Provision of Charts
Ideally, every Maritime State should be responsible for charting its maritime areas as well as for the distribution of the relevant nautical information. In fact, many States do not yet have the appropriate structures and organization required to handle this task. For historical reasons, some countries (notably: France, Portugal,Spain, UK and USA) have continued to play this role on behalf of the international community for territories, which are now independent. This means that they continue to maintain a portfolio of nautical documents, which are often the only reference available.
The main service provided by a hydrographic department is the national chart series. The department should therefore have access to a production facility. A production facility has a number of key features. These include;
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Facilities for the compilation of new charts, including cartographers and computing equipment.
- Facilities for the maintenance and updating of these charts on a fortnightly basis.
- Facilities for the publication of charts in digital and analoge form.
- Facilities for compiling and publishing supporting texts such as Sailing Directions, Tide Tables, etc.
- Facilities for distribution of information and products to users around the world
The National Chart Series of India is published by Indian Hydrographic Department which is divided into 3 groups:.
- Small Scale charts are provided for passage planning and for navigation out of sight of land. These charts are typically of a scale between 1:10 million and 1: 1 million.
- Medium Scale charts are provided for making landfall and for passage along the coast. These charts are typically at a scale of 1:300,000 or 1:150,000.
- Large Scale charts are provided for port approaches, ports, and other areas where navigation is constrained by land formations, navigational hazards, traffic density etc.
The number of charts in the national chart series will depend upon the length of the national coastline and the extent of the national EEZ. Often the national chart scheme will be linked to the international chart scheme of the region, compiled by Member States within the International Hydrographic Organization. The purpose of the international chart scheme is to ensure that the needs of international shipping are met in an economical and efficient way by co-ordination of the chart schemes of neighboring regional nations.
Coastal Mapping
The coast is a distinct, and extremely important, feature of the earth's surface. It marks the three-way boundary between the main environmental domains of our planet: land, sea and air. Carter (1988) defines the coast as 'that space in which terrestrial environments influence marine (or lacustrine) environments and vice versa'. Although in popular terminology, the term coastline is frequently used, in practice the coast has width and depth as well as length, so the term coastal zone is to be preferred.
The coastal zone also provides access to physical and other resources. For many countries of the world the oceans, and especially the continental margins, provide an important primary source of protein. Minerals and vital hydrocarbons also come from many of our coastal waters while we also use the off-shore zone as a convenient disposal ground for sewage and for domestic and industrial wastes, including toxic and/or radioactive materials. As well as attracting industry, the coastal fringes of our landmasses are also becoming increasingly sought after for leisure and tourism developments, both organized and informal. All of these activities may contribute significantly to regional, national and international economic performance (Bartlett, 1993).
A coastal State must declare & publish a catalogue of its coastal charts as its is the prime requisite of the maritime state for managing its marine coastal resources. The Technological Developments in the field of sub sea explorations to gradually explore and utilize submarine resources have increased tremendously in the recent times. It is nothing new that new technologies enable new applications, which, in turn, open markets for new technologies. This has happened also with hydrography: Satellite positioning, sophisticated high power computer technology and electronic communications have made hydrographic surveying and oceanographic data observations more efficient and hence there is a need to combine all these technologies and Data into a seamless database for the purpose of extracting spatial and attribute information for efficient use in Coastal Zone Management and finally into Electronic Charts.
The National Hydrographic Office of India has this national responsibility for mapping/charting its coastal areas for the purpose of production of Navigational charts. It is the only Charting organization in India which is well equipped in coastal mapping techniques The Hydrographic Office of India situated at Dehradun has fleet of Eight Modern survey ships to carry out Hydrographic Surveys for Coastal waters of India. Each survey ships collects bathymetric data using state-of-the art equipments to collect this data for preparing the end products i.e. Nautical Chart. So far, only analogue charts are available, but in view of international commitments by the Indian Hydrographic Office and being a signatory of International Hydrographic Office (IHO), which is fulfilling IMO/IHO/UNEP conventions of Navigational Safety Services at Sea it is obligatory to provide all the coastal charts in a Digital format called ENC i.e. Electronic Navigational Chart. The Productions of ENCs has started three years back and now it has reached to an advanced stage. So far 262 ENCs have been completed and the ENCDB is also nearing completion. Presently only issues pertaining to encryption and marketing needs to be resolved.