[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 115 (Thursday, June 14, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32320-32321]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-14974]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Intent To Distribute Digital Electronic Navigational Charts on 
the Internet

AGENCY: Office of Coast Survey, National Ocean Service, National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), DOC.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) is announcing its 
intention to distribute digital Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) of 
U.S. waters on the Internet.
    This notice announces that NOS intends to distribute digital ENC's 
of U.S. waters via the Internet beginning on or about July 16, 2001. 
NOS plans to post its ENC's and associated updates on the World Wide 
Web with the data accessible to all users.
    The purpose of distributing ENC's in this manner is to promote 
maximum availability of these valuable data, which have primary 
application in navigation and in a broad range of Geographic 
Information System (GIS) activities. For users interested in 
navigational applications, the data will be posted at NOAA's Office of 
Coast Survey Web Site, www.chartmaker.nos.noaa.gov.
    Initially digital ENC's will be provided as prototype products. At 
the outset, the data will not be supported by regular updates. 
Therefore, these ENC's should jot be used for navigation. Rather, 
during this initial period, the intent is for users to familiarize 
themselves with downloading procedures and for NOS to evaluate the 
products and to determine the level of support necessary to maintain 
the distribution service. Once NOS develops and implements an update 
process and assuming that no problems are identified during the initial 
phase and that such problems are resolved, NOS intends to make the 
ENC's available for use in navigation. The NOS ENC products are 
designed in compliance with the International Hydrographic 
Organization's S-57 ENC Product Specification.
    Initially, ENC's will be available for the nation's 40 major ports. 
However, NOS plans to expand coverage as resources become available. 
The ENC data posted on the Web will not be encrypted, but may have some 
type of authentication built in, such as a digital watermark, so that 
end users can verify that data issued by NOS has not been corrupted.
    NOS does not intend to limit access to or restrict use of ENC's 
available on the Internet. However, NOS does plan to develop specific 
procedures for users who wish to incorporate these ENC's in products 
designed to satisfy chart carriage requirements mandated by the 
International Safety Of Life At Sea Convention (SOLAS) and the U.S. 
Code of Federal Regulations. This means that users planning to provide 
value added navigation products must establish a certifiable process by 
which NOS ENC data are incorporated in the products without compromise 
to the data quality or data lineage.
    NOS intends to issue guidelines governing the certification process 
for derived navigational products. Among the guidelines under 
consideration are: (1) The operation of a quality assurance system that 
is in essential compliance with a recognized quality standard, such as 
ISO 9000 series or equivalent and (2) the certification by a United 
States Coast Guard-approved quality standards organization that results 
in products being consistently manufactured to the same specification.
    Once NOS makes its ENC's available on the Web, it anticipates that 
industry will develop services in support of derived products. For 
example, a portfolio management service or an ENC distributor may 
provide NOS ENC's ``as-is'' and ``push'' the appropriate updates to a 
segment of users who choose not to download the data directly. 
Likewise, a system manufacturer may bundle or re-sell the ENC's by 
converting the data to a proprietary ``System ENC'' (SENC) before 
distributing it to customers. In the latter case, the SENC product and 
supporting updates must be based on a certifiable process by which 
there is no compromise to NOS-provided data. Further, since ENC's will 
be provided in the open, non-proprietary S-57 format, NOS anticipates 
that most users will be well versed in the format and its feature 
attribution. With this in mind, it is expected that S-57 technical 
support will be provided by expertise available in the private sector.
    The coastal management community, a major NOAA constituency, will 
also benefit from this distribution policy in that ENC data will be 
widely available for use as base map information in a variety of GIS 
applications. Coastal managers, emergency planners, and others will 
have easy access to ENC data. To assist these users, NOAA will 
investigate means to convert the data to a format that is more suitable 
for GIS applications and to post it in a manner similar to the 
navigational data. However, the level of specialized technical support 
by NOS is expected to be limited.
    NOS intends to conduct several workshops in order to familiarize 
the public with the distribution policy, to entertain comments from 
interested parties on its implementation, to consider complaints with 
the distribution of prototype products and to answer questions 
pertaining to the use of ENC's for production of derived

[[Page 32321]]

navigational products and for GIS related applications. The workshops 
will be announced in the NOS Web sites, www.nos.noaa.gov, and the 
Office of Coast Survey, noted above, and by mail to NOS constituents.
    NOS plans to conduct an initial briefing that will be open to the 
general public concerning its plan to release ENC's on the Internet. 
The briefing will be held at 9 AM, July 11, 2001, Room 4527, 1315 East-
West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland. Members of the public who plan 
on attending this briefing should contact Mike Brown at (301)-713-2712 
x153 or e-mail [email protected].
    NOS has been in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard concerning 33 CFR 
164.33, Nautical Charts and Publications, as it pertains to this 
announced policy. Questions concerning those regulations should be 
addressed to the Director of Waterways Management, United States Coast 
Guard, Washington, DC 20593-0001.
    NOS is publishing this notice consistent with section 8a(6)(j) of 
the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-130. Anyone with 
comments or questions regarding this subject should address them to 
Captain Nicholas Perugini, NOAA, Chief, Marine Chart Division, Office 
of Coast Survey, NOS/NOAA, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, 
Maryland 20910-3282.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Captain Nicholas E. Perugini, NOAA, 
Chief, Marine Chart Division, Office of Coast Survey, NOS/NOAA 1315 
East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-3282, 301-713-2724, 
Extension 101, FAX: 301-713-4516.

    Dated: June 7, 2001.
Margaret A. Davidson,
Acting Assistant Administrator for Ocean Services and Coastal Zone 
Management.
[FR Doc. 01-14974 Filed 6-13-01; 8:45 am]
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