Freeing up the future

摘要

When the pioneers of electronic charting began to develop their systems around 30 years ago they had a free hand, unfettered by mandatory standards or official strictures on performance. The first charts were merely raster versions of paper charts, making it possible to display passage plans but not much else. When vector versions appeared they opened up the opportunity to go beyond the basics. By the early 1990s national hydrographic offices were passing data between themselves in a digital format and in 1992 the IHO adopted S-57 as the internationally agreed Transfer Standard for Digital Hydrographic Data. This standard, with minor amendments, was adopted by IMO as a requirement for type-approved ECDIS and it looks likely to remain so for many years to come.