International Team Training

The IC-ENC Validation Team have been busy training to use the new internal validation tool that has been developed to replace the Data Management Database (DMD) system.

The International Teams from the Australia, North America and Latin America offices joined the rest of the team at IC-ENC UK for three weeks during January/February. During this time, the team were introduced to the new bespoke software tool in order to familiarise themselves with some of the new functionality and processes, whilst acting as a final User Acceptance Testing process, reporting back any issues encountered. During the final week, the team began to conduct their validations using the new tool and share ideas regarding new best practice.

The International Teams emphasised the benefit of having the team in one place to maximise learning and understanding of the new tool during a short period of time, as the team were able to share ideas for best practice and discuss any issues they encountered during the training. This has helped to ensure that they felt confident in using the tool upon returning to their home offices. Their training and performance progress was overseen by the IC-ENC Data Manager as part of the team's Continuous Professional Development.

As well as a productive three weeks of training, the team made sure they made the most of their time together in the UK by organising several out-of-office team building/social events, equally important as the functional training.


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IC-ENC Steering Committee 17 Meeting Papers

The meeting papers for IC-ENC Steering Committee 17 have now been circulated by email, but they are also available to download from the Hydrographic Offices part of the IC-ENC website.

If you wish to access them from the website, please log in with your account details and then download the .zip file from the Steering Committee 17 folder.

As stated in IC-ENC Circular Letter 2016/06 (circulated on 21st June), the agenda and discussion papers will be finalised on 20th August (one month before the meeting), so if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact James Harper on James.Harper@ic-enc.org (cc: therenc@ic-enc.org) before 20th August.

We look forward to seeing you all in September!


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New Maltese ENC Coverage

Since The Ports and Yachting Directorate for Transport Malta, joined IC-ENC in February, IC-ENC has been working closely with Malta in order to develop its ENC production capacity. We are now very happy to announce that IC-ENC will release the first Maltese (MT coded) ENC in this week's IC-ENC exchange set on Friday 29th July 2016, with more to follow in upcoming weeks.

Not only is this a great step forward for Malta in terms of providing important coverage for the region, but this also means that IC-ENC has reached a significant milestone of having more than 6,000 ENCs in its folio, which now accounts for 40% of the global folio of released ENCs.


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July

We are now part way through the first week of the IC-ENC International ENC Validation training course, which is taking place from 4th-15th July at the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) in Taunton, UK. Eleven delegates from nine nations have joined us for two weeks to learn about the ENC Validation process from start to finish, thus giving them the knowledge and skills to be able to perform ENC Validation when they return to their home offices. The course will also include familiarisation with the eGlobe G2 ECDIS in order to encourage the use of ECDIS in Hydrographic Offices' ENC production and validation processes. All IC-ENC members have been provided with the eGlobe ECDIS software to take back to their home offices.

We are also starting to make travel arrangements for the IC-ENC Steering Committee 17 meeting, which will take place on 20th and 21st September. As mentioned in the recent IC-ENC Circular Letter, the participants attendance registration deadline has been set to Thursday 30th June.

For your information, please see the timescale of events leading up to the meeting below:

- July - preparation of discussion papers by IC-ENC. Travel details supplied to each delegate.

- 1st August - Discussion papers issued to Steering Committee

- 20th August (one month before meeting) - Finalisation of agenda/final discussion papers issued. Confirmation of logistics

- 19th September - IC-ENC staff available for pre-meeting discussions/questions etc

- 20th - 21st September - IC-ENC Steering Committee 17

If any IC-ENC member intends to submit a discussion paper, please contact James Harper on James.Harper@ic-enc.org as soon as possible.


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IC-ENC Technical Conference Report

The Final version of the IC-ENC Technical Conference Report is now available to download from the Hydrographic Offices section of the website, or click here to view the report.


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New ENC coverage for the Panama Canal and Approaches

IC-ENC is pleased to announce that it has now formalised membership arrangements with the Panama Canal Authority and Panama Maritime Authority, both of which provide critical ENC coverage for international maritime trade.

IC-ENC concluded membership arrangements with the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) early in 2015, and the first tranche of coverage was released in December 2015. PMA's responsibilities are to chart Panamanian water except for the areas around and including the Canal.

Subsequently, IC-ENC is pleased to announce that membership arrangements with the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) have been finalised, and five new ENCs have been released in this week's exchange set. These new ENCs cover the entire extent of PCA's 'Area of Operation'. The IC-ENC Validation and Technical teams have supported this production through detailed validation and quality assurance work.

The Panama Canal Expansion is the largest project since its original construction in 1914. The project will create a new lane of traffic along the Canal through the construction of a new set of locks, doubling the waterway's capacity. The existing locks allow the passage of vessels that can carry up to 5,000 TEUs.

The Program consists of several components:

New Locks (Third Set of Locks)
Pacific Access Channel
Improvement of Navigational Channels (Dredging)
Improvements to Water Supply

The new locks are supported by new approach channels, including a 6.2km channel at Miraflores. Each of these channels are 720ft wide, and after the expansion, the Post-Panamax vessels will be able to transit through the Canal, with up to 13,000/14,000 TEUs. The Expansion will double the Canal's capacity, having a direct impact on economies of scale and international maritime trade. The new ENC coverage provided by both authorities will support the new, wider, canal areas.

Figure 1. Aerial view of Panama Canal Approaches

Figure 2. New ENC coverage of the Panama Canal

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IC-ENC Welcomes Tunisia as its 40th Member

IC-ENC welcomes Le Centre D'hydrographie et D'oceanographie de la Marine Nationale (Tunisian Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Centre) (CHOMN, Tunisia) working with Le Centre National de la cartographie et de la Télédétection (National Centre for Cartography and Remote Sensing) (CNCT, Tunisia), which has become its 40th member. The documentation was signed during IC-ENC's Technical Conference 2016 (27th April - 29th April) held in Taunton, UK.

IC-ENC will work closely with Tunisia and provide support in order to assist the development of its ENC production capacity. This will be achieved through IC- ENC's Production Support, Independent Validation and Capacity Building (Training) services.

IC-ENC is looking forward to working in partnership with Tunisia and assisting in the development of this important ENC coverage in the Mediterranean region.




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February/March

Its been another busy couple of months for IC-ENC. One of our main focuses has been on the training of the four new international validation staff. These staff have been based at IC-ENC HQ since the end of January to complete three months of IC- ENC Validation and Regional Office training in preparation for when they start their roles at the new IC-ENC Latin America and IC-ENC North America regional offices. These two new regional offices are expected to be set up during 2016.

Bruna Pinheiro, Jenny Thacker, Ana Mileze, Rob Ciepiela

We have now released all Malaysian data into the IC-ENC folio, bringing the total number of ENCs to 5932 as of week 13/2016.

The 2015 IC-ENC Annual Report was published in February, detailling our key achievements and our goals for the year ahead. If you have not yet had a chance to read the report, please click here.

IC-ENC had several visits during March. We were delighted to welcome the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) to IC-ENC UK for the first time. We also welcomed back John Nyberg from NOAA, and a delegation from the Dirección de Hidrografía y Navegación (DHN).

Aside from training, we have been busy preparing for the first IC-ENC Technical Conference, which will take place from 27th to 29th April 2016 in Taunton, UK. We are currently finalising travel and accommodation arrangements, so if your office hasn't already confirmed its attendance, please contact Liz Hahessy by email at liz.hahessy@ic-enc.org as soon as possible.

In addition, we are also starting to prepare for the next Steering Committee meeting in September, so please make every effort to return your completed travel forms if your office would like to be represented. For all Steering Committee related queries, please contact Laura Tyzack by email at laura.tyzack@ic-enc.org.


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IC-ENC 2015 Annual Report

We are pleased announce that the IC-ENC 2015 Annual Report has now been issued, and is available to read by clicking here.

If you have any comments, feedback or observations regarding the 2015 annual report, please feel free to email us at therenc@ic-enc.org.




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IC-ENC Welcomes Malta as its 39th Member

IC-ENC welcomes The Ports and Yachting Directorate, Transport Malta (TM), which has become its 39th member.

IC-ENC will work closely with Malta and provide support in order to assist the development of its ENC production capacity. This will be achieved through IC- ENC's Production Support, Independent Validation and Capacity Building (Training) services.

IC-ENC is looking forward to working in partnership with Malta and assisting in the development of this important ENC coverage.



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