2025 SAG Award Winners

SERVICE HYDROGRAPHIQUE ET OCEANOGRAPHIQUE DE LA MARINE (SHOM) and SERVICE HYDROGRAPHIQUE ET OCEANOGRAPHIQUE DE LA MARINE (SHOM)

Project Goal

Shom produces nautical charts (paper charts and electronical charts - ENC) for France and others countries.
While digital S-100 products (https://iho.int/fr/s100-project) will be arriving on the market in 2026 / 2027, paper nautical charts remain an important medium for many mariners. However, creating them manually, using cartographic databases, is time-consuming. Automating this process is therefore a major challenge for many hydrographic offices.
Since the beginning of 2024, the R&D team in the Shom's cartography department has been working on configuring the Custom Chart Builder (CCB) developed by ESRI's Maritime branch to produce a paper nautical chart that complies with the IHO's international standard (S-4).
This project is part of a review of nautical chart production methods underway at Shom since 2023, which should lead to a significant acceleration in production, to the benefit of mariners and their safety.
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Business Problem Solved

Nowadays, it takes an average of 20 days to create a paper chart by hand. Automating this operation, by ensuring that the chart produced complies with international standards and remains safe for mariners, is a key element for the Shom.
At the end of 2024, the Shom began to revise its cartographic database from scratch. This will lead to the publication of hundreds new charts in the years to come. But in order to keep up with the planned schedule, it was not feasible to use “hand-drawn” production for paper charts. The CCB, with its technology enabling the creation of a paper chart in 1 minute from an ENC, has contributed to the Shom achieving its objective.

Technology Implemented

ESRI Enterprise
ESRI Maritime
ESRI Custom Chart Builder

Development Team Biography

Hugo Chonavel, head of the R&D team, Cartographic department - Shom
Erwann Herpe, cartographer in charge of R&D, Cartographic department - Shom
David Kercret, cartographer in charge of R&D, Cartographic department - Shom
Erwan Caradec, GIS administrator, IT department – Shom