UD11T5201

Nav III: Navigation & Chartwork

State ECDIS compliance requirements

What are the ECDIS compliance requirements ?
In 2000, IMO adopted the
revised SOLAS regulation V/19 -
Carriage requirements for
shipborne navigational
systems and equipment to
allow an ECDIS to be accepted
as meeting the chart carriage
requirements of the regulation.

The amended SOLAS regulation V/19

requires all newly built passenger
ships of 500 gross tonnage and
upwards, as well as newly built cargo
ships of 3,000 gross tonnage and
upwards engaged on international
voyages to be fitted with ECDIS.

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What are the ECDIS back-up arrangements on board?

When ECDIS is fitted, arrangements must be in place to ensure

that a safe transition can be made to a back-up system in
the event of an ECDIS failure.
The back-up system must also ensure safe navigation for the
remainder of the voyage. A second, independent, ECDIS or
paper charts are the normally accepted solutions.
Details will be entered on the Record of Equipment (Form-E of the
Safety Equipment Certificates).
The back-up arrangement must be ready for immediate use.
If the back-up is a second ECDIS or another electronic device, it
must be loaded with the relevant up-to-date ENCs and current
voyage plan.
If paper charts are used they must be readily available with the
voyage plan indicated on them

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Which are the mandatory sensors for ECDIS ?

Sensor Inputs mandatory to ECDIS are:

1. ECDIS should be connected to systems providing continuous
position fixing capability (GPS)
2. ECDIS should be connected to the ship's Gyrocompass.
3. ECDIS should be connected to the speed and distance
measuring device (Log).

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What are the approved & updated hardware/software
complying with latest applicable IHO standards
Where an ECDIS is being used to meet the
chart carriage requirements of SOLAS, it must
comply with these (fantastic)four:

➢ be type-approved;
➢ use up to date electronic navigational charts (ENC);
➢ be maintained so as to be compatible with the latest
applicable IHO standards; and
➢ have adequate, independent back-up arrangements in place.

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What is the facility for Use of official chart service, and
weekly updating of ENCs

Admiralty is one of the service providers of ENC and Raster

charts as well as digital publications to the ships.
They provide services as under:
AVCS – Admiralty Vector Chart Services
ARCS – Admiralty Raster Chart Services
ADP – Admiralty Digital Publications
ENCs are updated by weekly 'Notices to Mariners' issued by
Hydrographic Offices / Regional ENC co-ordination centers ( RENC)
and corrections are received on the vessel either by email or data
file (AVCS DVD).
The actual updating is either applied to the ECDIS chart database
automatically or by the user

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What is the training & certification requirement for
Navigating officers using ECDIS on ships
IMO has mandated that all navigating officers
are required to meet the competencies
identified in the IMO Model course (1.27) “The
Operational Use of Electronic Chart and
Information Display Systems (ECDIS)”
The minimum training time is recommended to
be 40 hours, and assessment of competency
should be conducted by a suitably trained
assessor. This is called Generic ECDIS
training

Industry warrants that in addition to Generic ECDIS training, an

officer also needs to do Type Specific Training

Type specific training involves the officer

be trained by the manufacturers or their
authorized representatives on the
critical operations of the model of ECDIS
which the officer would be operating on any
ship.
Such training could be on an actual ECDIS
or a simulator.
The requirement for familiarization is
recognized under the provisions of section
6.3 & 6.5 of the ISM Code which requires not only effective training,
but familiarization of equipment and regulations with respect to
safety and emergency related duties.
Familiarization should be structured, specific to the onboard
equipment and its arrangements and should be complementary to
generic ECDIS training.

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Certificates are issued to all officers who have successfully
completed such training
6.02 Briefly state the purpose of following key regulations
governing various aspects of ECDIS

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What are the ECDIS Performance Standards MSC232(82)

Resolution MSC 232 (82)

was adopted by IMO on 5th
December 2006. It is a
document which prescribes
the Performance Standards
of ECDIS.

A few key points covered under MSC 232 (82) are:-

1. ECDIS Main and back up arrangements
2. ECDIS operation in ECDIS or RCDS modes
3. Requirements for display as Standard, Base and All modes
4. Requirements for updates of ENCs
5. Operational & Functional requirements
6. Scale and orientation requirements, colour and symbols
7. How to do route planning and monitoring as well as voyage
recording
8. Interfacing with other navigational equipments
9. Requirements for main and back up power supply
10. Alarms and Indications as well as ECDIS alarms

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 What are the IHO Standards S57, S52 and S63 ?

S-57 is the data format used

for the transfer of digital
hydrographic data between
national hydrographic offices
and for its distribution to
manufacturers, mariners and
other data users

S-63 is an International
Hydrographic Organization
(IHO) standard for encrypting,
securing and compressing
electronic navigational chart
(ENC) data. The standard also
defines the systems to

develop permit files that are delivered to end-users of ENC

data enabling them to decrypt the data and use it for
navigation.

S-52 provides
specifications and guidance
regarding the issuing and
updating of Electronic
Navigational Charts (ENC),
and their display in ECDIS.

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 Describe briefly what is IEC 61174
IEC 61174:2015 specifies the
performance
requirements, methods of
testing and required test
results of equipment
conforming to
performance standards
not inferior to those adopted by the IMO in
resolution MSC. 232(82).

This standard is based upon the performance standards of

IMO resolution MSC.232(82), and is also associated with
IMO resolution A.694(17) and IEC 60945.

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What is the difference between ENC and Paper Charts ?
Here are some key difference between ENC & paper charts
ENC (Electronic Nav Chart)
These are seamless
Consists of layers which can be
hidden or revealed when
needed
Real time position fixes
Updation is automatic
Day and night views possible
Cells have permits which can
be validated when required
Digital version and can be
interrogated for additional
information
Danger and limiting lines can
be activated to alarm
Separation between deeps and
shallows can be activated by
changing the set contours
Radar, AIS and other nav
equipment can be interfaced
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Paper Charts or Raster
charts
They have fixed boundaries
Single dimension only. All
information on it is revealed at
al times
Fixes are manually plotted
Manually updated
Single view only possible
Chart cancelled when new
edition is published
These are not interactive
No alarms when crossing
danger limits
No changes of fixed contours
No interfacing possible
How are ENCs named & grouped for quick identification ?
Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are digital vector charts
produced to the International Hydrographic Organization's (IHO's)
standards (S57 Version 3.1 and ENC Product Specification).
ENC means the database, standardized as to content, structure and
format, issued for use with ECDIS on the authority of government-
authorized Hydrographic Offices.
Each ENC is identified by an 8 character identifier e.g. FR501050.
The first two characters indicate the producer e.g FR for France,
GB for Great Britain (a complete list of producer codes is included
in the IHO standard S-62). The third character (a number from 1
to 6) indicates the navigational purpose band (as shown in the
table 1). The last 5 characters are alpha- numeric and provide a
unique identifier.
Table 1: Suggested assignment of navigational purposes to scale
ranges
Nav Name Scale Range
Purpose
1 Overview 1:1 499 999
2 General 1:350 000 – 1:1 499 999
3 Coastal 1:90 000 – 1:349 999
4 Approach 1:22 000 – 1:89 999
5 Harbour 1:4 000 – 1:21 999
6 Berthing > 1:4 000

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What is a SENC?

An ECDIS does not process the ENC content directly for the matter
of display.
ENCs in S-57 format are optimized to absorb the Hydrographic
object information but this structure is not adequate for the fast
generation of the resulting computer image on the screen.
In order to get efficient data structures that facilitate the rapid
display of ENC data, ECDIS firstly converts each ENC from S-57
ENC format into an internal format called SENC – System ENC –
which is optimized for chart image creating routines.
Such routines are not standardized; they are part of the individual
software know-how of the ECDIS manufacturers.
Consequently the SENC format differs between the ECDIS of
different manufacturers.
In contrast to the common uniform ENC format the SENC format
is proprietary for each ECDIS manufacturer.

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What type of objects does ENC display on screen ?
ENC displays 3 types of Objects :

1. point objects - Soundings

2. line objects - Contours and boundaries of land
3. area objects – sea areas and land masses

What are the attributes assigned to ENC by NHOs ?

Various Attributes may be assigned to ENC objects by the NHOs,
which have an impact on how Data is presented.
Examples of these attributes are DATSTA, DATEND and SCAMIN
DATSTA – Date Start
DATEND – Date end
SCAMIN – Minimum Scale value
Each object in an ENC has a Scale Minimum (SCAMIN) value. This
determines the display scale below which the object must not be
displayed by an ECDIS and reduces excessive information on the
screen. Latest ECDIS standards provide a control on the ECDIS
that overrides this SCAMIN display criteria. Mariners should use
this during planning to see all the information along the track.

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What are the different modes of display of ENCs
As per MSC 232 (82) there are 3 modes of display of ENCs
1) Display Base
Display Base means the chart content which cannot be
removed from the display. It is not intended to be
sufficient for safe navigation.

Display base to be permanently shown on the ECDIS

display, consisting of:

• coastline (high water);

• own ship’s safety contour;
• isolated underwater dangers of depths less than the
safety contour which lie within the safe waters defined by
the safety contour;
• isolated dangers which lie within the safe water defined by
the safety contour, such as fixed structures, overhead
wires, etc.;
• scale, range and north arrow;
• units of depth and height;
• display mode.

2) Standard display
Standard Display is the display mode intended to be used
as a minimum during route planning and route
monitoring.

Standard display consisting of:

• display base
• drying line
• buoys, beacons, other aids to navigation and fixed
structures
• boundaries of fairways, channels, etc.

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 • visual and radar conspicuous features
• prohibited and restricted areas
• chart scale boundaries
• indication of cautionary notes
• ships' routeing systems and ferry routes
• archipelagic sea lanes.

3) All information
to be displayed individually on demand, for example:

• spot soundings
• submarine cables and pipelines
• details of all isolated dangers
• details of aids to navigation
• contents of cautionary notes
• ENC edition date
• most recent chart update number
• magnetic variation
• graticule
• place names.

Even in ALL display mode only a small part of information

contained in the ENC is displayed.

All other information which is not displayed even in ALL

display mode can be assessed by a Pick-report
function.

Within the ECDIS, the features and their attributes (for

example position, colour, shape) can be selectively
displayed and queried, creating the potential to customize
the chart image displayed on screen. The figures below
show various levels of detail displayed from the same cell:

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 What is Catzoc on an ENC ?

CATZOC means Category Zone of Confidence

Category Zone of Confidence (CATZOC) values are assigned to

geographical areas to indicate whether data meets a minimum
set of criteria for position, depth accuracy and seafloor
coverage.

ECDIS displays these CATZOC values in ENCs using a triangular

or lozenge-shaped symbol pattern. The number of stars
contained within these symbols denotes the CATZOC value. For
example, six stars are given to the highest level of data quality
(A1) and two stars to the lowest (D)

See attached CATZOC table for detailed explanation of each

category

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 How is Catzoc used in Passage Planning ?

One of the components of the REQUIRED UKC is ZOC Allowance.

From the CATZOC table for ZOC A1:

ZOC Allowance (A1) = 0.5 + 0.01 × Depth

ZOC Allowance (A1) = 0.5 + 0.01 × 18.8 = 0.688 ≈ 0.7 m

If for ZOC A1, A2 and B sounding position accuracy is relatively

high (position error is less than 50 m for ZOC B), for ZOC C and
D this value is 500 m and bigger. In this case, you have to
access not only the ZOC Allowance for UKC but also the
positions of soundings when you are plotting tracks on the chart.

ZOC Allowance (C) = 2.0 + 0.05 × 17.3 = 2.865 ≈ 2.9 m

Which means that the real depth may be between 14.4 - 20.2 m
anywhere in 500 m radius. Dynamic UKC may be even less if the
vessel experiences motion due to waves (rolling, pitching or
heaving) in the open ocean area

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What is a Pick Report ?
By using a Pick Report in ECDIS, the mariner can read additional
quality information on isolated dangers to the safety of
navigation and/or survey reliability, if these have been included in
the ENC.

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What are the various safety settings on ECDIS ?

• Several features in ECDIS make it an ideal Anti-Grounding

tool.
• No use or wrong use of these features can be dangerous.

There are 4 safety settings

• Safety contour
• Shallow contour
• Deep contour
• Safety Depth

Safety Contour setting

• Safety contour – ECDIS assumes this to be a contour line
and not a isolated depth.
– Set value to be ideally Draft+UKC+Tidal allowance.
– Like NOGO areas.
– ECDIS will warn users when watch vectors intercept
this.

Shallow Contour setting

• Shallow contour – ECDIS assumes this to be a contour line
and not a isolated depth.
– Set value to be ideally equal to draft.
– Ship will run aground on this.
– ECDIS will warn users when watch vectors intercept
this.
For example a 10 meter contour will be a line that separates
waters below and above 10 meters depths.
The contours are in the value of 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and so on.
Shallow contour value is used to tell ECDIS what is the value of
shallow waters for vessel’s draft. This is the value of depth below
which vessel will definitely be aground.
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Therefore the shallow contour value needs to be equal to or
slightly more than the draft of the vessel.

Safety Depth setting

So far we have only been talking about contours. We have not
said anything about the actual safe depth.
• Safety depth – ECDIS assumes this to be single isolated
depth and not a contour.
– Set value can be equal to or more than safety contour
value.
– ECDIS will warn users when watch vectors intercept
this.
– This may be of importance in narrow channels where
chances of squat are high. A ship would never squat
more than twice its draft.

Safety depth setting is typically the same as Safety Contour

Setting

Deep water contour

• Deep contour – ECDIS assumes this to be a contour line and
not a isolated depth.
– Set value to be ideally equal to twice the draft.

The deep water contour setting can be used in number ways

and navigators can use this to the way they wish to use it.

This is a relative term and user is free to set as per what he

believes could be deep water for him. Deep water contour
setting could be 50 meters while or it could be twice the
draft or set as per Company policy

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But there can be number of ways we can use the deep water
contour setting.

For example you can set the deep water contour to show the
maximum anchoring depths where vessel can drop anchor.
So if your vessel can anchor maximum 105 meters depth, you
can set the deep water contour to 100 meters.

Or if you are about to do ballast water exchange, you can

set the deep water contour to 200 meters. This way you can
easily see just by the color on the ECDIS if you are in depths
where ballast exchange can be done.

These settings have to be updated whenever ships draft

changes

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So what is the depth of water required for the vessel to
navigate without any concerns ?
Off course it is the depth that complies with the company’s UKC
policy.
Let us see it with an example.
Vessel’s draft is 9 meters and at maximum speed, the expected
squat is 1.1 meters. The company require the vessel to have UKC
of 10% of the draft.
Based on the UKC calculation method one can easily arrive to the
conclusion that this vessel would need 11 meters of water
depth to navigate safely.
In reality you need to follow your company’s UKC calculation
sheet to arrive at the depths required to comply with UKC policy.
Also include various factors such as sea conditions, increase in
draft due to rolling, sea water density and the tide.

This water depth becomes the safety contour setting.

So if we enter 11 meters as safety contour setting, ECDIS
will show 15 meter contour as the safety contour.

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Why do we need safety depth settings when we can
navigate in waters above the safety contours ?
This is because of two straight forward reasons

i) The depth above safety contour may not always be

navigable.

Although we might be navigating in area above safety contour,

this isolated depth pose a danger. Safety depth highlights this
danger.

ii) The depths below safety contour may not always be

non-navigable.

We entered the value of 11 meters for safety contour setting and

when we enter this value the ECDIS will take next available
contour. This will be 15 meter contour.

Now the depths between 11 and 15 meters are navigable for us

but it will show below the safety contour. So in the area between
shallow contour and safety contour, safety depth will show the
depth on which we can navigate.

Let us say we set the safety depth to 16 meters. On the ECDIS,

all depths below 16 meters will be shown more prominently (in
bold Black font compared to others in grey color).

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How is Route planning done and checked for accuracy on
ECDIS ?
Route has to be created from berth to berth on ENC and checked
for safety before executing voyage.
Route planning is done for each leg of the voyage and route is
checked for safety also for each leg. This is done with the help of
Route Check function of the ECDIS.

As can be seen above when route check function is used, all the
errors that can occur on that route are highlighted in red on the
route plan. Action is then taken to change the route till the
alarms are removed or minimized

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What are the safeguard tools and settings available in
ECDIS to facilitate route safety check and planning ?
Route settings such as XTD (P & S), Rate of turn, Radius of turn,
Leg-speed can be checked for each leg of the voyage and
appropriate value set for each leg.
The ECDIS offers already XTD (cross track distance).
This “safety corridor” will be used for the route safety check and
will be monitored constantly during the voyage.
The ECDIS will display all the time any deviation to port or
starboard from the route in meters.

XTL is the Cross track limits which can be set on ECDIS for each
leg of the route for port and starboard sides as shown in the
picture above.
Whenever there is a large alteration of the course, we need to
mark a wheel over position.

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This is the position on our initial course at which we need to start
altering the course at a pre-planned rate of turn to arrive at the
next desired course without running into the danger.

Wheel over position can be marked on the ECDIS as follows:

The wheel over position depends upon the speed of the vessel
and rate of turn during alteration of course.
As the turning of the ship is in form of an arc of a circle, there is
another element that is involved: Radius of turn.
There is a relation between these three terms.
ROT = Speed of the ship/Radius of turn
While passage planning on ECDIS, we need to define the value of
the radius of turn and ship’s speed at each leg.
Under each waypoint, enter the value of “Turn Rad” and “speed”.

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Are the safety settings such as safety contour and safety
depth be set for each leg of the voyage at planning stage ?
True. The safety settings such as safety contour & safety depth
shall be determined for all legs of the route and set accordingly
before executing voyage (route leg)
(See the picture above for ROT and speed setting)

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Are manual positions plotted, NoGo areas, Contingency
anchorages, Abort points, Call Master points, Clearing
bearings or ranges, Parallel Index lines, etc marked on
ECDIS as was possible in paper charts ?
The user can mark the voyage ENCs in the same way as was
done on paper charts, by making use of ECDIS feature called
User-layers and user objects or User Maps
Examples of marking ENCs - manual position plotting, NoGo
areas, Contingency anchorages, Abort points, Call Master points,
Clearing bearings or ranges, Parallel Index lines, etc)
Few information that we can mark on the ECDIS are:
• Watch levels
• Contingency anchorages
• Security levels and hardening measures
• Reporting requirements
• Calling the master
• The point at which notice to be given to Engine room

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Can parallel indexing techniques be used on ECDIS ?
Yes certainly. To mark the parallel index lines we use “user map”
feature of the ECDIS.

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Can NO GO AREAS be marked on ECDIS ?
NO GO AREAS are the areas that are the danger to navigation
and vessel must not navigate into.
ENCs on ECDIS are seamless and the same logic does not apply
on ECDIS.
NO GO AREAS can be marked in accordance with company policy
or Master’s Standing orders.
The no go areas must not be marked excessively.
The shallow contour is not a no go area.
The marking for no go area needs to be done for something that
the navigator could miss.
Something like an isolated danger, wreck, depth area or an area
like with oil rigs that vessel needs to avoid.

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