High resolution, digital bathymetry now available off-the-shelf

Gilching/Germany

Industry leading aquatic earth observation company EOMAP has launched an off-the-shelf bathymetry product line which will transform the uptake and uses of digital bathymetry data. This world first service makes high-resolution, satellite-derived bathymetry available through online portals and its business partners.

Dr. Thomas Heege, CEO, comments that “satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) technology has matured to a robust and cost effective solution for mapping shallow water bathymetry, especially at high spatial resolutions.”

Indeed, Shell Petroleum recently announced at the IPTC conference cost savings of more than 1 M USD when using EOMAP solutions instead of the previous methods, for mapping a 740 sq km area off the coast of Qatar. “For this location and coverage, we estimated to have made a cost saving of approximately one million dollar compared to a traditional executed bathymetry and/or topographic LIDAR survey,” commented Joris Siermann, Qatar Shell GTL Limited during the IPTC meeting.

“Access to this technology solution has until now been on a per request basis, with a concomitant price tag and wait times. Now, interested users can browse our off-the-shelf catalogue of already processed data, instantly evaluate the suitability of the product for their purposes, and proceed to acquire it directly,” added Dr. Heege.

EOMAP gained significant media attention this past November, when they announced that the shallow water bathymetry of the entire Great Barrier Reef had been completely mapped for the first time. More recently, in the Arabian Gulf, the coastal waters stretching from Bahrain to Dubai were comprehensively mapped at 30 m horizontal resolution. For parts of the region, which have never been surveyed before, this represents the first bathymetric dataset ever.

Further to these, a number of other worldwide locations have already been added, and EOMAP will continue populating the off-the-shelf high resolution bathymetry catalogue on a priority area basis.

Dr. Knut Hartman, head of EOMAP’s Bathymetry Group, adds that “we have a system for selecting locations for off-the-shelf processing, but we are flexible, and welcome input from interested parties as to where we should target next.”

The online catalogue, which is being populated on a priority basis, is accessible here.