Hydrographic survey of a south Florida canal using a hydrolite

Abstract

In this study, a hydrographic map of a South Florida canal is prepared using RTK GPS (Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System) measurements combined with a hydrolite (single beam echo sounder). RTK GPS measurements are made using both single RTK and Network RTK systems. Digital sounding measurements taken by hydrolite are compared to manual lead line measurements. Single RTK and Network RTK results differed in the order of tenth of a foot accuracy for horizontal coordinates and for height measurements variations can go up to several tenths. Sounding results indicate a best-fit trend line with a slope of 0.993, and an R squared value of 0.972, demonstrating that hydrolite measurements and manually collected depths at this site are well correlated.

Keywords

• global navigation satellite system
• hydrographic surveys
• network rtk
• real-time kinematic method
• sonar.