S-100 INTEROPERABILITY. Fake Challenge

Few understand that S-100 proposes to eliminate the basic cartographic principle of spatial data superposition in favor of indexed selection.

Currently, when new and more accurate data appears, they replace old and less accurate data by coordinates. If a more precise value of a geographic parameter is known at a point, the old value is changed to the new one. For example, new depths replace old ones in an area of hydrographic survey; old information is deleted and replaced with new information at the same locations. This is the principle of spatial superposition. In the same way, large-scale ENCs are overlaid on top of small-scale charts.

S-100 proposes a different approach: to mix ENC data and survey data using special indexes and instructions in S-98 format to indicate which data and how should be blended from the ENC and S-102 to get a new electronic chart in computer memory. This is the principle of indexed selection with no reason given what the purpose of such replacement is, not why a list of compiling instructions is better than a ready-to-use ENC, but one thing is crystal clear:

The last sentence is a copy of the previous one but written using the principle of indexed selection of the S-100 interoperability type. As we can see, the meaning of both linguistic constructions is the same, but indexed selection is more complex, requires special tools, additional training, etc., which leads to bigger cost of cartographic production, higher complexity, and lower quality of navigational publications.

This method is more complex, expensive, and less reliable.

This (2) 39, 96 more _18,19,1044_A, expensive 18976_X12_Z less, X__ym.

The fundamental difference between S-57 and S-100 is such that in S-57 case data being published independently and for that reason can be used freely in any combination. S-57 ENC can be displayed with weather and tidal information, the last ones can be combined with Notice to Mariners, etc. No limits, no restrictions, very simple and practical. S-100 in contrast imposes artificial complexity forcing data use and production through S-98 bottle neck.

If you want to combine high-precision bathymetric survey data with ENC, you must use a chart only in S-101 format in combination with S-98. Combining data by coordinates, as it has long and successfully worked with S-57, is no longer allowed.

The main S-100 interoperability problem is that new bathymetric charts in S-102 format and other information in S-100 formats will not be usable by customers of existing navigation programs already on the market, developed on the S-57 standard. Thus, access for existing users to new, more accurate, higher-quality information will be hindered, requiring time and additional expenses. Obviously, such a scenario has little to do with concern for navigational safety.
This situation has been created by purpose due to the official prohibition on using ENC in S-57 format with data in S-100 formats seems absurd, given that in content, data in S-57 and S-101 formats coincide by more than 95%. The answer lies in the remaining 5% difference between S-57 and S-101, which contains the unique Interoperability identifier; it is present in S-101 but absent in S-57. Thus, S-100 kills the working principle of spatial superposition and states the following:

As a result, a problem invented out of thin air becomes an obstacle to the use of new high-precision data by a wide range of navigators. We must admit that it takes great scientific courage to call the above an innovation and a revolution, although in a certain sense, it is exactly that. This revolutionary, in its absurdity, solution complicates and increases the cost of ENC production and their use, hindering their free distribution. Not to mention the need for HOs to maintain two S-57 and S-101 collections in parallel for a long period of time.

One can imagine that for some very specific tasks this might be required. But forcing the entire hydrographic community to abandon the successfully working S-57 model in favor of S-101 looks like absolute madness. It is clear why the IHO cannot agree to the joint use of S-57 and S-102, as this would put a stop to the entire concept and return to simple spatial superposition. The good news is that S-100 cannot completely abolish it, and National Administrations can independently determine their own policy for producing navigational publications.

Recently, a decrease in the level of critical perception has been widely acknowledged, this is the price of comfort, growing information’s volume, simplified access to it, and the adaptation of social networks to the preferences of individual users. From another hand a decrease in the level of criticality for some groups going with an increase in others, creates inequality having an analogy with colonization. The standards now days can be used instead of cannons and bayonets to turn National Administrations into local branches, working in the interests of a global corporation. At their own expense they are requested to purchase expensive tools to create a complex and expensive product to hand over for global distribution.

Geographic expansion has always been accompanied by preachers offering faith instead of science and ritual instead of discussion. Brainwashing has always been a profitable business. The formula to buy an indulgence for salvation works the same today: buy S-100 for safety and if you ask extra questions, you are a heretic; fear and ignorance remain the main tools of manipulation. If such a concept wins, individual HOs are at risk of becoming a source of endless income for those who prevailed as above.

The main result of implementing new S-100 standards is the excessive increase in complexity of everything the standard can reach, simple terminology becomes incomprehensible, elementary tasks turn into complex and cumbersome ones, simple solutions become sophisticated, expensive, and unreliable. Complexity is usually the price for additional advantages, but in the case of S-100, there is noadditional bonuses for cartographers and navigators.

Indexed linking of data may probably be useful for a very narrow class of tasks, but for combining weather information, currents, tides, etc., with navigational data is not safety relevant. The S-100 supporters are unable to explain the advantages of this complex model and avoid such discussion at all levels from technical specialists to IHO leadership.

• Artificially created complexity allows for the development and coordination of standards for years and decades;
• It monopolizes the market of technical solutions in cartography and navigation by artificially creating a high barrier to entry for small companies;
• The complexity of technical standards increases the role of global data distribution centers, as complex publications require a higher level of coordination.

The paradox is that the more complex the technical regulation, the more likely the data of hydrographic services turn into raw material rather than a final product and service. The recipe for increasing complexity, meanwhile, looks surprisingly simple. It is moving to the next abstract level from describing data to systems describing descriptors, from the data themselves to indexes and references to the information. Complexity in that way can be extended at no limits.

Deliberately created artificial complexity works in the interests of those who promote and support it, and if this trend is not correctly understood, we will see very soon exponential complication of technical standards, requiring bigger cartographic budgets, higher costs for electronic charts and services, and greater dependence on global players.

The authors of S-100 try to convince us that the achievement and advantage is the possibility of joint data use which is not true.

S-100 is an artificial construction unrelated to maritime safety, and that is bad news. The good news is that this fact is understood and realized by a growing number of hydrographers and cartographers worldwide. Artificial complexity used as the main tool for promotion becomes the main obstacle to its implementation. That is why the practical S-100 development will not occur as a simple replacement of S-57 with S-101 within the timeframes or under the conditions currently planned by the IHO. The navigational world faces turbulence because  joint production and distribution in S-57 and S-100 will be defined by the policies of National Maritime Administrations in accordance with national interest, technical abilities and balance with international commitments.

We as technical experts see it on a way of not contradicting but aligned with basic superposition principle successfully working in S-57 for decades. Marine safety is too sensitive and vulnerable to become a platform for risky experimenting even by cost of reputation and individual ambitions.