Modelling and Analysis of Underwater Surface using ENC Chart Visualization

Geospatial technology is a fast-growing area owing to its current adoption and usability in industrial, commercial and defence applications. Due to rapid development in sensor and computation technology, the acquisition of high-resolution geospatial data has increased manifold. Now, it is possible to gather data from land, water and space using remote sensing techniques. Like land topography, bathymetry is the study and mapping of underwater terrain profile to understand ocean related phenomena. The study and mapping of Sea bed or Ocean floor has a lot of applications such as safe navigation, coastal study, marine life study, Oil exploration etc. The study of bathymetry has a complex and thorough process starting from collection of underwater depths to mapping and visualisation. ENC charts are one of the key modalities to capture and store under water depths. These charts are used to navigate in water and has been the defacto mode of data format in almost many ships and vessels for water navigation. The current paper studies the process of surface generation from ENC charts and their 3D visualisation and analysis. It also presents the workflow for ENC chart visualisation using a case study.