Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Canadian Seabed Research (CSR) offers precise positioning, hydrographic surveying, seafloor imaging,sub-bottom profiling, geotechnical analysis and comprehensive reporting and mapping through their marinedivision. Their suite of tools to provide to engineering companies for various energy projects consists oftraditional boat-based echo sounding technology and land based surveying. However, the shallow water zone isexpensive, challenging and dangerous to survey using their current technologies, and CSR has no way tosurvey the gap between land and water that cannot be accessed using boat-based survey methods. CSR requiresresearchers at the Nova Scotia Community College's Applied Geomatics Research Group (NSCC AGRG) toassist them with this problem by researching how topo-bathymetric lidar can bridge the gap between theirtraditional marine surveys and their land surveys. This project will involve AGRG and CSR staff collaboratingon the airborne lidar data collection design and acquisition of topo-bathymetric lidar and image data along asection of the coast in the Maritimes. CSR and AGRG will work together to conduct a cost-benefit analysis ofhow CSR's traditional methods compare to using lidar in the Nova Scotian economy. The typical applicationswhere CSR feels this new topo-bathymetric lidar technology may be of benefit to them for projects that involveconnecting marine and terrestrial infrastructure include: siting and planning pipeline landing sites, siting andlaying of high energy electrical cables, and the evaluation of the structural integrity of existing coastalinfrastructure such as breakwaters and wharves.