these, approximately 50 are currently being used on a trials basis as part of the Admiralty Digital Chart Service – Pilot Programme. The remainder are approaching the final validation process, says UKHO, and will be introduced into the trials over the coming months. Release for commercial use is expected in the second quarter of 2000 following further confirmation on data content, reliability, and update mechanisms, says the UKHO. It is planned that a further 200 ENCs will be produced over the next two to three years.

Once these ENCs are available they will join those so far supplied from the HOs of Norway, Denmark, Germany and France, all of which are being distributed to users through Primar, the European ENC Coordinating Centre, based in Norway, which has been busy setting up a network of authorised distributors for its services, and started its official operational services in October. Started as a joint venture between the Norwegian Mapping Authority, through its Electronic Chart Centre, and the UK Hydrographic Office, (The Motor Ship, June 1999).

Primar supplies official electronic navigational chart (ENC) cells and updates provided from the European national hydrographic offices. So far, the HOs involved are Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, and the UK, not all of which have supplied ENCs for distribution yet. These ENCs are available via CD-ROMs as well as secure online services where customers can download new cells and weekly updates using Inmarsat, ISDN or GSM.

The geographical spread of charts has already moved south from the original Northern European area covered by Primar following the addition of the Portuguese HO. It also hopes to expand coverage further south in the near future with the addition of HO`s from nations bordering the Mediterranean, says Primar.

The service is fully compliant with IMO and IHO standards so that they may be used legally to navigate any ship, including those subject to the IMO Solas convention, when used within an approved ecdis.

As at mid-November the list of distributors include: the Norwegian Hydrographic Office, Skanti Radio, and AS Navicharts in Norway; ASPO Systems OY, and Troil Marin Oy in Finland; Bade & Hornig, and Transas Transport Safety System in Germany; Chartworx, and Datema, The Netherlands; Transas Marine and Kelvin Hughes in the UK; Transas Scandinavia; Offshore Charts and Marine Press in Canada; and Poonhang International Co, Korea.

Similar ENC Service Centres are planning in other parts of the world in accordance with an International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) model to form a common world wide chart service.