The population on Earth is continuously growing and the coastal cities around the globe are expanding as well. Maritime transport with the new LNG technology offers an environmentally sustainable way for transporting goods. The climate change threatens the coastal areas and creates more need to coastal protection.
These are some of the reasons likely to increase need of dredging operations in coastal areas now and in the future. Dredging is “the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors, and other water bodies” (NOAA / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Dredging operations are needed when creating new ground for cities, assuring the safe navigation to ports and building protection to areas which are vulnerable to rising sea levels.
There are many different types of situations as well as a large variability of industries involved in dredging operations. Therefore, dredging projects typically consist of a variety of different types of stakeholders. In order to achieve successful project results, it is essential to ensure all the project related information is easily sharable and accessible to everyone involved.
Examples of important information in dredging projects
Having all essential information, which is up-to-date and accurate, is crucial in successful dredging projects.
- Real-time monitoring. Modern dredging vessels are typically equipped with a real-time monitoring of ongoing work. The monitoring system shows the planned area to be dredged with requested depths, and reports in real-time how the work is proceeding.
- Seabed visualization. To ensure dredging is completed successfully, it is essential to know an accurate situation of the seabed before and after the dredging work. This data is typically gathered by surveying the seabed with a sonar and as a result, a point cloud data of the seabed is formed, from which the seabed can be visualized and measured digitally.
- Plans and drawings. In addition, if dredging operations are part of a construction project, it is important to have the best possible knowledge of the plans and drawings of the the structures to be built to the area related to the dredging project. This allows all the stakeholders to have a unified and comprehensive view on the project.
Easy-to-use online platform for enriched 3D data to utilize in dredging project optimization
GISGRO is an online platform for 3D data gathered with sonars or laser scanners, for example. Data is easy to upload to GISGRO and there are multiple smart tools for analyzing and measuring the data. You can easily share the data just by inviting your stakeholders to the platform with an e-mail link. They will only need a decent web connection and a browser to access the data. In this chapter we introduce some of the tools available in GISGRO.
From the video below you see how you can easily demonstrate the bathymetry of the seabed area, and use various measurement tools in GISGRO.
If you want to see how these features work, book a demo with our specialist and see how easy 3D data management can be!