Buoys and Lights

Owned by Diego Cesa de Meira (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jan 22, 2020 by Lawrence Chong (Unlicensed)
2 min read

Description

Aids to Navigation are special structures like lighthouses, lightships, beacons, buoys, etc, external to a vessel, which are provided to assist mariners in determining position and course, to warn of dangers or obstructions or to advise of the location of the best or preferred route.

These lights and marks are prescribed across the world by the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA). All marks within the IALA system are distinguished by:

  • Shape

  • Colour

  • Topmark

  • Light

Light identification

During daytime, the identification of aids to navigation is accomplished by observing: location, shape, colour scheme, auxiliary features (sound signals, RACON, RC, etc) or markings (name, number, etc).

During the night, we use the features of the aid to navigation's light to both identify it and ascertain its purpose. There are three features to describe the light:

  • Colour

  • Peroid

  • Phase Characteristic

The Canadian Aids to Navigation System is comprised of a mix of visual, aural and electronic aids to navigation.

Visual aids

Visual aids are short range aids to navigation including buoys, daybeacons, daymarks and lights. In Canada, a combined Lateral-Cardinal system of visual aids is used. Knowledge of the characteristics of each of these basic types of aids is a prerequisite to the safe use of the system.

Six types of navigation buoys:

  • Lateral

  • Cardinal

  • Isolated danger

  • Safe water

  • New wreck

  • Special

Originator

  1. Canada Coast Guard

Use Cases

  1.  

Source(s)

Description

Source

Format

Date

Update Frequency

Metadata

Cost

Link

Remarks

Description

Source

Format

Date

Update Frequency

Metadata

Cost

Link

Remarks

Buoys and Lights

Canadian Coast Guard

HTML

2019

Monthly

N/A

Free

NOTMAR

Extracted from html

Remarks

  1. EGIS Data Folder: \\ncras382\Application Source Files\EGIS\Smartmap Files\

Process for EGIS integration

HTML Table Extraction:

  1. In FME, use the Feature Reader to filter Tables pertain to Buoys and Light.

  2. Reformat, extract and split attributes with duo-values as required.

  3. Extract numerical values for Lat/Long and convert to decimal degrees.

  4. Transform the Lat/Long to point.

  5. Output to KML, SHP or GDB as required

  6. Import into EGIS

TC Smart Maps:

  1. Not all GIS applications can consume KML file directly due to its unique data structures such as networklinks, folders, models etc.

  2. Please contact Lawrence Chong, Digital Services Directorate for TC Smart Maps KML dataset and format translation.

  3. TC Smart Maps KML link: \\tc.gc.ca\tcgis\GISData\Google Mashup\Marine-NWP\BuoysAndLights\BuoysAndLights.kmz

Customization:

  1. Schema transformation: As required

  2. Denormalization: Not required

  3. Value coding: Not required

  4. Attribute renaming: As required to improve readability

  5. Attribute removal: Not required.

  6. Geoenrichment: Feature symbolization is recommended to improve visualization

  7. Format translation: Not required

  8. Language translation: French version not available

  9. Update frequency: As identified