Applications and Benefits for the Development of Cartographic 3D Visualization Systems in support of Maritime Safety

Maritime shipping is among the world’s most important industries and is vital to the global economy. With growing levels of traffic marine accidents pose a danger to health and lives of ship crews, en-vironment, and have a strong impact on profitability of shipping and port operations. This underlines the ur-gent need for the development of maritime navigation systems whose objective will be to contribute to a safer sea. Amongst many technical and methodological issues to address, there is a need for more efficient elec-tronic charting and radar display systems for use in navigation, traffic monitoring and pilotage, to improve the level of situational awareness of ship navigators, Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) operators and marine pilots. Cartographic 3-dimensional visualization (3D chart) facilitates fast and accurate understanding of navigation-al situations in ports and at open sea, decreases mental overload and minimises fatigue, this supporting better decisions for either sailors at sea or maritime authorities in charge of traffic monitoring. This leads to a reduc-tion of human error which is the main cause of marine accidents. This paper presents the latest developments and applications of cartographic 3D visualizations (3D charting) in marine navigation, VTS and pilotage.