UKHO continues to update vector chart service

Following two commercial tie-ups with Transas and Kelvin Hughes, announced at SMM, Hamburg in September, the UK Hydrographic Organisation (UKHO) continues to enhance its Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS).

All AVCS ENCs are now available on a chart-by-chart basis as ‘ENC Units’, which represent the smallest unit of sale allowed by the ENC producers and usually contain data approximately equivalent to one paper chart. AVCS will also continue to be available in transit, regional and port folios, offering customers the maximum flexibility to choose between managed folios and chart-by-chart selection of the coverage that they require. It will be possible to add individual ENC Units to an AVCS licence for periods of three, six and nine months.

To enable the efficient management of ENC licences, it will be possible to select licence durations of 12, 24 and 36 months. Within the selected duration, ENC holdings may be added at any time for any permitted duration (3, 6, 9 and 12 months).

AVCS will be augmented by a series of additional data layers that, says the UKHO, will improve significantly the amount of digital information available to navigators when planning and executing voyages.

The first two layers will be a data assessment layer, which will identify differences between ENCs and existing paper charting (designed to bring the level of confidence enjoyed when using paper charts to users of ENCs) and a layer for Temporary & Preliminary Notices to Mariners. MEC