ALH

Airborne LiDAR Hydrography

Principle of SHOALS

Green laser pulses (532 nm) reflected , from bottom Near-IR (1064 nm)laser pulses reflected from water surface

   Airborne Lidar Bathymetry  |  Applications |

Simultaneous survey of both land and under water

Today we are able to use airborne laser scanning technology to survey both land and coastal waters in a single approach, employing a technique known as Airborne LIDAR Bathymetry (ALB) or Airborne LIDAR Hydrography (ALH) which uses state-of-the-art LIDAR technology to measure seabed depths and topographic features rapidly and accurately.

Airborne laser bathymeter system SHOALS 1000T can survey over large areas, far exceeding the capabilities and efficiency of traditional survey methods at IHO Order 1 accuracy or better. SHOALS 1000T has a unique capability to map shallow waters, shoreline and topography simultaneously, integrating land and water measurements in the same data set This technology not only speed up the total survey mission and project turn around time, but also allow surveys over sensitive environmental coastal zones or inland water ways. Disaster assessment can be completed in hours or days delivering complete spatial information. Imagine underwater feature classification (sunken wrecks).

Cost effective in shallow water:

Collecting dense data sets where acoustic surveying is inefficient.  Map in <5 m waters with no degradation of vertical accuracy or sounding density.

Map land and water simultaneously:

Unique ability to survey ground elevations at the same time as depth soundings, integrating land and water measurements in the same data set.

Map dangerous areas safely and thoroughly:

Airborne system is immune to grounding hazards, shoal-infested waters, rocks, reefs, hidden subsurface objects or tidal flows.

Detect underwater objects:

Owing to their high-density coverage, Optech systems accurately target objects as small as 2 x 2 m to locate and map.  By varying the sounding density, the operator can control the minimum detectable size of the objects.

Compatibility:

The SHOALS data can also be merged with other types of data such as aerial images