NOAA's Plans for Updated Nautical Charts

That is NOAA's vision for its suite of 1,000 nautical charts. The nautical chart is the fundamental tool of marine navigation. The chart's importance is dramatized by the fact that marine transportation carries 98% by weight of all foreign and domestic goods to and from the US. At least 50% of these cargoes are oil or other hazardous materials, yet the vital safety information on a chart can change weekly.

One of the consistent messages from mariners and the shipping industry has been the need for up-to-date charts. Since NOAA (along with the US Coast Guard and the US Army Corps of Engineers) is the largest provider of charting information, the federal agency is taking on this challenge. One of NOAA's goals is to provide charts that are updated weekly for all critical and essential safety information.

Over the past several years, NOAA has reinvented itself to make this goal a reality. As recently as five years ago charts were still made by the time honored, but labor intensive, engraving process.

NOAA realized the potential represented by maturing digital graphics software and hardware and aggressively invested in these technologies, the training of its people, and the development of new contacts in private industry.

Today, NOAA's entire suite of digital raster-based chart files for all critical and essential safety information is updated each week. NOAA is diligently working on the next step, which is to apply all outstanding information to the chart files within two weeks of its receipt at NOAA. This includes depths from new hydrographic surveys and new shorelines from aerial photography. Updates such as this previously took years to complete.

A follow-on step is already planned. It calls for NOAA and its field offices to actively seek non-traditional sources of safety information. By establishing new sources, the mariner will be even better served with information that not only promotes safe passage but efficient waterborne commerce.

NOAA's most pressing next step is to get this information into the mariner's hands for daily use on the nation's waterways. Two delivery vehicles are under development. The first is a weekly update service for the digital raster chart that is marketed by Maptech, Inc. Each updated chart will be sent from NOAA to Maptech who will weekly send electronic chart correction patches to subscribers via e-mail. The subscriber's navigational chart software then automatically updates his chart suite. The raster chart update service is nearing implementation. Secondly, for consistency and safety sake, thc paper chart could also take advantage of the same update service so that each time a paper chart is ordered it is printed with the most up to date information on file. This technology is known as "print-on-demand." Further testing and field trials are required before implementation is considered.

Similar advances are being planned for the Coast Pilot and some new products yet to be announced. NOAA intends to continue listening to the maritime community in order to better serve the mariner.

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