The Challenge

GIS Drones were permitted to conduct a Bathymetric Survey Demo by The ELS Club, Dubai, for the lakes inside the golf course. GIS Drones team visited the club in January 2021 for the demo. The on-site data collection commenced on the same day. DJI M600 Pro with Echosounder ECT400 was used for Bathymetric Survey. All horizontal coordinates were referenced to WGS 84 UTM 40N. The location of the Survey Area is shown on Google Earth below. The KML of the lake was created using Google Earth Imagery. The total area of the lake is 1.39 Hectares.

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The Proposed Solution

Before the survey, GIS Drones carried out a safety briefing for the survey personnel. And after that, the project began. We had the following piece of equipment at our disposal.

Drones for Survey and Measurement
DJI M600 Pro
Echologger ECT400
The Execution
Results and Data Representation

Drones for Survey and Measurement

DJI Industrial Drone M600Pro (from GIS Drones) with the Echosounder, Altimeter.
Echosounder ECT400 was used for measuring depth.
The specifications of the equipment are mentioned below:

DJI M600 Pro

Flight Control System – A3 Pro
Operating Temperature – 14° to 104° F
Lightbridge 2 HD transmission system gives you an opportunity to organize high-definition broadcasting on a professional level

Echologger ECT400

Interface – RS-232
Effective measurement range 0.15m to 100m
Power input 8V to 75V 2 W
Temperature range -10° C to +50° C
Sensor weight 270g
Total kit weight 2500g

The Execution

1. Pre-Survey

The mission plans were created using UGCS software.
The flight altitude was set to 2m above the water surface.
The side distance between two lines was set to 5 metres.
The flight speed was set to 1m/s.

2. Data Capture

The data capture started as per the planned mission.
It took around 1 hour to finish one entire lake.

3. Data Processing – Bathymetric

All the data captured for the Bathymetric Survey was processed using Hydromagic software.
The raw data was collected in CSV as well as nmea.txt format.
Final output of the survey was in a CSV file having 3 columns viz. Longitude, Latitude, and Depth.

Results and Data Representation

The entire survey revealed the exact depth of the lake, as can be seen in the following results:

2D MAP
3D MAP
DEPTH MAP

The Proposed Solution

Before the survey, GIS Drones carried out a safety briefing for the survey personnel. And after that, the project began. We had the following piece of equipment at our disposal.

Drones for Survey and Measurement

DJI Industrial Drone M600Pro (from GIS Drones) with the Echosounder, Altimeter.
Echosounder ECT400 was used for measuring depth.
The specifications of the equipment are mentioned below:

DJI M600 Pro

Flight Control System – A3 Pro
Operating Temperature – 14° to 104° F
Lightbridge 2 HD transmission system gives you an opportunity to organize high-definition broadcasting on a professional level

Echologger ECT400

Interface – RS-232
Effective measurement range 0.15m to 100m
Power input 8V to 75V 2 W
Temperature range -10° C to +50° C
Sensor weight 270g
Total kit weight 2500g

The Execution

1. Pre-Survey

The mission plans were created using UGCS software.
The flight altitude was set to 2m above the water surface.
The side distance between two lines was set to 5 metres.
The flight speed was set to 1m/s.

2. Data Capture

The data capture started as per the planned mission.
It took around 1 hour to finish one entire lake.

3. Data Processing – Bathymetric

All the data captured for the Bathymetric Survey was processed using Hydromagic software.
The raw data was collected in CSV as well as nmea.txt format.
Final output of the survey was in a CSV file having 3 columns viz. Longitude, Latitude, and Depth.

Results and Data Representation

The entire survey revealed the exact depth of the lake, as can be seen in the following results:

2D MAP
3D MAP
DEPTH MAP

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The Benefits

The alternative was to conduct a manual survey, which would’ve taken weeks, and the data wouldn’t have been accurate. Not to mention the manpower required for such a huge survey. The cost of operation, the post-processing time, and the data output limitations. With Drones, we avoided all of that.