LOWCHART
There is a growing need for hydrographic data for activities unrelated to navigation including renewable energy generation, spatial planning and environmental assessment. Traditionally, marine surveys undertaken under the naval and civil hydrographic programmes have targeted only those sea areas used for navigation in support of the production of nautical charts. This approach has left gaps in our knowledge, especially in the economically important and environmentally sensitive coastal zone. SeaZone's range of marine geographical information products support all non-navigational related activities and we are committed to providing the best possible information to our customers. SeaZone is therefore actively pursuing new sources of data to fill the gaps.
LOWCHART is a European Space Agency (ESA) funded project in which Earth Observation is being used as a potential source of bathymetric data in the inter-tidal area i.e. between high and low water. The technique is particularly useful in areas where there are large expanses of sand or mud flats, such as Morecambe Bay and The Wash. However, improved technology means that smaller beach areas may be able to be surveyed as well in the future. The data may be used where there has been no or little survey undertaken or to provide more frequent updates. The latter is important due to the frequent morphology changes that occur in these dynamic environments.
SeaZone's aim for the project is to assimilate the LOWCHART data into its new Coastal Raster and Hydrospatial data products in order to assess whether it is a suitable source of survey data for the inter-tidal zone. SeaZone is in the process of supplying test data to potential end users and is requesting their feedback on the added benefit of the LOWCHART enhanced data. If you have an interest in reliable digital mapping for the coastal zone and you would like to take part in the LOWCHART project, we would be pleased to hear from you. The data will be supplied in ESRI Shapefile format on CD-ROM with an End User Licence Agreement stating that the data will be used for evaluation only.
LOWCHART is being undertaken under the ESA Earth Observation Market Development Actions programme (Project Ref. EOEP-EOMD-EOPS-SW-04-0001) by a consortium of organisations comprising:
- Remote Sensing Applications Consultants Ltd
- DMC International Imaging Ltd. a subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
- SeaZone Solutions Limited
