River Engineering & Restoration
River Engineering & Restoration
There are situations where rivers are purposely altered by humans to achieve a desired result such as flood mitigation, irrigation, or water diversion. In some cases, engineering is required to decrease flood risks to populations, human activity (like agriculture), and infrastructure. In other cases, restoration projects are necessary to undo less-informed historical engineering practices. The projects can range from undoing the "straightening" of river channels to complete dam removal.
In order to properly plan these efforts, an accurate assessment of the present river morphology is needed. This includes a bathymetric survey to understand the river profile and describe any underwater features. Topographic data is needed to assess the flood plain impacts and complete a flood risk assessment. It is advantageous monetarily and managerially to create a time history of a river's topography / bathymetry as the project progresses to catch unexpected results and make actionable, informed decisions. A time history before, during, and after the river engineering project is indispensable to the process but can be costly and often unachievable using current survey methods.
ASTRALiTe has performed a series of river surveys where the customer objectives were to understand the dynamic character of these rivers, how changing conditions would impact surrounding areas, and how engineered solutions could lower risks. ASTRALiTe assisted in assessing the site locations, developed flight plans, and performed UAV flights that simultaneously collected topographic and bathymetric data in near real-time to evaluate the extent and quality of the data collected.
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Seamless Land / Water Transition
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Stairs
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Stairs & Railing
Vegetation
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2.5m Depth
NTU = 8.0
NTU = 4.2
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Shallow (30cm Side Channel)
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Using ASTRALiTe’s topo-bathy LiDAR, planners were able to acquire survey data that includes river bank topography, the transition from land to water, and the subsurface conditions of the shallow water river system. The data collected provided an accurate assessment of the river profile, identified underwater features, and gave an accurate picture of the underwater elements pertaining to infrastructure like bridges, dams, and retaining walls.
Engineers gained an accurate depiction of the river channel to use for planning. Because of the efficiency of this type of UAV-based topo / bathy survey, teams can frequently reassess conditions and monitor valuable infrastructure. Changes caused by extreme events like hurricanes / typhoons and extreme runoff from heavy rains or snow melt are now quantifiable with recurring flights of the EDGE lidar system.
