ECDIS

QUESTIONS ASKED:
1. HOW ARE ECDIS CHARTS CORRECTED? (JAN 08)
2. WRITE SHORT NOTES ON ECDIS. (AUG 08)
3. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF AN ECDIS OVER CONVENTIONAL CHARTS? BRIEFLY
DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN RASTER AND VECTOR CHARTS. (NOV 08)
4. ENUMERATE VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE ECDIS AND ALSO EXPLAIN ABOUT THE
“CONCEPTS OF DUAL FUEL” WITH RESPECT TO THOSE CHARTS. (JAN 10)
5. AS PER THE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS OF ECDIS, WHAT ALL ALARMS ARE REQUIRED
TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE SYSTEM? (FEB 10)

ELECTRONIC CHART IS A GENERIC TERM USED TO DESCRIBE A FORM OF THE DIGITAL

REPRESENTATION OF PAPER CHART. AN ELECTRONIC CHART CAN BE RASTER OR VECTOR
CHART. THEY ARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF NAVIGATIONAL CHARTS.
ENC: AN ENC IS A PRESENTATION OF HYDROGRAPHIC AND NAVIGATIONAL INFORMATION IN
DIGITAL FORM. ENC IS VECTOR DATA WHICH IS COMPOSED OF POINTS, LINES AND FEATURES
WITH DETAILED ATTRIBUTES. THEY ARE SIMILAR TO CAD DRAWINGS. FROM THE
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THESE (POINTS, LINES AND AREAS) AND SHIP’S FEATURES (SPEED,
DRAFT, COURSE) IT IS POSSIBLE FOR AN ECDIS SYSTEM TO INTELLIGENTLY DETECT AND
ALARM THE NAVIGATOR OF POSSIBLE DANGEROUS SITUATIONS. ENCS ARE THE OFFICIAL
VECTOR BASED ECS DESIGNED TO MEET THE RELEVANT CHART CARRIAGE REQUIREMENTS OF
SOLAS CONVENTION. ENC DATA CAN ONLY BE ISSUED BY, OR ON AUTHORITY OF, GOVT.
AUTHORISED HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICES. EACH COUNTRY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PRODUCTION OF
ITS OWN ENCS AND SYSTEMATICALLY UPDATING THEM WITH ALL SAFETY- CRITICAL
INFORMATION. WHEN DISPLAYED WITH CERTAIN PARAMETERS AND VIA A TYPE APPROVED
ECDIS, ENCS FULLY SATISFY SOLAS CHART CARRIAGE REQUIREMENTS AND THUS CAN BE USED
PRIMARY MEANS OF NAVIGATION.
RNC: RNCS USE RASTER DATA TO REPRODUCE PAPER CHARTS IN AN ELECTRONIC FORMAT.
RASTER REPRESENTATIONS CONSIST OF THOUSANDS OF TINY COLOUR DOTS (PIXELS) THAT
TOGETHER MAKE A FLAT DIGITAL IMAGE. EVERY PIXEL IS GEOGRAPHICALLY REFERENCED
ENABLING ACCURATE REAL-TIME (CONTINUALLY UPDATED) DISPLAY OF VESSEL POSITION
WHEN THE CHART DISPLAY SYSTEM IS LINKED TO GPS. ADDITIONAL USER DEFINED
INFORMATION SUCH AS ROUTE PLANS AND SHOAL AREAS CAN BE OVERLAID ON AN RNC TO
PROVIDE AUTOMATIC LINKS TO OTHER ONBOARD SYSTEMS (E.G. WARNING ALARMS) BUT
UNLIKE ENCS CHARTED FEATURES CANNOT BE SELECTIVELY DISPLAYED OR QUERIED. RNC
DATA, ITSELF WILL NOT TRIGGER AUTOMATIC ALARMS (E.G. ANTI GROUNDING). HOWEVER,
SOME ALARMS CAN BE GENERATED BY THE RCDS (RC DISPLAY SYSTEM) FROM USER INSERTED
INFORMATION.THESE CAN INCLUDE: DANGER AREAS, ISOLATED DANGERS, SHIP SAFETY
CONTOUR LINES AND CLEARING LINES.
ARCS CHARTS ARE PROVIDED ON CD-ROM ALLOWING THEIR USE IN A WIDE RANGE OF
EQUIPMENT, FROM FULL INTEGRATED BRIDGE SYSTEMS TO STAND ALONE PCS. WORLDWIDE
COVERAGE IS HELD ON 10 REGIONAL CDS AND 1 CD FOR SMALL-SCALE CHARTS.

ECS AND ECDIS: ECS ENCOMPASSES ANY ELECTRONIC SYSTEM THAT USES DIGITAL CHART
DATA. IT COULD BE A LAPTOP, PC, PDA OR FULLY INTEGRATED IBS. THE CHART DATA CAN BE
VECTOR OR RASTER. ECDIS IS APPROVED TYPE ECS COMPLYING WITH STRINGENT IHO
CRITERIA AND USING OFFICIAL ENC DATA.
IMO REQUIRES THAT:
1. ENCS CAN BE USED FOR PRIMARY NAVIGATION IN PLACE OF PAPER CHARTS PROVIDED
THERE IS A SUITABLE BACKUP (E.G. ANOTHER ECDIS WITH A SEPARATE POWER SUPPLY, OR
AN APPROPRIATE FOLIO OF UP TO DATE CHARTS.
2. RNCS, WHEN USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH ENCS (TO FILL THE GAPS IN COVERAGE) CAN BE
USED FOR PRIMARY NAVIGATION TOGETHER WITH APPROPRIATE FOLIO OF UP TO DATE
CHARTS. HOWEVER THIS WILL BE UP TO THE ADMINISTRATION TO DECIDE WHAT
APPROPRIATE FOLIO OF CHARTS IS REQUIRED OR NOT.

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 ECDIS
IN ADDITION TO COMPLYING WITH STANDARDS OF IHO, IMO ETC. ECDIS SHOULD ALSO MEET
THE SPECIFICATIONS LAID DOWN BY CLASSIFICATION SOCIETY.
BRIEFLY ECDIS MUST OFFER FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS:
1. READING ENC DATA (S57: TRANSFER STANDARD) AND TRANSFERRING IT TO SENC.
2. PRESENTATION OF OBJECTS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS ACCORDING TO PRESENTATION
LIBRARY (S52: CHART CONTENT AND DISPLAY STANDARD).
3. ANTI GROUNDING FUNCTION.
4. WARNING OF OBSTRUCTIONS TO SHIPPING.
5. UPDATING.
6. VARIOUS TYPES OF CHART WORK MUST BE POSSIBLE LIKE, ENTERING FIXED POSITION,
ROUTE PLANNING, ENTERING NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS, SOUNDINGS AND MEASURING OF
DISTANCES.
THUS ECDIS DOES NOT MERELY MEAN PRESENTATION OF CHART IN ELECTRONIC FORM, IT IS
ALSO AN INFORMATION SYSTEM.WITH ECDIS, FOR THE FIRST TIME, A NAVIGATOR KNOWS
WHERE HIS SHIP IS AND NOT WHERE HIS SHIP WAS. NO SINGLE INDIVIDUAL INVENTED
ECDIS.THE CURRENTLY VALID STANDARDS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FROM CONTRIBUTIONS
MADE BY COMPANIES, INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS IN MANY COUNTRIES.ECDIS
OFFERS THE SAME RANGE OF FEATURES AS PAPER CHARTS AND FACILITATES SIMPLER, FASTER
AND ABOVE ALL, MORE ACCURATE WORK ON THE BASIS OF CONSTANTLY UPDATED DATA. 

COMPONENTS OF ECDIS:
1. HARDWARE: IT IS GENERALLY A COMPUTER WITH GRAPHICS CAPABILITY, A HIGH
PERFORMANCE PC OR A GRAPHICS WORKSTATION INSTALLED IN A CONSOLE LINKED WITH
OTHER ITEMS OF SHIP’S EQUIPMENT, LIKE COURSE FROM GYRO, SPEED FROM LOG AND ROT
FROM ROTI.KEY FEATURES ARE THE LINKS WITH POSN SENSORS OF THE SHIP (DECCA,
LORAN, ETC.) AND IN PARTICULAR WITH THE GPS, SUPPLYING VIA THE NMEA INTERFACE A
CONSTANT STREAM OF HIGHLY PRECISE POSN DATA (NMEA: NATIONAL MARINE
ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION; NMEA0183 STANDARD FOR INTERFACING MARINE ELECTRONIC
DEVICES, DATA RECORD). EVEN RADAR PICTURES CAN BE SUPER-IMPOSED, EITHER AS RAW
DATA FROM A RASTERSCAN RADAR OR AS SYNTHETICARPA.THE HARDWARE OF AN ECDIS
MUST MEET THE STANDARDS OF THE IEEE (INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC
ENGINEERS).
2. SOFTWARE: IS WHAT MAKES THE COMPUTER AN ECDIS. IT CONSISTS OF USER INTERFACE
AND THE SO CALLED ECDIS KERNEL, THE SOFTWARE THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO READ
THE DATA AND DISPLAY A CHART. THIS SOFTWARE IS ALSO CALLED “FUNCTION LIBRARY”.
IN ADDITION TO THE CHART PICTURE, THE USER INTERFACE SHOWS BUTTONS AND KEYS
FOR OPERATING THE NAUTICAL CHART.
3. DATA: THE OFFICIAL ORIGINAL DATA (S57 DATA) OF THE ENC IS USUALLY SUPPLIED ON CD-
ROM OR, IN CASE OF UPDATES, VIA DIGITAL TELEPHONE OR SATELLITE COMMUNICATION
SYSTEM.THIS ORIGINAL DATA IS ALSO CALLED ENC.THE CHART DATABASE IS ORGANIZED
INCELLS THAT COVER THE ENTIRE EARTH’S SURFACEWITHOUT OVERLAPPING.
THE DATA IN THE SYSTEM ELECTRONIC NAUTICAL CHART (SENC) IS GENERATED FROM THE
ORIGINAL OF THE ENC.THE ENC HAS TO BE KEPT UNALTERED IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO
RECONSTRUCT THE SENC DATA IF THIS IS UNINTENTIONALLY DAMAGED OR
DESTROYED.THE S57 DTA REPRESENTS A SPECIFIC KIND OF ATTRIBUTED VECTOR DATA.
IN ADDITION S57 DATA SHOULD BE ENCAPSULATED ACCORDING TO THE ISO 8211
STANDARD.THIS GUARANTEES THAT DATA FROM THE VARIOUS NATIONAL HOS ARE
COMPATIBLE WITH ONE ANOTHER AND CAN BE READ BY EACH ECDIS.
S57 HOWEVER DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE SYMBOLIZATION.THIS
STANDARD IS GIVEN IN ANOTHER IHO PUBLICATION: S52.IT IS ALSO CALLED PRESENTATION
LIBRARY(PRESLIB)HENCE THE ECDIS MANUFACTURER MUST INSTALL THE PRESENTATION
LIBRARY IN HIS UNIT WITH THE DEFINITIONS OF THE SYMBOLIZATION INSTRUCTIONS AND
THE COLORS TO BE USED IN AN ABSOLUTE MANNER IRRESPECTIVE OF THE COLOR
MONITOR.

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 ECDIS
CORRECTING ELECTRONIC CHARTS:
UPDATING IS A FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENT FOR ALL CHART SYSTEMS.IN ELECTRONIC
CHARTS UPDATING CAN BE COMPLETED IN SECONDS, IN MANY CASES AUTOMATICALLY.A
USEFUL VIRTUE OF ELECTRONIC UPDATING IS THAT, BECAUSE OFFICIAL ELECTRONIC CHART
DATABASES CAN CONTAIN INFORMATION FROM OTHER SOURCES SUCH AS LIGHT LISTS AND
SAILING DIRECTIONS, SYSTEMS CAN BE ARRANGED SO THAT CORRECTIONS ARE MADE TO ALL
RELEVANT REFERENCES AT ONCE.
FULL DESIGNATION ECDIS REQUIRE THAT SYSTEM MUST BE TYPE APPROVED, MUST DISPLAY
OFFICIAL ENCS ISSUED BY NATIONAL HOS AND THAT THEY MUST BE KEPT UPTODATE.
FOR FULL ECDIS COMPLIANCE THE CHART DATABASE MUST BE UPDATABLE AUTOMATICALLY
OR SEMI-AUTOMATICALLY.IHO GUIDELINES INDICATE THAT THE ONBOARD CHART SYSTEM
SHOULD BE CAPABLE OF BEING INTERFACED WITH AN INMARSAT SITCOM STATION OR AN EGC
SAFETYNET-CAPABLE RECEIVER FOR DIRECT TRANSFER OF ENC UPDATES.SUCH EQUIPMENT
COMBINATIONS CAN PROVIDE FULLY AUTOMATIC UPDATING.
FOR SEMI-AUTOMATIC UPDATING THE ECDIS SHOULD BE CAPABLE OF RECEIVING CHART
UPDATES IN STANDARD IHO FORMAT VIA A TELEPHONE NETWORK OR ON 3.5IN HIGH DENSITY
DISKETTES.THIS UPDATES MUST THEN BE FED INTO THE SYSTEM;S COMPUTER. 
THE ABOVE DESCRIBES THE STANDARDIZATION OF THE DATA SIDE OF ECDIS, OR TO BE
PRECISE, OF THE HYDROGRAPHIC DATA.THERE ARE INDEED OTHER CHART OBJECTS THAT
CERTAINLY MUST BE SPECIFIEDIN ORDER TO MAKE ECDIS AN ADEQUATE NAVIGATIONAL
TOOL.A WIDE RANGE OF “OBJECTS” ARE ENTERED INTO THE CHART BY THE CAPTAIN AND THE
NAVIGATORS BEFORE AND DURING THE VOYAGE OF THE SHIP.THESE INCLUDE LEG LINES AND
WAYPOINTS, NOTES, OBSERVATIONS, FIXED POSITIONS AND COMMANDS.TO ENSURE THAT THIS
IS ALSO POSSIBLE WITH THE ELECTRONIC MEDIUM OF ECDIS, THE IMO HAS DEVELOPED AN
ECDIS P.S.THIS DETERMINES HOW AN ECDIS HAS TO WORK SO THAT IT CAN SERVE AS AN
ADEQUATE REPLACEMENT FOR THE PAPER NAUTICAL CHART.IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE
INTERNATIONAL FOR SOLAS, 1974. IMOHAS PRODUCED A CATALOGUE OF USER-DEFINED
OBJECTS WHICH HAS BEEN PUBLISHED UNDER THE TITLE “ MARINER’S NAVIGATIONAL
OBJECTS” AS AN APPENDIX TO S52.THE SUPPLIER OF ECDIS HAS TO ENSURE THAT THESE
OBJECTS CAN BE GENERATED, EDITED AND DELETED AS REQUIRED. IN ADDITION ECDIS
SHOULD ALSO COMPLY WITH SPECIFICATIONS OF FUNCTIONALITY LAID DOWN BY
CLASSIFICATION SOCIETY.

ADVANTAGES OF ECDIS OVER PAPER CHARTS:

1. POSITION FIXING IS REAL TIME AND IS RECORDED AT REGULAR INTERVALS WITHOUT
INVOLVEMENT OF OOW. 
2. ALARMS CAN BE ACTIVATED TO ATTRACT ATTENTION OF OOW BY SETTING SAFETY
PARAMETERS WHOSE VIOLATION WILL ACTIVATE ALARMS. CAN BE USED AS ANTI-
GROUNDING TOOL.
3. WEATHER AND FORECAST DATA AND ICE DATA CAN BE SUPERIMPOSED.
4. CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF SHIP’S POSITION WRT PLANNED TRACK AND AVAILABLE
SEA ROOM.
5. WHEN INTERFACED WITH ARPA TARGETS ACQUIRED BY ARPA CAN ALSO BE SIMILARLY
MONITORED.
6. PASSAGE PLANNING CAN BE DONE ON ECDIS ITSELF WITHOUT REFERRING TO VARIOUS
PUBLICATIONS AS MOST INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON ECDIS ITSELF.
7. CHARTS CAN BE CORRECTED BY FLOPPY/ CD.
8. ANCHORING CAN BE PLANNED PRECISELY.
9. LOG KEEPING IS ELECTRONIC AND EASY AND VOYAGE PLAYBACK IS POSSIBLE.
10. DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ANY TWO POSITION FIXING SYSTEMS CAN BE EASILY
IDENTIFIED BY ECDIS.
11. MORE ACCURATE ETA CAN BE WORKED OUT.
12. WITH TRIAL MANOEUVRE BEING DONE ON ECDIS AVAILABILITY OF SEA ROOM ON NEW
COURSE CAN EASILY BE CHECKED.

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 ECDIS
DUAL FUEL
IMO HAS APPROVED THE USE OF RNC WHERE ENC IS NOT AVAILABLE ALTHOUGH THE RNC
DOES NOT HAVE FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES SIMILAR TO ENC. SINCE COMPUTER
TECHNOLOGIES ARE ADVANCING FAST AND ENC ARE NOT AVAILABLE WORLD WIDE, THE
CONCEPT OF DUAL FUEL IS BEING ADVOCATED. THIS CONCEPT USES ENCs WHERE AVAILABLE
AND RNCS WHERE ENC IS NOT AVAILABLE. IT HAS THE MERIT OF ALLOWING THE USER TO USE
THE OFFICIAL ECDIS FOR ALMOST ANY VOYAGE RIGHT AWAY. THE CONCEPT OF ECDIS
OPERATING IN RCDS MODE, GIVEN THE FACT THAT RASTER CHARTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR
MOST OF THE TRADE ROUTES, IS GIVING THE MARINER MAXIMUM USE OF ECDIS PRIOR TO THR
FULL AVAILABILITY OF ENC. IN THIS CONCEPT ADEQUATE PAPER CHARTS IS REQUIRED AS A
BACKUP.

ALARMS OR INDICATIONS
AS PER THE IMO PERFORMANCE STANDARDS AN ECDIS SHOULD GIVE AN ALARM OR AN
INDICATION FOR THE FOLLOWING:
1. LARGEST SCALE ENC AVAILABLE,
2. EXCEEDING OFF TRACK LIMITS,
3. CROSSING SAFETY CONTOURS,
4. AREA WITH SPECIAL CONDITIONS,
5. DEVIATION FROM ROUTE,
6. APPROACH TO CRITICAL POINTS,
7. DIFFERENT GEODATIC DATUM,
8. MALFUNCTION OF ECDIS,
9. INFORMATION OVERSCALE,
10. DIFFERENT REFERANCE POINT,
11. POSITIONING SYSTEM FAILURE,
12. POSITION TEST FAILURE.