Pearl Harbor to Tinian; SHOALS Completes Island-Hopping Campaign

March 21, 2001

The Scanning Hydrographic Operational Airborne Lidar Survey (SHOALS) system recently completed the most extensive survey project yet undertaken by an Airborne Lidar Hydrography system (ALH). Taking in nine Pacific Islands, surveys conducted between August, 2000 and February, 2001 for the US Navy, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), National Ocean Service (NOS) and US Geological Survey (USGS), ranged from the approaches to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to the coastline of Tinian, 4000 miles to the west.

The business of hydrographic surveying is always costly and nowhere is this truer than in shallow coastal waters. Consequently when faced with the problem of coastal survey requirements spanning the width of the Pacific Ocean, a variety of US federal agency requirements were consolidated into a single project. The foundation for this was an existing partnership between the US Navy and USACE that operates SHOALS through the Join Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise (JALBTCX). As the only operational ALH system in the USA, SHOALS availability to rapidly and safely survey shallow water areas is at a premium. By expanding the project to take in the requirements of the USGS and NOS it became possible for all agencies to benefit from a US Navy sponsored deployment of this advanced technology.

SHOALS is a state-of-the art technolgy that uses an airborne mounted laser to determine the water depth by measuring the time difference in laser energy returns from the water surface and the seabed. A world leader in ALH, SHOALS is owned by the USACE and administered by the JALBTCX, located at the Mobile District Office. The system is operated by international survey leader John E. Chance & Associates, Inc., a member of the multi-national Fugro group of companies with 230 offices in 49 countries.