Technical aspects of data acquisition and display
Prevention or Cure?
Electronic Navigational Charting
around Australia
Ronald A. Furness
Australian Hydrographic Office, 8 Station Street, Wollongong 2500, Australia
rfurness@ozemail.com.au
Abstract
My thesis is quite straightforward! When it comes to pollution of the
coastal zones, prevention is better than cure! The results of the infamous
grounding of the Exxon Valdez reveal that we are all losers as a result
of such catastrophes. The benefits of electronic charting are presented
as a technological capability aimed at providing the mariner with
greater safety margins. Some of the cartographic challenges presently
being grappled with and met by the Australian Hydrographic Office’s
(AHO) cartographers are considered as they prepare the first authorized
and thus, government backed, Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC)
database of the inner shipping route through Australia’s Grear Barrier
Reef. The preparation of electronic charts is a complex matter and time
is needed before the world is adequately charted electronically.
Prince William Sound, 23 March 1989
With the benefit of the clarity that comes from hindsight, it is reliably
understood that, had the Exxon Valdez been operating an Electronic
Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) containing Electronic
Navigation Charts (ENC) then four alarms would have sounded before the
ship slammed into Bligh Reef. As it was, the vessel strayed some one
kilometre from the main shipping lane and hit the reef at speed. The
resultant oil spill was the worst in American history but mcredibly, in
the scheme of things, was around the average for the more notorious
oil spills. Some 42 million litres of oil spilling into the pristine waters
of Prince William Sound might well have been the most costly environmental mistake of any American company but in world terms it was
pretty ordinary! In fact, the Exxon Valdez barely made the top ten of
such catastrophes!
Prince William Sound is on its way to environmental recovery, but it
has a long way to go. It is reported that “several populations of sea fauna,
including sea otters and the commercially valuable pacific herring on
which other commercial fish species feed, are still struggling (Fries,
1999). The town ofValdez, it seems, has learned that its very thorough
preparations to combat the effects of an oil spill were inadequate and
valuable lessons have been learned.
137
Prevention or Cure?
Electronic Navigational Charting
around Australia
Ronald A. Furness
Australian Hydrographic Office, 8 Station Street, Wollongong 2500, Australia
rfurness@ozemail.com.au
Abstract
My thesis is quite straightforward! When it comes to pollution of the
coastal zones, prevention is better than cure! The results of the infamous
grounding of the Exxon Valdez reveal that we are all losers as a result
of such catastrophes. The benefits of electronic charting are presented
as a technological capability aimed at providing the mariner with
greater safety margins. Some of the cartographic challenges presently
being grappled with and met by the Australian Hydrographic Office’s
(AHO) cartographers are considered as they prepare the first authorized
and thus, government backed, Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC)
database of the inner shipping route through Australia’s Grear Barrier
Reef. The preparation of electronic charts is a complex matter and time
is needed before the world is adequately charted electronically.
Prince William Sound, 23 March 1989
With the benefit of the clarity that comes from hindsight, it is reliably
understood that, had the Exxon Valdez been operating an Electronic
Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) containing Electronic
Navigation Charts (ENC) then four alarms would have sounded before the
ship slammed into Bligh Reef. As it was, the vessel strayed some one
kilometre from the main shipping lane and hit the reef at speed. The
resultant oil spill was the worst in American history but mcredibly, in
the scheme of things, was around the average for the more notorious
oil spills. Some 42 million litres of oil spilling into the pristine waters
of Prince William Sound might well have been the most costly environmental mistake of any American company but in world terms it was
pretty ordinary! In fact, the Exxon Valdez barely made the top ten of
such catastrophes!
Prince William Sound is on its way to environmental recovery, but it
has a long way to go. It is reported that “several populations of sea fauna,
including sea otters and the commercially valuable pacific herring on
which other commercial fish species feed, are still struggling (Fries,
1999). The town ofValdez, it seems, has learned that its very thorough
preparations to combat the effects of an oil spill were inadequate and
valuable lessons have been learned.
137