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Data Management

During the past decade, the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) has become a world leader in hydrographic technology and products. It has been working with computer software manufacturers and the international hydrographic community to introduce and refine the latest technology for the production of nautical charts and navigational products and services.

To produce nautical charts, the CHS conducts hydrographic surveys, which capture a vast quantity of data in various formats, including information about water depths, geographical features, hazards to navigation, man-made and natural features that aid navigation, tides, currents and water levels, and sea bottom characteristics.
Once all of these data have been acquired, they must be processed and managed, transformed and stored. The Integrated Science Data Management at CHS makes this happen. The resulting products and services also must be organized and managed for distribution to other government agencies, private companies and the general public, as well as to support a broad range of marine activities.

The Hydrographic Information Network (HIN) is the basic database network for the management of hydrographic data at CHS.

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Hydrographic Information Network (HIN)

The Hydrographic Information Network is a series of complementary and cohesive systems used by CHS employees to create and deliver the vast majority of CHS services and products. The HIN design has been developed over the past 25 years to incorporate new technologies as they become available.

Each new HIN component is designed to meet a maximum of requirements and to minimize the number of systems needed and the duplication of data. As the HIN systems were developed or revamped over the years, CHS has sought a better integration of each component.

HIN is based on CHS’s four fundamental functions, which are to acquire, manage, transform and disseminate data.

The four major components of HIN are:

  • The CHS Directory (CHSDir) is a database that stores all meta-information for CHS data sources and products. The CHSDir is used for the management of metadata, traceability, work flow and performance measures, among other things.
  • Two databases are used to manage source data. The Bathy DataBase stores and analyzes ever-expanding volumes of sonar and lidar data, while the Hydrographic Production Database is the single database for the management of a variety of production activities.
  • The HPD also manages transformed data and products.
  • Two systems are used for the dissemination of products and the delivery of services. They are the Product Database, which stores the products and services, and ChartServer.