IMO e-Navigation Implementation Strategy – Challenge for Data Modelling

The topic of e-Navigation entered the stage of IMO in 2008 already. After yearlong debates, the member states now agree about a consolidated interpretation of e-Navigation (NAV58/6, 2012). One of the principal decisions made already, is to develop the overarching consistent e-navigation data model on all aspects related to the shipping and maritime domain at large. This so-called Common Maritime Data Structure should be built on the basis of the S-100 Framework of IHO (S-100, 2010). The basis of data modeling within the S-100 framework is the so called “IHO Geospatial Information Registry” (Registry, 2013). Although S-100 is designed to support a wider range of hydrographic data beyond ENCs, their creators originally had no intention to expand this model to the wider scope of shipping. This paper proposes a transformation and an enhancement of the existent infrastructure towards a universal “Marine Information Registry” to host data modeling of all aspects of shipping and the maritime domain, including the modeling of non-spatial information