News
Harbour Approach Information Workshop
A workshop organised by the HSB in Zeebrugge, Belgium, on 29th November 2002 was attended by more than sixty people. The topic for the workshop was Harbour Approach Information. The majority of the seven presentations dealt with the development, production and maintenance of Electronic Navigation Charts (ENCs) and Electronic Chart Systems (ECSs), and practical experience with these systems. A classical problem, and one which has prevented the production of fully automatic charts in the area for which the Port of Rotterdam authority is responsible, was the transformation from WGS84 and LLWS to the national horizontal and vertical co-ordinate systems. The Port of Rotterdam authority is working on what they call ‘super-ENCs’, which provide depth information with contour intervals of 10cm. The Belgian and Netherlands port authorities in the Scheldt delta will produce charts which have to some extent the same high resolution (for depths in the range of 116-15.5m). This raised the question from the audience of whether such a high resolution should, given current model limitations in multibeam echosounding, not be considered an artificial rather than a real precision.
Due to the geographic location of the Scheldt delta (at the border between Belgium and The Netherlands), data distribution and exchange between the two countries is an important issue, but unfortunately there are still no standardised procedures to accomplish this. Future developments in ENCs, such as those used by the Port of Rotterdam authority, will provide the link with radar images, traffic planning and prediction. According to one speaker, technological advances are often ahead of the organisations that should implement them.
Another topic discussed at the workshop was the combination of a coastal defence and harbour approach project and any impact that might have on the environment along the Belgian coast. Due to the size and cost (100 M) of the project, both Integrated Coastal Zone Management - a multidisciplinary approach - and communication with the public are essential for making it a success.
In the final presentation an overview was given of the Current Information System as developed for the Waalhaven area in Rotterdam. Currents are precisely monitored using Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) and are then used for real-time information on and prediction of currents.

Contact
T.H. Heringa
RWS-Directie Noord-Holland
Postbus 175
1970 AD IJmuiden
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 255 545 622
Fax: +31 255 545 645