Summary

Description

NOAA's Electronic Navigational Charts (NOAA ENCs) have been developed to support the marine transportation infrastructure and coastal management. The NOAA ENCs are in S-57, a data standard developed by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to be used for the exchange of digital hydrographic data. NOAA ENCs can be used in Geographic Information Systems, (GIS) allowing for broader public access. Many GIS's, however cannot read an ENC's native S-57 format to address this problem. NOAA's ENC Direct to GIS web portal provides comprehensive access to display, query, and download all available large scale NOAA ENC data in a variety of GIS/CAD formats for non-navigational purposes using Internet mapping service technology. Nautical chart features contained within an NOAA ENC provide a detailed representation of the U.S. coastal and marine environment. This data includes coastal topography, bathymetry, landmarks, geographic place names and marine boundaries. Features in an NOAA ENC are limited in that they only represent the geographic region that is depicted in that particular NOAA ENC. By aggregating nautical features from all NOAA ENCs in the creation of GIS data, a contiguous depiction of the U.S coastal and marine environment is achieved.