The Canadian Hydrographic Service Experiment in Electronic Chart Distribution

Abstract

The Electronic Chart (EC) is a generic name for a new class of bridge management systems for use on board commercial shipping and recreational vessels. Its’ widespread use will cause fundamental changes in the way in which Hydrographic Offices (HO’s) like the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) manage and distribute its’ products since to be effective it must allow the user to have some manipulative control over the presentation of the chart data. This can have obvious catastrophic safety and legal implications unless Hydrographic Offices retain some control over minimum standard display sets. Since EC technology is still in its’ formative stage, it is difficult to predict in which form information will be displayed. However, it seems certain that given progress in the various enabling technologies such as global navigation, data storage, artificial intelligence and very high speed integrated circuitry, some form of bridge management system which incorporates an electronic chart-like feature will emerge in significant quantities. This situation gives the motivation for CHS’s interest and experiments in this field. Interested readers are referred to the Proceedings of the Joint Workshop, “The Electronic Chart”, April 19, 1985, held in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, for more information and an extensive list of references on this subject.