Directive 2005/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

2. Inland ECDIS

The technical specifications to be established in accordance with Article 5 for an electronic chart display and information system (inland ECDIS) shall respect the following principles:

(a)

compatibility with the maritime ECDIS in order to facilitate traffic of inland vessels in mixed traffic zones of the estuaries and sea-river traffic;

(b)

the definition of minimum requirements for inland ECDIS equipment as well as the minimum content of electronic navigational charts with a view to the safety of navigation, in particular:

• a high level of reliability and availability of the inland ECDIS equipment used,

• the robustness of the inland ECDIS equipment in order to withstand the environmental conditions typically prevailing on board a vessel without any degradation in quality or reliability,

• the inclusion in the electronic navigational chart of all kinds of geographical objects (e.g. boundaries of the fairway, shoreline constructions, beacons) that are needed for safe navigation,

• the monitoring of the electronic chart with overlaid radar image when used for conning the vessel;

(c)

the integration of depth information on the fairway in the electronic navigational chart and display to a predefined or the actual water level;

(d)

the integration of additional information (e.g. of other parties than the competent authorities) in the electronic navigational chart and display in the inland ECDIS without affecting the information that is needed for safe navigation;

(e)

the availability of electronic navigational charts to RIS users;

(f)

the availability of the data for electronic navigational charts to all manufacturers of applications, when appropriate against a reasonable cost-related charge.