Inland electronic navigational charts in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Abstract

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for the maintenance, efficiency, and safe navigation of more than 25,000 miles of commercially navigable channels in the U.S. Historically, the Corps has produced paper charts for this purpose with the result being 22 chart books covering 9 waterway systems. These chart books are at varying scales, accuracies, and layouts with little consistency among the districts. With the advent of powerful computing hardware and robust GIS software, as well as digital data structures and dictionaries for electronic charts, USACE is developing river electronic navigational charts for the nation's waterway users. The purpose is to provide consistent, accurate and current navigational information in an electronic chart format to ensure the efficiency and safety of the nation's waterways. Estimated funds required for this are approximately $42M over 5 years. In cooperation with several agencies (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)) and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and organizations (Inland Waterway User Board and American Waterway Operators), we are conducting several pilot projects in 2001 along the rivers to gain experience and knowledge in developing electronic charts. Initially, an industry standard file format was identified and implemented. The exchange of navigational data is achieved through the S-57 transfer standard using the S-52 data dictionary. Most countries recognize these object-based standards from the International Hydrographic Office (IHO). Reasons for using the S-57 standard are that NOAA is implementing this standard for its coastal charts, it provides a common standard for all Corps offices, it is used by most electronic chart vendors, is well suited to chart updates and fits well with other Corps spatial data users.