NAUTICAL CHART MANUAL

Take a time and have a look in this set of regulatory documents consisting of three separate papers. The first volume titled "Policies and Procedures" is mainly addressing the general practices plus the procedures, topography and hydrography, navigational aids, landmarks, and some other charting information. The second volume provides definitions, symbology, list of charting abbreviations, cartographic orders and memoranda, and miscellaneous references.

The last, third, volume has been fully dedicated to the digital technical specifications. The present manual itself may be treated as a comprehensive pack of documents covering the recognized cartographic standards and procedures. It may also serve to inform the users of the various nautical charts and other involved parties of the established effective practices plus policies commonly in use when producing the nautical charts released by the OCS, standing for the Office of Coast Survey.

Generally speaking, this manual is mainly aimed for the internal use of OCS; note, however, that provision is there for some quite limited exchange of this volume within the nautical charting community. The complete list of specific acronyms are used throughout all three papers of the present set of docs has also been provided for easy and ready reference, and the first of the books starts with a very interesting historical overview.