Case Study: Port of London Authority achieves up-to-date digital navigation charts and safer Thames pilotage with Cadcorp SIS (Cadcorp)

Port of London Authority - Customer Case Study

The Port of London Authority (PLA) is responsible for the safety and conservancy of the entire tidal Thames—supporting around 25,000 ship movements and handling over 52 million tonnes of cargo a year—and must provide highly accurate, frequently updated navigation charts for about 90 pilots who guide large vessels. To replace slow, manual acetate-based chart production the PLA’s Hydrographic Service selected Cadcorp and its Cadcorp SIS Spatial Information System to digitise and manage survey, sonar, DGPS and Ordnance Survey MasterMap data.

With Cadcorp SIS (and Cadcorp’s MasterMap Manager for quarterly COU updates) the Hydrographic Service now merges sonar soundings, contours and port features into a five-layer GIS, producing the majority of more than 350 revised charts and maps annually, delivering faster chart updates and better data sharing across PLA systems (pollution planning, Vessel Traffic Management and intranet/extranet apps). Cadcorp has therefore increased production speed and timeliness of updates, improved operational decision-making, provided a clear return on investment, and the PLA is extending the solution via Cadcorp GeognoSIS for web-based delivery.

Port of London Authority

John Pinder

PLA’s Port Hydrographer