Development and Application of Electronic Chart System in Ocean Navigation

With rapid development of the geographic information system technique, the electronic chart has come into being and is more and more mature. The electronic chart can provide the accurate and detailed information about the ocean environment, including the depth of water, situation of the seabed, distance from the shore, position, orientation and velocity of the ship, and other useful information. This paper first gives some introduction about the electronic chart. After analyzing the characteristics of the electronic chart, the application of the electronic chart in ocean navigation is provided. Finally the existing problem of the electronic chart and its future development trend are also discussed.