Hydrographic Survey (Inland) Course
Course Aims & Structure
Aims:
- To introduce hydrographic surveying – core values and basic principles – with the emphasis on inland waters and the Environment Agency specification
- To equip students with an introductory understanding of the underlying concepts and theory
- To develop an appreciation for the expected precision and accuracy of hydrographic measurements and outcomes
- To raise awareness of the most commonly used methods and equipment
- Develop an appreciation for the different environmental conditions encountered when surveying inland waters
Structure:
- Formal lectures augmented with PPT presentation and interjected with group discussion. All lecture notes will be provided together with handouts for private study and reference.
Hydrographic Surveys
- Needs for Inland Water surveys
- What is a hydrographic Survey?
Inland Waters
- Rivers
- Material transport and deposition
- Rivers above the tidal limit
- River control and management
- Tidal rivers and estuaries
- River surveying
- Law, ownership and permits
- Canals (narrow)
- General form
- Sedimentation
- Engineering works
- Surveying
- Natural lakes / reservoirs / storage ponds
- Natural lakes
- Reservoirs and artificial lakes
- Industrial ponds
Control
- Need for Control
- Environment Agency specification
- Positioning solutions
Vertical Datums
- Rivers
- River estuaries
- Lakes and reservoirs
- Canals
Tides
Introduction to acoustics
Single beam sounding
- Principles, functions
- Sounding operations
- Wrecks and obstructions, side echoes, fluid muds
Swath bathymetry
- Multibeam systems – beamformers, backscatter, interferometric
- Calibration
- Sidescan sonar
Sensors, imaging and sampling
- Vessel dynamics and monitoring
- Acoustic scanning sonars / laser scanning systems
- Cameras and sampling systems
- Hydrology
Specifications, standards and error budgets
- Environment agency: national standard technical specifications for surveying services
- Marine and coastguard agency: uk civil hydrography program survey specification
- Standards: iho s-44, s-44 definitions
- Navigation standards vs engineering standards
- Uncertainty budgets, sources of error, parameter errors
Survey platforms & waterways guidance
- Survey platforms / craft
- Radio controlled and autonomous platforms
- Airborne hydrographic lidar
- Remote operated vehicles (rovs)
- Waterways guidance and licensing
Planning, processing, training
- Planning
- Data processing and presentation
- Contour or feature – getting it right
- Training
Practical surveys [group discussion, applying what has been learned]
Dredging surveys
Engineering & civil works’ surveys
Enviromental / hydrological
- Permits
- Planning / operational considerations
