NHS Establishes New RENCs

The Norwegian Hydrographic Service (NHS) and the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) have decided to establish two Regional ENC Coordinating Centres (RENCs) to meet the requirements of all Cooperating Hydrographic Offices (CHOs). The Norwegian Hydrographic Service will operate the RENC using current infrastructure and services in Stavanger, Norway - operative from 1 April 2002. “The NHS RENC is based on close cooperation between European HOs (CHOs), ensuring the HOs full control and continual access to their national RENC ENC product database,” said Kjell Birkevold, department director, Norwegian Mapping Authority. The fit-for-purpose and cost effective service by the NHS in Norway will be operated with established proven technology and infrastructure already used by Primar. The continued development of the NHS RENC operation and strategy will be through cooperation with the (CHOs). The NHS RENC will be operated as a non-profit organization. The Norwegian Mapping Authority confirmed that by 1 April 2002, five CHOs will release their ENC data through the NHS RENC. These include Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, and Sweden. Says Birkevold, “A key aim of the newly formed NHS RENC is to give member nations more control of their ENCs by focusing on flexible validation services and release of data. Several new nations are keenly interested to join this new RENC.” 100 percent of ENCs in use by the NHS RENC will undergo stringent validation quality procedures using new expert systems and the current Centre of Expertise established within the Primar service to ensure that the ENC data is of the highest possible quality complying with all relevant ENC quality standards.

Nearly 900 cells are available within the NHS RENC. This represents more than three quarters (77%) of the ENCs currently delivered from the existing Primar service.