The IHO's role in the Development of ECDIS

Although it is uncertain who first came up with the idea for Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) or who began to produce the system, it is certain that the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) has played, and continues to play, a major role in the development and ongoing improvement of ECDIS.

The concept of electronic charts goes back nearly 60 years, to at least 1952, when an article in the Journal of Navigation suggested combining radar imagery with digitised chart data. At the time, however, the technology to handle the data was a serious limiting factor resulting in not much more than speculation. By the late 1970s, computers and solid-state technology meant that vessels could begin to use various electronic systems to navigate more accurately in confined waters. By 1985, US Navy high- speed craft were using rudimentary electronic chart systems, electronic charts were in use in oil exploration vessels in Canada, and Japan reported that over 4,000 Japanese fishing boats and 150 merchant vessels were carrying electronic charts of varying degrees of complexity.

In the early eighties, hydrographic offices (HO) in Europe and North America seriously began to support the emerging technology. In collaboration with researchers and others, several HOs joined forces with the private sector in sea trials and demonstrations of electronic chart test beds. The aim being to acquaint the maritime community with the technology and to obtain feedback. Hydrographic offices were interested primarily in evaluating the difficulties associated with defining, compiling and maintaining the electronic chart databases which are at the heart of any electronic chart navigation system. Sea trials included the Canadian Hydrographic Service test beds that ran from 1985 to 1988 in Halifax Harbour, the North Sea Project onboard the Norwegian survey vessel Lance, followed by the Seatrans Project onboard the Nornews Express in 1989 and 1990. There were also other technology demonstrations, elsewhere in the world.

Setting Standards
In the early 80s, the IHO also began to look at digital chart data and its transmission. In September 1983, the IHO established a sub-committee to deal with ‘Future Chart Design'. It went on to establish a Committee on the Exchange of Digital Data in the following year. This committee was instrumental in developing S-57, the Transfer Standard for Digital Hydrographic Data. Today, S-57 is the standard used for the primary transmission of ENC data in ECDIS. The IHO Committee on ECDIS (COE) was established about three years later in October 1986. This committee has since become the Hydrographic Standards and Services Committee (HSSC) and is responsible for all aspects of the IHO technical programme, including ECDIS.

Co-operation
Other considerations debated in the 80s, were the implications of digital chart data on data copyright and how official electronic chart data could be efficiently distributed to ships. The Norwegian Hydrographer of the time suggested that the hydrographic offices around the world should establish regional centres that could, in effect, provide a one-stop wholesale shop for official electronic chart data. This became the IHO's Worldwide ENC Database or WEND model, of which the Regional ENC co-ordinating Centres (RENCs) form an important part today.
By the mid 80s, the North Sea Hydrographic Commission (NHSC) began work on defining what was initially called an Electronic Chart and Display System and was later amended to include the all-important word ‘information', giving rise to the now familiar term Electronic Chart Display and Information System or ECDIS. The work of the NHSC provided the first recognised set of user requirements for ECDIS. This work also paved the way for what was later to become the IHO standard S-52, the IHO Specifications for Chart Content and Display Aspects of ECDIS.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) began taking an interest in ECDIS in 1985 as a result of presentations by the IHO, their eventual aim being the establishment of standards for the use of electronic chart navigation in ships. The IMO/IHO Harmonization Group on ECDIS, with significant input from the IHO, built on the established user requirements to eventually create the IMO performance standard for ECDIS, which was published in 1995.
In 2003, the IHO went on to adopt the S-63 ENC Data Protection Scheme that was originally created by Norway and the UK to help ensure ENC data integrity and prevent unauthorised use.

Future Developments
Work continues today with a number of IHO Working Groups developing new standards for the data used in ECDIS. The IHO will release S-100, the Geospatial Standard for Hydrographic Data, in 2010. This will underpin the next generation of ECDIS and various associated applications that will support the e-Navigation concept being developed by the IMO. e-Navigation has been described by some as the intranet for the maritime domain.