IEC 09 Points at Marine Navigation

This year's conference, organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO), will facilitate participants to talk about the key issues of safety, efficiency, coverage, quality and training safe in the knowledge that the deadlines are set.

With the mandation of ECDIS by IMO, the upcoming conference will focus on transition and implementation issues.

NAV's decision was agreed by the subsequent Maritime Safety Committee and adopted in May this year. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is in the process of preparing a reference document giving guidance on electronic charts and carriage requirements based on guidelines published by the RENCs. The UKHO has also produced its own 10-step guide to ECDIS mandation.

But the setting of deadlines, while important, represents a waypoint on the journey, rather than the destination, according to Adm Moncrieff, Hydrographer of the UKHO. Having helped to make ECDIS mandation a reality, the UKHO is focusing on providing the support, training and information requirements identified by the Hailwood Report.

The Singapore conference will be relieved to hear positive messages about ENC coverage but with mandation adopted, new  issues are surfacing.

The demand for training is expected to increase rapidly as owners begin to plan their ECDIS transition but the UKHO is going beyond improving quality and integrity of electronic chart data and helping navigators to become familiar with the technology in a broader sense.

The next phase of its value-added programme will come with full availability of UKHO's Admiralty e-Navigator, a chart management system which provides a single window to ship and shore of paper and digital chart holdings, ordering and delivery as well as bundling weather, tide and other related data to aid voyage planning. These kinds of tools will become more important as ECDIS take-up grows, providing not just access to improved ENC coverage and a means of managing information but adding value to the navigation and safety function of ECDIS itself.

The maritime industry has for so long been distracted by what ECDIS lacked that it is worth remembering what it adds: the ability to improve situational awareness and reduce workload. Better voyage planning and optimisation, dynamic filtering of navigation information and integration with other elements of an integrated bridge system are the features of a well-deployed ECDIS.

As Adm Moncrieff points out, many of these benefits remain theoretical until a commitment is made to adopt electronic navigation, but the results can come quickly. "Seventy per cent of navigation is preparation so the ability to plan the most optimal route electronically and maintain an up-to-date official electronic chart outfit with minimal user-maintenance will dramatically reduce the workload of seafarers.

The other 30%, using ECDIS in tandem with other aids to navigation will give the mariner real-time situational awareness that just isn't possible from paper alone. Navigation has changed and understanding that is the best first step."