Category Archives: Hydro/Marine
The Challenges of Near-shore Hydrographic Surveys
Near-shore hydrographic surveying can be a challenging task, especially if the conditions are not ideal to collect the required data.
AUVs: Crucial to Seafloor Mapping Effort
In 1775, in Saybrook, Connecticut, the brothers David and Ezra Bushnell built Turtle, a little egg-shaped wooden submarine held together by iron straps, with a 30-minute air supply. The next year, in New York Harbor, Turtle engaged in the first naval battle in history involving a submarine. The first autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), undersea systems...
All Hands on Deck
Mapping the entire U.S. seafloor is an epic task. The country’s new national hydrographer says it can be achieved by coordinating efforts and using the latest technology.
Managing Tropical Storm Risk in Florida
Low-lying Gulf Coast communities along the Anclote River in Pasco County, Florida, have a long history of summer flooding. In 2012, after Tropical Storm Debby brought more than 12 inches of rain in a 24-hour period to the Tampa Bay area, the residents of the Thousand Oaks subdivision in the Trinity community experienced widespread, long-lasting...
Digital Coast Act Becomes Law This Week
The Digital Coast Act, now approved by both chambers of Congress, will become law this week, and that is a significant step toward expanding and making accessible geospatial data to support environmental and economic development activities in the coastal regions of the United States. The bill creates a program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric...
The Return of Loran
An obsolete WWII navigation system is making a comeback In the 1980s, I used Loran-C to navigate on sailing trips off the U.S. East Coast. It had an accuracy of a few hundred feet and required interpreting blue, magenta, black, and green lines that were overprinted on nautical charts. The system was a modernized version, launched...