Portable Sonar logging on Android Smartphone

Geodesea Ltd have recently bought an Ohmex SonarLite. Not the most modern of SBES systems, but with a few tweaks we've now got it logging georeferenced soundings over a bluetooth connection on an Android smartphone :-)

PLA Live Tides on Geodesea Website

The freely available Thames Live Tide data (provided by Port of London Authority) is now also shown HERE

For more information, see the  PLA Hydrographic Website

CSO Hi-Res surveys for Thames Water

Geodesea Ltd were recently asked to process and render hi-resolution multibeam bathymetry data of several Combined Storm Outlet structures located within the River Thames for Thames Water PLC.

Comparison of several datasets over the same structures allows for utilities providers to get a clear picture of the sedimentation regimes within the structures on a temporal, as well as spatial, basis.

Volumetric analysis was carried out using Hypack and Fledermaus software packages.

Thames Tideway Tunnel Construction Video

Interesting animation on the planned construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel

https://vimeo.com/93163541

Early start in London this morning....

Updated Thames Tideway Tunnel Project Grid Conversion v1.01

v1.01 - a  recent application update in support of ongoing hydro consultancy works for the Tideway Tunnel Bathy Monitoring programme. 

Geodesea Ltd provide hydrographic consultancy services for Landscope Engineering in support of Environment Agency bathy survey of the Upper Thames

Geodesea Ltd recently provided hydrographic consultancy services to Landscope Engineering in support of an EA multibeam survey contract. The survey was 38km stretch of the Upper Thames between Osney & Rushey in the Oxford area.
The survey vessel used was the Landscope owned & operated SV Polecat equipped with R2Sonic 2024 & Applanix POSMV.
Geodesea Ltd provided assistance in the mobilisation & calibration of online systems, provision of an online hydrographic surveyor and data processor plus training to Landscope engineers in the use of Hypack/Hysweep for data processing.

Surveyors: JP Cheminade & Joanna Andrzejewska

RS232 to USB latency minimisation

Having to mobilise equipment in a short  time , with limited equipment & space it is sometimes necessary to use Rs232 to USB serial converters. But the inherent latency is not ideal for a survey setup.

When data is sent from a serial device to a USB converter it is cached on the USB converter until one of two things happens:

• Transfer size – More then x BYTES are collected or
• Latency timer – More then n Milliseconds (ms) expirer.

Luckily we can set the Transfer size, and latency timer.

Most USB to 485 devices that I have used have the ability to set the transfer size and the latency timer.

1. Start menu–> Settings –> Control panel –> device manager –> Ports (COM & LPT) –>{Select your USB to RS485 converter}
2. Right click and select “Properties”
3. Select the “Port Settings” tab
4. Click the “Advanced” button 
5. Change the Latency Timer (mSec) to 1ms or the lowest possible setting (I use 4ms).
6. Change the USB Transfer sizes to 256 - the largest NMEA data string is 82 bytes. 
7. Save and close.

Geodesea Ltd Continue to Provide Hydrographic Personnel for the Tideway Tunnel Bathymetric Monitoring Programme

Geodesea Ltd are continuing provision of IHO CatA Hydrographic Surveyors to the Port of London Authority in support of the ongoing Thames Tideway Tunnel Bathymetric Monitoring Programme. We are now in the 5th round of surveys (site specific areas), and due to kick off the 3rd full river survey at the beginning of April 2015.

A good end to the start of another contract on the River Thames

Export Cable & WTG Inspection Surveys Gunfleet Sands 3 Windfarm

Geodesea Ltd recently completed export cable & inspection plus post rock dumping surveys within the GFS3 windfarm for DONG Energy on behalf of the Port of London Authority.

Surveyor: Max Fisher

Ongoing TTT Bathymetric Monitoring Surveys

Following successful delivery of ongoing bathymetric monitoring surveys on the river Thames during 2013 & 2014, Geodesea Ltd have been contracted again by the Port of London Authority to provide Hydrographic personnel to acquire, process and render MBES & Laser data in support of the ongoing surveys for Thames Water.

Geodesea Ltd provide personnel for Wind Farm Cable Route Survey

Geodesea Ltd have recently been sub-contracted by the Port of London to provided qualified Hydrographic personnel for a high resolution cable route survey for GME Offshore on behalf of DONG Energy. Max Fisher was the nominated Hydrographic Surveyor for all data acquisition, processing & rendering for this project located in the southern North Sea..

High Resolution Surveys for Transport for London / London Underground

Geodesea Ltd has recently been contracted by the PLA to acquire, process and render high resolution surveys of the numerous tunnel crossings under the River Thames for Transport for London & London Underground.

POSMV INS and Reson MBES survey data was acquired using Hypack/Hysweep and processed using Hypack/Hysweep & Fledermaus software.

These surveys assist in the ongoing monitoring for scour and accretion of the river bed in the vicinity of the tunnels.

TTT Bathymetric Monitoring Surveys

Geodesea Ltd have recently been contracted by the Port of London Authority (PLA) to provide specialist hydrographic services for bathymetric monitoring surveys of the River Thames in support of the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

This is a tight tolerance MBES & intertidal foreshore laser survey of a 23km stretch of the river thames.

More information on this massive engineering project can be found at www.thamestidewaytunnel.co.uk

Royal Docks, London

Geodesea Ltd were sub-contracted  by the Port of London Authority in August  to carry out a survey of the Royal Victoria Dock for Royal Docks Management Authority. Below are some images of the Connaught Cut, Royal Victoria Dock.

Return to UK

Please note new contact details since relocating back to the UK after an excellent 3yrs operating in Australia.

t: +44 (0)7743 146780

Geodesea Utils v4.0 available for download

I have uploaded a copy of Geodesea Utils v4.0 here for anybody who wants to use it.

Strip The City for Discovery Channel by Windfall Films

Just found this on the web - using our MBES data and some 3D visualisations we rendered for them - unfortunately we were away with the 7125 during the filming and the SBES was on display for the film crew... ha ha such is life!

Bathy Berth Box Profiler

A recent project has been the development of a berth box profiler for Sydney Ports Corp.

Often it is difficult to quickly highlight shoal spot depths within a berth box on a conventional bathymetry chart, especially small scale charts densely populated with soundings. It is generally the shoalest depth and its realtive location (chainage) along a wharf which is of importance rather than its absolute position in real world coordinates. This is especially true when under-keel clearance is an issue and dictates where along a wharf a vessel may be berthed.

Hence the new executable app. It will take high resolution XYZ ascii data from within a berth box and "snap" to fender line, and output a re-projected dataset showing Chainage, Depth and (if required) perpendicular distance to fender line.

Capable of handling larger data sets than CivilCAD, and without the crashing ;-)

New CARIS SVP importer

Amazingly CARIS HIPS/SIPS has never included a GUI data parser for importing raw SVP data into HIPS. Programmatically quite simple, all online hydrographic acquisition software packages and most other data processing packages have this facility.

Anyone using MBES data, therefore, always has to go through the painstaking task of butchering the files in text editors or write their own macros in order to get the data to fit the CARIS format. Frustrating - I know from experience - especially on jobs where SVP changes frequently both temporally and spatially, with hundreds of SVPs needing conversion. Annoying, especially as all metadata (bar the position) is usually logged in the raw file headers.

Hence my app - the CARIS SVP Importer. If you need an importer for your SVP model, let me know and I may be able to help :-)

Bathymetric Marine Information Overlays (bMIOs) at SPC

I have recently been working on using bMIO outputs from CARIS into QPS Qastor for use by Sydney Ports Pilots.


bMIOs show chart and navigation-related information that
supplements the minimum information required by
the IMO ECDIS. These will be used to display the latest soundings and contours on top of the existing AusCharts.

SPC Aids Locata Sydney Satellites Project

Sydney Ports Corp recently aided Locata Corp & University NSW with the city trials of Locata ground-based positioning system installed onboard SV Port Explorer.

More information can be found here and here

Merry Christmas from "Team Batman"

Yamba Full Survey Completed

The Clarence River / Yamba Port full survey was completed in October. All went well and data looks great!

Strip The City

Recent works have involved the processing of high-resolution multibeam sonar data of Sydney Harbour, and its wrecks contained within, and the rendering of high-resolution animations for Windfall Films "Strip the City" series, soon to be aired on the Discovery Channel.

For more information: http://www.windfallfilms.com/show/2449/harbour-city-sydney.aspx

New Survey Vessel "Port Explorer" launched!

The long awaited arrival of SPC's new survey vessel "Port Explorer"  was launched last Friday.

We are now in the process of kitting out the SV Port Explorer with a moon pool mounted Reson 7125SV multibeam sonar and Applanix  POSMV 320 inertial navigation system.

Survey Data Over Offshore Artificial Reef

Shown below is some survey data of an artificial reef located close to the mouth of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour). Artificial reefs have been used extensively around the world to create fish habitat, regenerate damaged ecosystems and to enhance angler catch.

For more in formation, visit http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/saltwater/artificial-reefs

International Recognition of the Australasian Hydrographic Surveyors Certification Scheme (AHSCP)

On 24 May the AHSCP became the first hydrographic surveyor competency certification scheme to gain recognition from the FIG/IHO/ICA International Board for Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers (IBSC).

JP Cheminade has been a SSSI Certified Professional - Level 1 (Hydrographic Survey) since 2010.

For more information, visitit the SSSI website: http://www.sssi.org.au

Further information on FIG/IHO/ICA International Board on Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers click here.

Run for Annie completed!

Well done to our team of 3 who completed the Hunter Valley half marathon at the weekend, raising over 500GBP for the Christie, in memory of our friend Annie who passed away from cancer (far too young) last year.

Whales in Brotherson Dock, Port Botany

Whales came to visit Brotherson Dock in Port Botany on Friday. These photos were taken from the survey office at Sydney Ports Operations Centre.

And then whales were spotted in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) on Sunday...

Reson 7k Mount Adaptation

An adaptation of the standard Reson 7k mounting bracket to allow for the 400kHz Tx to be centralized around the Rx for the new SPC survey vessel SV Xplorer.

Port Jackson Passage

Seamless Integration of MBES & LIDAR in Sydney Harbour

Here is an example of how Multibeam data (sound through water from a boat) and LIDAR data (light through air from an aeroplane) can be shifted onto the same vertical datum in order to form a seamless DTM.

The example here is shown for Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson).

River Yamba Surveys

April 2012 saw the completion of the bi-annual surveys of the River Yamba shoal areas for Yamba Port Authority.

We mobililised a 7m Sailfish Catamaran (SV Osprey chartered from HCSurvey (http://www.hcsurvey.com.au/) with a POSMV and Reson 7125SV on an over-the-side mount with great results.

A nice part of the world to survey :-)

Just 60cms off the bottom!

The Queen Mary 2 displaces 151,400 tons, but barely scrapes in above Sydney Cove's muddy bottom as she berths at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.

The QM2 berthed at 6.30am yesterday, with a special heavy-duty anchor sunk into the seabed at Campbell Cove to ensure safe berthing for the 345-metre, 151,4000-tonne ship.

All bathymetry survey work is carried out by SPC suvey department with MBES, and shallow siesmic geophysical surveys were carried out by EGS onboard the SPC survey vessel Investigator in preparation for deployment of the anchor in Cambell Cove.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/queen-mary-2-berths-in-sydney-20120307-1uket.html