Obligations and challenges for national maritime administrations concerning the latest requirement for ships to carry ECDIS equipment

• Main Authors: Bradaric, Z., Grzetic, Z., Brocic, Pejo
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Availability; Buildings; Displays; e-navigation. hydrographic office; electronic charts; Humans; Information technology; Marine safety; Marine vehicles; maritime policy; Navigation; navigational aids; Safety devices; safety of navigation; US Department of Transportation
• DOI: 10.1109/OCEANSE.2007.4302386

Since the earliest sailing exploits, the safety of navigation has been conditioned by the availability and reliability of adequate shipboard navigation aids. Surely, the success of such exploits also depended on officers' competence for using these aids in an adequate manner. Through the centuries, there were no significant changes in the technical performance of basic navigation aids or in their usage, and therefore there was no need for additional education of navigation officers. However, a rapid technological development in many areas of human activities has brought about significant changes in the last several decades. Maritime transport of goods is an important part of the total transport of goods in the world, the result of which is a rapid development and the use of state-of-the-art technologies in the design and building of ships of different sizes and for different purposes. Such dynamics of the use of new technologies in the maritime transport has not followed the dynamics of the development of modern navigation systems. For that reason, even today a great number of ships are fitted with navigation equipment whose safety level is lower than that of the modern navigation systems used in other kinds of transport. Having recognized such situation in the last few years, competent international organisations, first of all the International Maritime Organisation and the International Hydrographic Organisation, have made special efforts to introduce state-of-the-art navigation equipment in the maritime transport.