SHOALS Airborne Coastal Mapping: Past, Present, and Future

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) SHOALS (Scanning Hydrographic Operational Airborne Lidar Survey) program has evolved from an inlets R&D effort to a fully operational and constantly developing airborne coastal mapping initiative. The data collected in eight years of SHOALS survey operations have improved understanding of the coastal processes that drive shoreline change at USACE navigation and shore protection projects. The knowledge and experience gained from eight years of SHOALS operations have paved the way for a generational advancement in airborne coastal mapping by identifying complementary data sets to SHOALS bathymetry and by pinpointing aspects of survey planning, data collection, and data processing that could be automated for a more easily operated system. The result is the Compact Hydrographic Airborne Rapid Total Survey (CHARTS) system. CHARTS is an integrated bathymetric/topographic/digital imagery system currently under development for the US Naval Oceanographic Office. A bathymetric lidar component operates at a rate of 1,000 Hz, while a topographic lidar component operates at 10,000 Hz. Digital imagery will be collected using a georeferenced camera that can provide a visual backdrop for the soundings and elevations collected by the other components. CHARTS will easily deploy from most photogrammetric aircraft of opportunity and will incorporate highly automated algorithms based on current SHOALS processing methodology. CHARTS will be commercially available as SHOALS-1000 following field-testing in August 2003. System flight parameters and sensor suite are ideal for further integration with additional sensors such as a hyperspectral imager. SHOALS-1000 will initiate a new era of complete coastal mapping from an airborne platform.