OVERVIEW
RTK-GPS technology allows our survey team to collect cm-scale position and elevation data up to ten times a second. By coupling an RTK-GPS system with an all terrain vehicle (ATV) and a shallow water, sonar equipped PWC; it is possible to achieve cm-scale horizontal and vertical precision while traversing the beach and surf zone at speeds of 5-8 km/hour.

APPROACH

Shallow Water and Terrestrial Survey Vehicles
The research vessel Surfzone Explorer is a custom Yamaha Wave Runner designed specifically for extremely shallow water mapping. The vessel is 13’ long with a draft of approximately 0.25’ and is powered by a super clean and quiet 4-stroke engine for surveys in the most environmentally sensitive areas. This proven design is the most advanced way to obtain quality, motion compensated single beam data in depths as shallow as 0.5’ in the surfzone, shallow inlets, marsh channels or estuaries.The terrestrial based Sand Tracker is a custom Yamaha all terrain vehicle used for the collection of high-density topographic information. The vehicle serves as a platform for an advanced Real-Time Kinematic Global Position System that can collect an accurate position and elevation data point 10 times a second. This technology allows our group to not only collect accurate 2D profile information but also to collect a series of morphologically derived survey lines in between stationed profiles. These high-density spatial datasets allows us to calculate the most accurate volume and shoreline change, as well as the generation of 3D maps and datum derived shorelines.