The City of Albany requested that our team perform updated bathymetric, LiDAR and conventional surveys of Alcove and Basic Reservoirs – two of the three reservoirs that provide the City of Albany with drinking water. The results of these surveys would also provide accurate volumetric estimates and capacity tables for these reservoirs.
A challenging aspect of this project was the shallow waters and aquatic vegetation in regions of both reservoirs. In areas where the water was too shallow for our larger survey vessel, Atlas, the team utilized our CEESCOPE portable single-beam-ecosounder (SBES). This is a portable all in one RTK-GNSS echo sounder system, which provided sub-centimeter GPS located soundings in areas of shallow water. With regards to aquatic vegetation, the team has extensive experience performing bathymetric mapping from a data collection prospective. Our flat bottom support vessel outfitted with GPS mount and calibrated measurement points has performed accurate manual soundings under dense vegetation conditions. Our staff has also preformed miles of manual soundings within aquatic vegetation beds.
Upon completion of data collection, we developed 3D models and produced stage-to-volume and stage-to-surface area capacity tables, in addition to survey maps with high quality aerial imagery. Our team was able to successfully complete this project for the City of Albany in an efficient timetable, providing accurate, reliable results for both Alcove and Basic Reservoirs.