NOAA plans to stop producing traditional paper charts

NOAA cartographers review a traditional printed nautical chart © NOAA

On Friday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Coast Survey announced plans to phase out the production of all traditional paper nautical charts.

Over the next five years, NOAA says that it plans to transition to electronic chart (ENC) products with a focus on improving data consistency and providing larger scale ENC coverage. This process includes replacing 1,200 irregular ENC cells on 130 different scales with a standardized grid system and set of 12 standard scales. It is expected to significantly improve the level of detail and consistency in NOAA's ENCs.

As it reorients its efforts towards electronic products, NOAA will gradually shut down services associated with traditional paper charts, including full-size chart PDFs, print-on-demand paper charts and NOAA raster charts (RNCs).

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