Electronic Charting Standards and Interoperability Issues in Marine GIS

2. Electronic Charting Standards and Interoperability Issues in Marine GIS Dr. V.V.L.N. SARMA Civil Hydrographic OfficerNational Hydrographic Office DEHRADUN-248 001 vvlns@yahoo.co.uk GEO INTELLIGENCE INDIA, 14 JUNE 2013

3. Introduction ..... • Many initiatives, improvements, and path breaking inventions led the ‘global commons’ and the shipping industry to become silent contributors to the country’s growth. • In the present era of increasing demand for safety, security, and protection of environment, waterborne transport is going to play a vital role in global economics and social requirements.

4. Source: AGCS Report, 2012

5. International seaborne trade – some facts Source: AGCS Report, 2012

7. Source: AGCS Report, 2012

8. Source: AGCS Report, 2012

9. In order to meet the primary objectives of marine safety, security, and protection of environment, International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and International Hydrographic Office (IHO) are continuously working on to develop standards for various maritime requirements, especially marine navigation. • As a result, several international standards were developed which include but not limited to S-52, S-57, S-58, S-63 and the recent S-100.

10. IMO and IHO • International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) regulate, coordinate and oversee the standardization of equipment, personnel and data required for maritime community. • These are essential to safe guard the interests of the maritime operations and protecting the marine environment from disasters at sea due to collision and accidents to the ships.

12. What is S-57 standard ? • IHO Publication 57 (IHO S-57) is the IHO Transfer Standard for Digital Hydrographic Data. The standard was formally adopted as an official IHO standard in 1992. • Its purpose was for the exchange of digital hydrographic data between hydrographic offices, and for the distribution of hydrographic data to manufacturers, mariners and other data users (e.g., environmental management organizations). • It was developed so that the transfer of all forms of hydrographic data would take place in a consistent and uniform manner. • However, to date, S-57 has been used almost exclusively for encoding Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) for use in Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS).

13. Present S-57 Users • Hydrographic Offices • Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) • Other communities have S-57 based products • Additional Military Layers (AML) • Marine Information Overlay (MIO) • Inland ENC, etc.

14. Global ENC Coverage Captain Robert Ward, Director IHB Published ENCs Indian ENCs - 263 Confirmed in Production

15. ECDIS(ELECTRONIC CHART DISPLAY AND INFORMATION SYSTEM) • ECDIS is a real time Geographic Information System (GIS) in marine with the ENC as a base. • ECDIS is a superior quality dynamic display and decision support system • It displays ENC, which is legal equivalent of paper chart issued by hydrographic offices • Its automatic position tracking, safety features like various alarms, ability to set a safety contour and updating capability allows the navigator to concentrate on the navigational and ship management decisions.

16. ECDIS- Interfaces

17. Source: AGCS Report, 2012

18. Limitations in S-57 standard • S-57 has been used almost exclusively for encoding Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) for use in Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). • S-57 is not a contemporary standard that is widely accepted in the GIS domain. • It has an inflexible maintenance regime. Freezing standards for lengthy periods is counter-productive.

19. Limitations in S-57 standard….. • content and carrier (ISO 8211) combined • difficult to update / introduce new editions • lacks flexibility and ease of extension / development • used almost exclusively for official nautical charts • requires specific tools to use in GIS To overcome these limitations, in November 2000, the IHO approved a revision programme for S-57, that resulted in a new framework geospatial standard called “S-100 – Universal Hydrographic Data Model” (Ed 1.0.0 - January 2010).

20. What is S-100 ? • S-100 is a Universal Hydrographic Data Model adopted by the IHO on 1 January 2010, thereby becoming an active international standard. • S-100 provides a contemporary hydrographic geospatial data standardthat can support a wide variety of hydrographic-related digital data sources, and is fully aligned with mainstream international geospatial standards, in particular the ISO 19100 series of geographic standards, thereby enabling the easier integration of hydrographic data and applications into geospatial solutions. - IHO

21. Why S-100 ? • join mainstream GIS • maximizes access to COTS software and development • interoperability with other ISO 19100 based profiles • new components not developed in isolation • easier use of hydro data beyond HOs and ECDIS users - coastal zone mapping, security, inundation modeling, etc • extensible and active feature catalogue registry • Plug-and-Play updating of data, symbology and software enhancements

22. The S-100 standard has been developed based on experience gained through the development and use of the existing IHO S-57 Standard). • S-100 has been documented using an object-oriented notation known as the Unified Modelling Language (UML). (Although UML defines nine types of diagrams, only class, object and package diagrams have been used in S-100).

23. General confusion ? • S-57 is NOT the ENC Product specification • S-100 is NOT the ENC Product specification • S-57 and S-100: generic framework standards for hydrographic and related information Any product specifications developed using S-100 would then follow in an S-10n series. Under this schema, next-generation ENC Product Specification based on S-100 is underway and is designated as S-101.

24. Nomenclature

25. New possibilities with S-100 • Unbound Feature Concept dictionaries • Feature catalogues • Flexible version control : An entry is classified as being either: • valid (latest version) • superseded (previous version/s) • retired (no longer recommended for use) • non valid (proposed but not accepted or no longer acceptable)

26. Metadata • Spatial geometry • wider range of database and encoding applications • Imagery and gridded data: This includes images from sensors such as aerial photography or LIDAR, photographs that can be associated with vector based feature oriented data and scanned paper chart products, commonly known as “raster Charts.” • Multiple encoding • Standardised product specifications

27. S-100 Management and Governance Framework • S-100 is supported by an organisational and governance framework that will involve all the stakeholder groups. • The IHO is the principal sponsor and overall control of the standard. • However, the development and extension of the standard to meet particular usergroup requirements will be placed under the control of those user-groups.

28. One of the most significant aspects in terms of alignment with the ISO TC/211 19100 series of standards is the employment of a registry and registers. • A “Registry” is the entire information system (or location) in which a collection of Registers is located. For details: http://registry.iho.int • In the case of S-100, IHO is hosting a Registry that provides a facility to store various Registers of hydrographic-related information such as feature data dictionaries, data types, and metadata.

29. For each Register, there will be an organization that will be responsible for its content and management. • A major benefit of the Registry concept is its flexibility. • Multiple versions of similar entries in a data dictionary can be maintained using unique identification and classification.

32. ISO PACKAGES Source: Ward et al, 2008

33. * above list is incomplete

34. Will S-100 also be frozen? • S-100 will never be “frozen” although the frequency of new versions will be strictly controlled by the IHO as the Registry Owner. • There will be three types of change proposal in S-100: clarification, correction and extension. • Any change proposal must be one of these types.

35. Benefits: • Using ISO-developed components and terminology will help ensure that S-100 and future extensions are in the mainstream of the geospatial information industry. • Conformance with the ISO/TC211 standards will maximize the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software applications and development. • New components of S-100 will not be developed in isolation from the rest of the geospatial information technology community.

36. Benefits . . . . . • Any new requirements can be incorporated within the established framework of ISO/TC211 based standards. • S-100 will be interoperable with other ISO/TC211 standards and profiles. • There are many national standards bodies that will take full advantage of S-100 being aligned with ISO/TC211 standards (For example: NSDI).

37. AML S-101 Next GenENC InlandENC MIO BathyENC 3D &Temporal Nautical Pubs ICE Gridded S-100 S-100 will support a greater variety of data sources, products and services

38. S-101 – New Product Specification for the Electronic Navigational Chart • S-101 is a new Product Specification for the Electronic Navigational Chart. • It is currently under development by the IHO Transfer Standards and Maintenance Applications Development Working Group (TSMAD). S-101 ENCs will remain, fundamentally, the basic navigation tool for ECDIS and therefore, most of the features of the S-57 ENC are retained. • Aimed at improving the efficiency of the data and improving the user experience. • Many of the changes may appear obscure or innocuous, but taken as a whole they will ensure that S-101 is, to a large extent future-proofed, unlike S-57 which is becoming ever more unmanageable.

40. Some of the benefits of S-101 • S-101 will eventually replace S-57 ENCs as the fundamental nautical chart data used in ECDIS • Many of the new features of S-101 such as Information types and complex attributes will improve its usability to the mariner • Improved pick reports:S-101 cursor pick reports will be based on a number of user customizations allowing the returned data to be filtered by, feature types, pick radius, themes etc.

41. Reduced clutter on the ECDIS SCREEN • Easy data loading based only on a set of predefined scales aligned to standard radar ranges • The concept of navigation purpose codes will be restricted for use only in presenting ENCs in a visual catalogue. • The number of navigation purpose codes will also be reduced to three; Port and Approaches, Coastal Passage and Ocean Passage/Routing (presently there are sixpurpose codes)

44. Migrating from S-57 Edition 3.1 to S-100 ENC data conforming to S-57 Edition 3.1 will continue to be a requirement for typeapproved, IMO-compliant ECDIS for the foreseeable future - even after S-100 has been released. As a consequence, hydrographic offices will continue, as at present, to produce Edition 3.1 ENC data to support this.

46. Interoperability issues • Demand for digital hydrographic data in S-57 format has constantly been on the higher side. However, due to its inflexible interoperability issues with other GIS formats have made the present S-57 standard more rigid and confined to ENC production only. • Moreover, there were no particular standards for land GIS and more and more new formats are evolving, thereby expecting the same to happen in marine GIS too. • The aim of these standards is to meet the safe and secured marine navigation, not for the interoperability with other land GIS standards.

47. S-57 standard was developed as transfer standard for digital hydrographic data but not definitely to suit the seamless integration of land and sea features. • Real time navigation always demandsfor reliable data content, high accuracy and more security. • Despite the fact that the standards are meeting all those maritime safety requirements, the only limitation is their synchronisation with other GIS formats. • The object catalogue and attributes in S-57 standard have an exhaustive coverage of land based objects too. The same can be used by other GIS users as well.

48. These time-tested standards can further be improved by adding more land based objects which would become a comprehensive standard for both land and sea. • Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and International Organisation for Standards (ISO) are now active participants in the development of S-100 and related standards. • This combination of IHO, ISO and OGC and other stakeholders would definitely bring in best standards to overcome the shortfalls in S-57.

49. e-Navigation concept by IMO • The International maritime Organization (IMO) is developing the e-Navigation concept. Under this concept, e-Navigation is defined as: “The harmonized collection, integration, exchange, presentation and analysis of marine information onboard and ashore by electronic means to enhance berth to berth navigation and related services for safety and security at sea and protection of the marine environment”. • The aim of the IMO is to develop a strategic vision for e-navigation, to integrate existing and new navigational tools, in particular electronic tools, in an all-embracing system that will contribute to enhanced navigational safety while simultaneously reducing the burden on the navigator.

50. Way ahead: • Accept the marine standards as they are, because of their universal reach and acceptance. • Synchronisation with other standards - Insist on the software industries for software translators to read these standards rather than reinventing the wheel. • Bring other standards into the already time-tested and proven to deliver the best to all users and to the mariners in particular.