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Client: Geoffrey Swanton, Marine Safety Victoria, Department of Transport, Victoria

Marine Safety Victoria (MSV) has responsibility for a broad range of marine safety and environmental functions.

There are general or specific vessel operating and zoning rules for all coastal waters, lakes, water storages and rivers in Victoria. These rules are approved by MSV under the Marine Act 1988.

These rules are designed to provide a safe operating environment, and to cater for a wide range of boating and water activities. Where necessary, the rules separate different activities for safety and reflect local conditions.

MSV were aware that the rules, which only provided a verbal description of the Vessel Operating Zones, were often difficult for boat users to interpret. In order to support the safe use of vessels and encourage compliance with the waterway rules it was decided that the rules should be represented on an easy-to-use map.

MSV engaged Spatial Vision to develop and produce a “Stylistic Map” for selected waterways that could be easily understood by recreational boat users. Each map would be able to be used as a visual aid to the Operating Rules and contain information of value to recreational boat users such as access roads and boat ramps. 

The solution consisted of:

• design of a map that was simple, clean and uncluttered
• setting up an A4 and A3, colour Map Template for both
• portrait and landscape orientations, with standardised linestyles, polygon colours, symbology and fonts, to give a consistent “look and feel” for all maps produced. The maps also needed to be available in A4 format and legible and printable in greyscale, even though the primary presentation was colour, to enable the public to print from home PCs.
• inclusion of general hazard warning statements whenever symbology was not clear or possible; and
• consultation with the MSV Project team throughout the map production process

The Vessel Operating Zone maps provide a clear interpretation of the operating rules for recreational boat users. The maps are available for download from the MSV website www.marinesafety.vic.gov.au then under ‘About MSV’, and ‘Waterway Management Maps.’ 

Demonstrated Capabilities

• Production of ‘easy-to-use and clear’ maps
• Ability to work with client project teams and address their requirements
• Produce the maps in a timely and cost effective manner
• Where waterways were large or complex, in consultation with the client, produce either multiple maps or Inset maps in order to show sufficient detail

Resources

Jeremy Alcorn and Peter Smith were both involved with Project Leadership.
Peter Smith, Rachel Lerm, Craig Molyneux and Cameron DeLisle were involved with the map production.

Technologies Applied

• Import and conversion of client data for use in the ESRI ArcMap environment
• ESRI ArcMap for export of shapefiles into a user-friendly graphics environment
  
• Import of data into Adobe Illustrator via a MaPublisher plugin
• Creation of final Adobe Acrobat files for use on the MSV website