Electronic Chart Display and Territorial Administration

Antonio Adduci, Maurizio Demarte, Massimiliano Nannini

Istituto Idrografico della Marina (Hydrographic Institute of Navy), Genova (IT)

The "Istituto Idrografico della Marina" (Hydrographic Institute of Navy), because of its status of State cartographic agency and of the availability of the Navy hydrographic and oceanographic ships, is able to collect every year, in the Mediterranean basin, a great amount of data about the marine environment and the sea-land boundary, to elaborate them and to use them in its cartographic base and in oceanographic databases

The marine environment is not an easy ecosystem to study. It is important, therefore, in order to cooperate with the scientific community in the study of it, to illustrate what information is already available or is being gathered, in an expedient and simple way which can then be used at any time and for any purpose.
With the advent of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and database management systems, it is no longer a futuristic task: but, on the contrary, is now possible to obtain available environmental information in real time, to discern different types of data, to study the sea and its various layers, to understand the latter's mechanisms and regulations, and to supply such information in the most appropriate format.

The hydrographic Institute has been studying for years the problem of "chart display in the future", i.e., a type of chart display that can be directly used on a Personal Computer, which can be described as an interactive type of chart display capable of providing users with the most useful information - both nautical and environmental - at any specific time and with a standard cartographic base in keeping with the international standard IHO S57.
Such chart display is, in all respects, a GIS, where nautical information is filed into a data bank base system to which information of different kind can be added and integrated. This is a project that could revolutionise the way in which fast interventions can happen anywhere in our planet, from the immediate knowledge and understanding of environmental information, to easier management both of emergencies and broad planning, taking also advantage of data forecast models).

The project of using GIS also for marine environment management purposes is part of the concept of REA (rapid environmental assessment). In particular, it works on a unified series of geo-spatial digital data, aimed to supply comprehensive information for quick and specific interventions, and with an improved effectiveness and reduced costs. This information is organised in layers, to be superimposed on a standard chart display. It is self evident how every piece of information supposed to be relevant, can be displayed in case of need, supplying in this way a very useful support for operators in the marine or in the sea-land boundary field.
These layers, when correctly integrated with the electronic cartography system (ECDIS) allow to increase the capability and performances of the systems and of their managers, through the visualisation of more information, either useful for ship based users or land planners. In particular, the possibility of identifying risk areas, linking to them eventual warnings, displaying additional information and integrating them with management systems for their co-ordination, control and monitoring, supplies, the planners and the managers more and more essential tool

Finally, it is useful to mention the need of a tight co-operation between the different governments to achieve the conversion of the available data into digital format according to standard procedures and formats, and to disseminate them within specific agreements, with the final aim of optimising everyone's resources and pursue the complete digitalisation of the essential information for the land environment.