CARIS, a leading developer of geomatics software, hosted sixteen delegates from the China Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) at its global headquarters in Canada for two intensive weeks of training on CARIS Hydrographic Production Database (HPD) in January.

The training is part of a sale made by CARIS to MSA in late 2007. The purchase includes 112 licenses of CARIS HPD Source Editor, Paper Chart Editor and ENC Editor as well as seven weeks of training. The balance of the training will be hosted at MSA facilities at a later date.

HPD will be implemented at all three MSA regional hydrographical centres in Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shanghai, which undertake the surveying and charting of the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea respectively.

This initial training will cover the set-up, system administration and management of HPD across the three offices, data preparation as well as an introduction to the Source Editor and the Paper and ENC Editors. During the training, delegates will also travel to the Canadian Hydrographic Service Quebec Region office to learn about their HPD implementation and workflows.

HPD will allow MSA to move from a file-based environment to a seamless enterprise system with unique database-driven functionality that will take their hydrographic data management and production to the next level in collaboration and efficiency.