Navigating a ship is the basic job of every seafarer. It is a critical part of enabling the safe passage of maritime traffic on the world's oceans. The basic tool for carrying out safe navigation is the nautical chart. Due to advances in technology, it makes sense nowadays to replace the paper navigational chart with an electronic version. The shipowner leases from the publisher the electronic charts needed by his crew for navigation. It is then the crew's responsibility to maintain these charts as instructed by the publisher, with corrections obtained from the hydrological services. In addition to the database of electronic charts, ECDIS brings together a number of different tools that the crew needs for their work. To name but a few examples, these are the logbook, the alarm system and the route planner. Nevertheless, the system has some shortcomings. These stem mainly from the ease of jamming the GNSS signal, which is crucial for the ECDIS position display, and above all from the human tendency to over-rely on technology. These two factors have also led to a certain number of incidents and maritime accidents.
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