European - North American - Russian Federation Inland ENC Harmonization Group

Abstract

In 2003, the Inland ENC Harmonization Group (IEHG) was formed to agree upon specifications for Inland ENCs that are suitable for all known Inland ENC data requirements for safe and efficient navigation in European and North American inland waterways and rivers. In 2004, the IEHG expanded to include Russian Federation. It is expected that South America will join IEHG in the near future. The overall framework for international Inland ENC standards includes: - Use IHO S-57 Edition 3.1 ‘maritime’ ENC Product Specification, where applicable. - A minimum Inland ENC Product Specification that includes mandatory requirements for safety-of-navigation on inland waterways, worldwide. - An Inland ENC Encoding Guide that provides guidance on recommended object classes, attributes, and attribute values for encoding IENC data. - An Inland ENC Register for additional real-world, IENC object classes, attributes, and attribute values not already contained in IHO S-57Edition 3.1 Object Catalog. - Use of the Open ECDIS Forum (OEF) as a means of communication and for establishment of Register for Inland ENC object classes, attributes, and attribute values. - Align with the future IHO S-100 Geospatial Standard for hydrographic data. Depending on what IHO adopts as a future ‘maritime’ ENC Product Specification (S-101), the Inland ENC Product Specification may become an application “profile” consisting of a feature catalogue, an application schema, and encoding. Or, there may be a there may be a need for a separate Inland ENC Product Specification (e.g., S-102). This paper will briefly review the status to world-wide inland ENC coverage and implementation, and discuss the implications for expanding the scope of the hydrographic applications to meet new requirements