Official S-57 » ENCs
What are ENCs?
Electronic Navigational Charts are official digital vector charts produced by national hydrographic organisations in accordance with the International Hydrographic Organisation's (IHO) product specification S-57.
The ENCs contained in our service meet SOLAS chart carriage requirements when kept up to date and used on an ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) with suitable backup arrangement.
Who produces/provides ENCs?
Only the national Hydrographic Office (HO) can produce or authorise the production of ENCs of its own territorial waters. Mariners trading internationally will therefore grow increasingly used to using charts produced by a much wider variety of national HOs. Many of the HOs provide their data via RENCs (Regional ENC Co-ordinating Centres).
Our ENC service collects ENCs from the following RENCs and HOs: IC-ENC, PRIMAR, CHS, Hong Kong, JHA/JCG, NOAA and Singapore. Please take into account that ENCs cannot be ordered directly from the above mentioned organisations.
PRIMAR
PRIMAR is a worldwide ENC service, operated by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service (NHS) on a non-profit basis.
The PRIMAR Regional ENC Coordinating Centre (RENC) is operated in accordance with the Worldwide Electronic Navigational
Chart Database (WEND) principles of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). The core aim of PRIMAR is to enhance
safety at sea and protect the maritime environment. ENCs from PRIMAR meet IMO SOLAS charts and carriage requirements
when kept up-to-date and used on type approved ECDIS with appropriate backup. PRIMAR ENC Service is delivered via
an international network of authorized distributors. Please visit www.primar.org for more information.
ENC data formats
describes the Standard to be used for the exchange of digital hydrographic data between national Hydrographic Offices and for the distribution of digital data and products to manufacturers, mariners, and other data users. The most significant digital product being delivered in the S-57 format is the Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC).
directENC
describes the SevenCs ECDIS Kernel SENC (System Electronic Navigational Chart) format. SENC is the data base, transformed by ECDIS from the ENC (S-57 data) for optimum use, and updated by appropriate means. It simplifies and accelerates the access to the ENCs and their handling. The directENC data are pre-converted from S-57 format and has been approved by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (BSH). It acknowledged that directENC provides "a complete storage and availability of information content of ENC data format S-57, Edition 3.1 without changes and losses". This means that directENC can be used officially for distribution of the ENC data.
Presently ENCs in the
directENC format are available from the following
HOs : Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Chile, Germany,
Greece, Iceland, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal,
Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, Venezuela.
Data encryption
To ensure protection and security, ENCs are only delivered in encrypted format.
S-63 - IHO Data Protection Scheme
more info
The S-57 data are encrypted according to S-63 - the IHO Data Protection Scheme.
It describes the recommended standard for the protection of ENC information and defines security constructs and operating procedures that must be followed to ensure that the data protection scheme is operated correctly and to provide specifications that allow participants to build compliant systems.
A chart display system (e.g. ECDIS or ECS) which shell display encrypted S-57 data must be compliant to S-63. Such a system has a unique ‘S-63 User permit’ (ENC User permit) which is required to produce chart permits. This chart permits have to be used to import the ordered and encrypted ENCs.
directENC - Data Encryption
ENCs in directENC format are also encrypted but different to S-63. Usually this data are provided as ENC Units which need the so called ‘Chart Access Key’ for data import. The system unique SevenCs ECDIS Kernel ‘Hardware-Id’ is required for key generation for the orderd ENC Units.
Licence Conditions
The exclusive General Standard License Terms and Conditions (GSLTC) shall
govern all License Agreements between ChartWorld and its Clients. They
shall apply likewise to all future License Agreements, even if this should
not be expressively stated otherwise.
Subscription
The subscription period is defined as the 12-month period from the date that the first ENC is subscribed, and then every 12 months thereafter for as long as at least one ENC subscription is re-purchased. All ENCs, regardless of time of purchases expire on the same date, i.e. 12-months after subscription start date of the first ENC. ENCs from this service shall not be used after expiry date and must then be removed from ECS/ECDIS. The minimum amount for the initial order is 150,- EUR.
Educational institutions and schools
All institutions that want to buy ENCs for educational purposes can buy the ENCs service with a 50 % price reduction. Special prices for educational institutions are not valid for Japan ENCs, Malacca and Singapore Straits ENCs, Singapore ENCs, Italian ENCs and South-Korean ENCs.