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Airborne Bathymetry In Rivers Breakthrough
01 Mar 2005
In the first instance of a shallow water river environment being successfully mapped by airborne LIDAR survey technology, Woolpert Inc and Fugro Pelagos Inc have completed a survey of the Yakima River in the USA.
The project for the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation involved the acquisition and processing of airborne LIDAR bathymetry data along some 16 miles of the river near Ellensburg in the state of Washington. Sounding data were acquired from 0m through to the maximum river depth of 3m.
While airborne LIDAR bathymeters have been used on deeper water coastal mapping projects for over a decade, the project team used the latest generation technology available, SHOALS-1000T, to collect data in the river’s shallow, clear water environment.
This approach provided river engineers with a complete representation of the river channel and floodplain, enabling them to study hydraulic conditions as they relate to fish habitat, sediment transport, flooding and levee configuration.Woolpert and Fugro Pelagos have since teamed to provide similar data acquisition and processing services for the Bureau of Reclamation on the Trinity River in northern California.
MJ Information No: 20433
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