ABSTRACT: e-Navigation, a theme introduced but IMO to improve safety of navigation at sea, is starting to gain traction in various organizations. As the concept develops, the importance of data, both static as well as dynamic, is more and more realized. IALA and IHO, in their efforts to help making e-Navigation a reality, have agreed to propose the IHO GI Register (often known as S-100 Register) as the conceptual basis for the Common Maritime Data Structure (CMDS). Utilizing this common understanding of key players in e-Navigation arena, the IMO e-Navigation Correspondence Group has firmed up the overarching architecture, enabling a series to test beds proving the concept of integration of various data streams to enable improved communication between the stakeholders on shore or at sea. The integration of pre-composed, expert generated navigational data with real time and semi real-time data like Virtual AtoNs, Tide Gages Data or MSI transmission from VTS into a single e-Navigation display, if correctly developed, implemented and executed, will be the enabler of increased situational awareness.

KEYWORDS: Geographic Information System (GIS), e-Navigation, IHO S-100, Common Maritime Data Structure (CMDS), Integrated Data, Universal Marine Data Model (UMDM), Data Integration Framework, ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System)

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