Technical aspects of data acquisition and display
the object oriented data models which underpin electronic navigational
charts is inadequate, notwithstanding the fact that the exigencies of
business dictate “acceptable” short-term alternatives, such as scanned
or automatically vectorised paper charts. The whole ENC production
process is presently testing the professional skills of cartographers
around the world and in the Australian Hydrographic Office as the
Office orients its future chart production capability towards the delivery of ENCs to the mariner.
The Australian Context
Australia is a relatively remote continent, almost the size of the United
States and with a continental shelf of similar area. It has a population
of approximately 1
available from its Laser Airborne Depth Sounder have been world
leaders, but still Australia struggles, like many other major hydrographic
nations, to meet its obligations to modernise its nautical charts and
deliver ENC (Nairn, 1994). Much of Australia’s maritime area is not adequately surveyed to modern standards and the Australian marine cartographer will be forced for some time yet to meld together disparate data
sets. This will impact on methodologies for the immediate future. It is
clearly destined to be some time before Australia will have a complete
ENC based totally on digital data that provides full bottom coverage.
Charting in Australia
The Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO) has been a traditional charting
agency until relatively recent times, delivering to mariners authorized
paper nautical charts. In the mid- 1980s, Australia embarked on a
program of modernisation aimed at transitioning its chart production
methodology from a single, product base (paper charts), towards becoming
a modern, hydrographic information supplier. The earlier computeraided techniques used in the AHO were limited and limiting in that
they modestly sought to assist chart production by replicating paper
chart production methodologies. The main limiting factor in the 1970s
and 1980s was, of course, technology: graphics terminals, screens,
plotters, digital data collection, positioning; nevertheless, most of the
main ideas were taking shape at that time for developing ultimate
ENCS.
The AHO converted all of its charts to a raster scanned medium and
routinely delivers charts in this form to mariners within a product
regime that has mastered the updating requirements of the charts. The
Australian Seafarer ® service was introduced in 1997 (Rowland & Furness,
1998). Seafarer® is a fully electronic chart service providing digital
reproductions of the official Australian paper charts in a raster scanned
139
the object oriented data models which underpin electronic navigational
charts is inadequate, notwithstanding the fact that the exigencies of
business dictate “acceptable” short-term alternatives, such as scanned
or automatically vectorised paper charts. The whole ENC production
process is presently testing the professional skills of cartographers
around the world and in the Australian Hydrographic Office as the
Office orients its future chart production capability towards the delivery of ENCs to the mariner.
The Australian Context
Australia is a relatively remote continent, almost the size of the United
States and with a continental shelf of similar area. It has a population
of approximately 1
available from its Laser Airborne Depth Sounder have been world
leaders, but still Australia struggles, like many other major hydrographic
nations, to meet its obligations to modernise its nautical charts and
deliver ENC (Nairn, 1994). Much of Australia’s maritime area is not adequately surveyed to modern standards and the Australian marine cartographer will be forced for some time yet to meld together disparate data
sets. This will impact on methodologies for the immediate future. It is
clearly destined to be some time before Australia will have a complete
ENC based totally on digital data that provides full bottom coverage.
Charting in Australia
The Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO) has been a traditional charting
agency until relatively recent times, delivering to mariners authorized
paper nautical charts. In the mid- 1980s, Australia embarked on a
program of modernisation aimed at transitioning its chart production
methodology from a single, product base (paper charts), towards becoming
a modern, hydrographic information supplier. The earlier computeraided techniques used in the AHO were limited and limiting in that
they modestly sought to assist chart production by replicating paper
chart production methodologies. The main limiting factor in the 1970s
and 1980s was, of course, technology: graphics terminals, screens,
plotters, digital data collection, positioning; nevertheless, most of the
main ideas were taking shape at that time for developing ultimate
ENCS.
The AHO converted all of its charts to a raster scanned medium and
routinely delivers charts in this form to mariners within a product
regime that has mastered the updating requirements of the charts. The
Australian Seafarer ® service was introduced in 1997 (Rowland & Furness,
1998). Seafarer® is a fully electronic chart service providing digital
reproductions of the official Australian paper charts in a raster scanned
139