Woolpert Selected to Collect Topo-bathy Lidar for Remote Hawaiian Islands

Woolpert has been awarded a task order under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Shoreline Mapping Services Contract to provide topographic and bathymetric Lidar data and imagery for islands in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands chain, mostly within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. This contract is administered by NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey Remote Sensing Division and will support several mission areas within NOAA. Under this task order, Woolpert will deploy its King Air 300 Turboprop aircraft with Leica Chiroptera 4X and Leica HawkEye 4X Lidar sensors out of Kaua’i to collect Quality Level 1 topographic and QL2b bathymetric Lidar data. The... (read more)

2021-02-18 02:54:31

USGS Selects Woolpert for Topographic Lidar Task Order in Hawaii

The US Geological Survey has awarded Woolpert a task order under its Geospatial Product and Service Contract 3 to acquire Quality Level 1 topographic Lidar data in Hawaii. The task order applies to Oahu, the four islands in Maui County and portions of the Big Island of Hawaii. It is funded by the USGS, with interagency cooperation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office for Coastal Management. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State of Hawaii, Office of Planning, also contributed to the task order and will be end users of the data.... (read more)

2021-01-21 02:55:33

The Necessity of Raising the Profile of the Hydrographic Profession

5 Questions to... Eric Langlois, Chairman of the IFHS

Hydro International spoke to five leading experts about the present and future of the hydrographic industry. In this interview, Eric Langlois (International Federation of Hydrographic Societies) focuses on the next generation of hydrographers: the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic is having on their futures, and the importance of recognizing their desire for sustainable solutions. 2020 has been an extraordinary year. What are the impacts of Covid-19 on the hydrographic industry, and what other factors have influenced the business? Beyond the hydrographic industry, I’d prefer to say that the entire hydrographic community has suffered from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.... (read more)

2021-01-12 09:29:57

Fugro Partners on ‘4S’ Global Satellite Observation Seafloor Mapping Innovation

Fugro is participating in an EU co-funded research and innovation project to develop a remote solution for global satellite-derived seafloor mapping. The three-year project, named ‘4S’ (Satellite Seafloor Survey Suite), will develop an online cloud-based solution that will use highly automated earth observation algorithms and workflows to remotely map and monitor seafloor habitats, morphology and shallow water bathymetry. Fugro will lead the project’s business and integration actions, and their hydrographers and geodata specialists will evaluate the solution via several use cases around the globe. Integration of Satellite Data Analytics into Marine and Coastal Workflows 4S will leverage artificial intelligence, physics... (read more)

2021-01-11 10:23:24

Forecasts for 2021: a Mixed Bag

Ready to invest, in equipment, staff and training, but unsure about future growth at this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic: that seems to be the outcome of our Hydro International Reader Survey 2021. For the past few years, we have asked our readers about their ideas for the future: are they optimistic or pessimistic, which technology do they believe will drive growth, will there be growth at all? Each year, we share the outcomes with you in our annual Business Guide, giving some insight into what the coming year will bring for the hydrographic industry. ‘Annus Horribilis’ Will the hydrographic... (read more)

2020-12-29 02:08:32

Sharing Experiences, Tools and Advances in Mapping Shallow Water Topography from Space

It is now possible to map shallow water topography, globally, from the comfort of your desk. Satellite-Derived Bathymetry (SDB), which uses remote sensors on space-borne platforms to generate dense bathymetric grids, has in recent years become an established survey technology. This technology has seen uptake in many applications, including charting, coastal engineering, environmental management and hydrodynamic modelling. However, best practices on the methods and how to handle uncertainties have not yet been established as common knowledge. The speed of the continuous technological development and the different methods and approaches to market underline an increasingly important need for guidance on using and... (read more)

2020-12-08 08:22:22

Open Source Software and Hydrographic Survey Data

3D Point Cloud Editing for Quick Seafloor Extraction Analysis and Visualizations

Hydrographers and data processors are expected to produce high-quality deliverables with a swift turnaround in this present age of data collection and technological refinement. However, the cost of proprietary commercial software processing programmes has excluded many in the past. Such programmes incorporate finely-tuned tools suites and nested algorithms that have been polished and distilled over the years. However, the financial hurdles are not as high as the passion and love that these individuals carry for this explorative industry and, thankfully, open source resources and collective intelligence are changing the game. Processors are often given large datasets with requests for end product... (read more)

2020-12-01 09:08:59

Iceberg A-68A: Hit or Miss?

An enormous iceberg, called A-68A, has made headlines over the past weeks as it drifts towards South Georgia in the Southern Ocean. New images, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, show that the berg is rotating and potentially drifting westwards. In July 2017, the lump of ice more than twice the size of Luxembourg broke off Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf – spawning one of the largest icebergs on record. Now, three years later, the A-68A berg is being carried by currents in open waters – thousands of kilometres from its birthplace. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission’s latest acquisition, captured on 25 November, shows the... (read more)

2020-11-30 10:10:53

Major Funding for Remote Operations Survey Processing Project

Teledyne CARIS, a Teledyne Technologies company, has announced significant funding from Canada’s Ocean Supercluster award to develop software for remote operations survey processing. This is in alignment with the company’s leading AI strategy. Canada’s Ocean Supercluster will contribute CA$944,000 to the CA$2.1 million project. The CARIS Cloud Technology Project will break down technical barriers to entry for hydrographic processing and charting in support of remote operations. Teledyne CARIS’ project aims at three targeted deliverables: 1. The enhancement of its desktop-based product line to leverage the cloud to deliver consistent access for global users in every possible circumstance.2. Support for remote... (read more)

2020-11-27 10:00:36

High-resolution Survey on Versatile USV

Skansen is a historic area in the city of Trondheim in central Norway and home to the Skansen Bridge, a 52m span bascule railway bridge that opens for marine traffic to access the Trondheim Fjord. The Skansen Bridge was built in 1918 and designed by structural engineer Joseph Strauss, who also designed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The displacement of rocks and other objects in shallow waters over time can result in structural integrity issues for bridge piers such as the Skansen Bridge and hazards for vessel traffic, so that regular inspection of the structural integrity is required... (read more)

2020-11-23 04:09:52