 Hydrographic surveying or bathymetric surveying is the survey of

physical features present underwater. It is the science of measuring

all factors beneath water that affect all the marine activities like
dredging, marine constructions, offshore drilling etc

 Hydrographic surveying is mainly conducted under authority

concerns. It is mainly carried out by means of sensors, sounding or
electronic sensor system for shallow water.
The information obtained from hydrographic surveying is required to
bring up nautical charts which involves

 Available depths
 Improved Channels
 Breakwaters
 Piers
 The aids to navigation harbor facility

These survey also take part in necessary data collection relating to

construction and developments of port facilities, such as pier
construction. This help in finding the loss in capacity due to silt and
many uncertainties.
The method starts by locating special control points along the shore
line. The sounding method is employed to determine the depth at
various points by means of stationary boats. Sounding locations can be
either made from boat to the control points or by fixing a point in the
boat and taking sounding from the control point. Before this procedure
certain preliminary steps have to be made:

 Reconnaissance
 Locate Horizontal Control
 Locate vertical Control
 As every project require a start-up plan to complete it effectively and
economically, reconnaissance has to be undergone. A complete
reconnaissance of whole survey area to choose the best way of
performing the survey.

 This would facilitate satisfactory completion of the survey in

accordance with the requirements and specifications governing such
work. Aerial photographs would help this study.
 The horizontal control is necessary to locate all features of the land
and marine in true relative positions. Hence a series of lines whose
lengths and azimuths are determined by means of either
triangulation or any other methods.
 Tachometric and plane table survey can be conducted in order to
undergo rough works. No rules are kept for establishing horizontal
control as topography, vegetation, type, size of topography affect the
rules
 Before sounding establishment of vertical control is essential to
determined. Numerous benchmarks are placed in order to serve as
vertical control. Setting and checking the levels of the gauges are
uses of benchmarks
 The process of determining depth below water surface is called as
sounding. The step before undergoing sounding is determining the
mean sea level. If the reduced level of any point of a water body is
determined by subtracting the sounding from mean sea level, hence
it is analogous to levelling
The specific need for sounding are
 Preparation of navigation charts that is an all-time information for
future purpose also
 Material that to be dredged has to be determined early to facilitate
easy movement in project without any confusion
 Material dredging should also accompany where filling has to be
done. Material dumping is also measured
 Design of backwaters, sea wells require detailed information that is
obtained from sounding
The essential equipment used for undergoing sounding are
 Shore signals and buoys
 Sounding Equipment
 Instruments for measuring angles
 These are required to mark the range lines. A line perpendicular to
shore line obtained by line joining 2 or 3 signals in a straight line
constitute the range line along which sounding has to be performed.
Angular observations can also be made from sounding boats by this
method. To make it visible from considerable distance in the sea it is
made highly conspicuous.
 A float made of light wood or air tight vessel which is weighted at
bottom kept vertical by anchoring with guywires are called buoys. In
order to accommodate a flag a hole is drilled. Under water deep, the
range lines are marked by shore signals & the buoys
Sounding boat :
A flat bottom of low draft is used to carry out sounding operation.
Large size boats with motor are used for sounding in sea. The
soundings are taken through wells provided in the boat
 Rod made of seasoned timber 5 to 10cm diameter and 5 to 8m length.
A lead shoe of sufficient weight is connected at bottom to keep it
vertical. Graduations are marked from bottom upwards. Hence
readings on the rod corresponding to water surface is water depth
 A graduated rope made of chain connected to the lead or sinker of 5
to 10kg, depending on current strength and water depth. Due to deep
and swift flowing water variation will be there from true depth hence
a correction is required
 Other sounding equipment used are Weddell’s sounding machine.
These are employed when large sounding work has to be undergone.
A standard machine to measure maximum of 30 to 40m is designed
that are bolted over the well of the sounding boat.
 Another equipment used is fathometer which is an echo-sounding
instrument used to determine ocean depth directly. Recording time
of travel by sound waves is the principle employed. Here the time of
travel from a point on the surface of the water to the bottom of the
ocean and back is recorded.
 Knowing the velocity of sound waves the depth can be calculated as
shown in fig

 From the above figure the depth D can be calculated if AB can be

found. This method gives truly vertical and accurate methods. It is
found more sensitive than a lead line.
 Dock and Harbor Engineering
 Irrigation
 River Works
 Land reclamation
 Water Power
 Flood Control
 Sewage Disposal
 Depth of the bed can be determined
 Shore lines can be determined
 Navigation Chart Preparation
 Locate sewer fall by measuring direct currents
 Locating mean sea level
 Scouring, silting and irregularities of the bed can be identified
 Tide measurement
 River and stream discharge measurement
 Massive structures like bridges, dams harbors are planned
 Studies play an important role for any pre-engineering activities,
marine EIA studies and hazard mitigations such as tsunamis,
cyclones, navigation and planning for coastal management schemes.
Meteorological data constitute measurement of basic parameters for
marine engineering design which are: Air Temperature, Relative
Humidity, Barometric Pressure, Wind speed and direction. However,
to study long standing effects of these natural forces on the onshore
and offshore facilities other parameters such as Air Quality, Sun
Radiation, UV Index, Lightening, Rain fall, Snow fall etc may also be
recorded.
Oceanographic data constitute measurement of waves and currents
and is need for hydrodynamics modelling for any marine
engineering design. Ocean waves can be recorded by wave rider
buoys
Currents : An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater . They
move water and heat around the globe, and help determine the chemical make-up of
the water column Currents are powerful physical forces in the seas. Currents also are
a major factor in ocean ecosystems.
Ocean currents can similarly recorded by current meters deployed on the seabed by
a mooring frame with different using various mooring methods like "I" and "U" type.
Some current meters also record sampling time and date, seabed depth,
temperatures, along with speed and direction of the currents.
Doppler Current Meters can record current speeds and corresponding directions
over the entire depth at a particular deployed location. The recorded data is stored
in built-in data storage unit.
Currents can also be recorded by installing the current meter on a moving platform
such as a survey vessel. Such arrangement facilitates access to the current speeds in
a wider area rather than at one particular location of deployment.
Meteorological and Oceanographic data can also be transmitted by a radio link
(telemetry) and the data can be monitored from a remote work station.
We, at Geosense Surveys, gather, analyse the lacunae, and establish definitive
relationship from various Meteorological and Oceanographic data to give optimum
and most meaningful solutions to our client
 Waves can be broadly classified as wind waves and swells. Wind
waves, also known as sea swells, are those which are under the
influence of wind in a generating area. In general, wind waves are
highly irregular in appearance and tend to be short-crested. Swells,
on the other hand, are wind-generated waves that have travelled out
of the region of their generating area. Outside the generating area,
no energy is supplied from the wind, and therefore swells gradually
decay due to various energy dissipating and transformation
processes, but their periods are elongated during propagation.
Swells have regular, long crest appearance, and are less steep than
wind waves. A sea state may consist of just wind waves or just swells
or may be a combination of both
Waves can also be broadly classified as deep water and shallow water waves according to the water
depth to wavelength ratio as follows

Water depth/wavelength ratio greater than 0.5

Deep water waves

Intermediate-depth water waves Water depth/wavelength ratio between 0.04 and 0.5

Shallow water waves Water depth/wavelength ratio less than 0.04

There are two approaches to describe the waves in the natural sea
state, namely, the wave train method and the spectral method.
 The wave train analysis determines the wave properties by finding
the average statistical quantities of individual wave components
present in a wave record.
 The wave train method needs to measure the four main parameters
for analysis: Significant wave height (Hs), Maximum recorded wave
height (Hmax), significant wave period (Ts), peak wave period (Tp)
and mean wave period (Tz).
Unlike the wave train method, the spectral analysis method determines
the distribution of wave energy with respect to the frequency and
direction by converting time series of the wave record into a form of
energy spectral density function, which is called the directional wave
spectrum.
The most common parameters determined from spectral method are
wave height spectrum (Hmo), mean wave direction (µmean), peak
wave direction (µpeak), and directional spectrum and times series
 Coastal Protection and Engineering
 Port Design and Operation
 Environmental Monitoring
 Oil industry (oil platforms, LNG terminals, etc.)
 Shipping Safety