The country's first S-122 marine protected area thematic dataset, led by the Beihai Navigation Guarantee Center of the Ministry of Transport, was recently compiled and successfully passed shipborne terminal loading tests. This achievement translates the legally mandated management and control boundaries of marine protected areas into standardized navigational data, moving ecological protection regulations from paper to the front line of ship navigation.
S-100 is the internationally recognized hydrographic data standard system, serving as a "common language" for maritime spatial information. Data produced according to this standard can be recognized and displayed on various compliant shipborne navigation terminals. As a specialized thematic dataset under this system, S-122 is specifically designed to carry information related to marine protected areas.
Wu Lingzhi, deputy director of the Maritime Surveying and Mapping Division of the Beihai Navigation Guarantee Center of the Ministry of Transport, explained that in the past, much of the boundary data for marine protected areas was kept only in paper form by management authorities, making it difficult to present visually on ship navigation equipment and leaving vessels at risk of straying into ecologically sensitive sea areas. This dataset brings ecological protection red lines and maritime control rules onto shipborne screens, bridging the "last mile" of information transmission, balancing ship navigation safety with marine biodiversity conservation, helping to raise the digitalization level of China's marine governance, and providing support for the sustainable development and utilization of marine resources.
This dataset covers four categories of core information: information zones marking sea areas related to ship ballast water management, marine protected areas under special management and protection, restricted zones where navigation and operations are limited, and VTS (Vessel Traffic Services) reporting zones where maritime authorities implement traffic control, enabling legal control requirements to be "visible, distinguishable, and usable" on shipborne terminals.
Test results show that this dataset can automatically alert passing vessels and guide them to avoid marine ecological protection areas. Wu Lingzhi said this achievement opens a channel for translating marine ecological rule-of-law requirements into practical maritime navigation operations, achieves coordinated development of shipping safety assurance and marine ecological protection, and provides navigational guarantee technical support for China's digital marine ecological supervision.
The Beihai Navigation Guarantee Center of the Ministry of Transport was officially inaugurated in Tianjin on December 20, 2012, and is responsible for navigation guarantee services in China's northern sea areas, covering four provinces and one municipality: Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Tianjin.