Vietnam’s Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department (VNHOD), of the Vietnam People’s Navy, recently selected the CARIS Ping-to-Chart Solution to provide adequate and timely nautical chart and hydrographic data products for Vietnam coastal waters. VNHOD is the recognized authority in Vietnam to conduct marine surveying and charting and ensure safe navigation along the country's more than 3,000km coastline.

VNHOD originally implemented CARIS in 2006. This recent system expansion includes technology upgrades of HIPS and SIPS, for improved hydrographic data processing, and additional S-57 Composer licenses to increase their capacity in desktop ENC production. Importantly, this also marks VNHOD's initial adoption of a database driven production system, comprised of Bathy DataBASE and HPD, for improved marine spatial data management and security, and to obtain further efficiencies in chart production.

This increased use of CARIS by VNHOD is a great example of the continued cooperation between CARIS and the hydrographic authorities in the Asia Region. It also highlights Vietnam's dedication to carrying out their hydrographic surveying and charting operations by using the latest marine GIS solutions which is backed by more than 30 years of experience.

CARIS will be on site with VNHOD in Hai Phong for a total of six weeks of training and consultancy on the system installation, setup and best use.  A team of four CARIS Customer Services and Training personnel, each specializing in different aspects of the Ping-to-Chart workflow, will be on site with more than thirty VNHOD staff gaining in-depth knowledge of the new technology. The first sessions are underway now and the last session will be completed before the end of 2011.