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ECDIS e-navigation


What is e-navigation? A


s all seafarers and ship operators should by now be aware, in some six months time the first in a series


of rolling deadlines to install electronic chart display and information systems (ECDIS) on SOLAS ships will arrive. Only new passenger ships and tankers are affected in 2012, but by 2018 all passenger vessels over 500gt and cargo ships above 3,000gt (10,000gt for dry cargo ships now in service) will be obliged to be equipped with ECDIS. As a navigational tool, ECDIS has been developed to improve the display of infor- mation on charts by, for example, enabling chart correction to be carried out more efficiently and accu- rately, and to provide a degree of useful integration with ARPA and radar on a single screen, as required. In this context it is understandable that some bridge teams may consider that, by using ECDIS, they are, in effect, operating an ‘e-navigation’ system. This is not the case, however, at least not as far as maritime regulators and expert technical bodies see it. E-navigation is something else entirely,


although ECDIS will play a central role in it. Understanding e-navigation, its benefits, its relationship with ECDIS and the direction of its development is important, because one day the technology could itself be crucial to seafaring and maritime safety. The prefacing of many words with the letter ‘e’ is commonly used to indicate that


Understanding e-navigation is important because the


technology could become vital to maritime safety


the subject is electronic in nature. It is now widely applied to applications and processes that have made the transition from paper or other traditional technology to digitally based computing and display (for example, email, eBook and e-commerce). But the use of the word ‘electronic’, when referring to e-navigation, is something of amisnomer. In fact, the term ‘e-navigation’ is adescrip- tion of abroad concept rather than alabel for the digitisation of the means to identify aposition and move safely from AtoB. Thus the letter ‘e’ in e-navigation has no particular meaning –some people prefer to think of it as ‘en- hanced navigation’ –but the expression has been adopted


by the IMO as the official term covering all aspects of an important concept. The International Association of Marine


Aids to Navigation Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) has defined e-navigation as “the harmonised collection, integration, exchange, presentation and analysis of maritime informa- tion 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”. In simple terms, e-navigation may be


described as applying to vessels what is already taken for granted in the operation of aircraft, in relation to communication, identification, navigation and tracking. Thus the integration of systems such as ECDIS, vessel traffic services


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