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Atchfalaya River Pilot Project
The Atchafalaya River is located entirely within the state of Louisiana. It begins at the confluence of the Red
River and the Lower Old River. It flows approximately 165 miles to the Gulf of
Mexico. The river supplies navigation, fishing, recreation and water for domestic, agricultural and
industrial purposes.
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Atchafalaya River's ENC Project Area, shown in yellow.
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The Atchafalaya River provides a route to the Gulf of Mexico that is 172 miles shorter than
navigating the Mississippi River, saving mariners time and money. Also the Atchafalaya River basin covers almost one
million acres and contains America's largest river basin swamp.
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Atchafalaya Inland ENCs, shown in an S-57 data viewing tool.
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In the fall of 2000, the New Orleans District began investigation and development of processes
to create an Inland Electronic Navigation Chart (IENC)
from our recent Atchafalaya digital mapping data. The approach of digital-to-digital data
conversion to produce S-57 data was not a common approach to producing S-57 chart data. Typically,
paper charts were scanned and then "heads-up" digitized.
The Pilot Project was also a vital early Corps effort to develop procedures for the
conversion of all U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) river corridor data from Corps Spatial Data Standard (SDS) GIS format into
S-57 format. This project provided the Corps with
a foundation for other USACE districts to initiating an IENC Program and producing other IENCs.
Our IENC is a database consisting of information typically found on standard paper navigation
chart products, but it is presented in a standardized digital exchange format.
The data was field tested and,in May 2001, distributed on the Internet for evaluation.
The original Atchaflaya IENC cells were updated and were made available in December 2002.
The Corps is now developing an update cycle for all IENCs.
Contact
Ralph A. Scheid
Technical Manager
Mississippi Valley Division IENC Development
New Orleans, LA
(504) 862-2995
Ralph.A.Scheid@usace.army.mil
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