摘要: |
Since the beginning of water transportation, the maintenance and monitoring of waterways was major issue when concerning the safety of voyages. The dredging development since its beginning was directly allied to development of the monitoring capabilities of the water depths during the dredging operations. Underwater acoustic play essential role as remote sensing, replacing mechanical measurement methods. Recently, multibeams gave a real boost to the underwater dredging monitoring due to wide coverage and high efficiency. The intrinsic problem with multibeam dredging monitoring has been the complexity of system setup and sonar operation, which often required extensive experience in hydrographic surveying. It became a problem for smaller dredging setups where the operation is carried by single operator or a small number of personnel. They rely on sub-contracting of the hydrographic surveys to third party companies which reduces their revenue margins and sometimes makes impossible to achieve financially sound operation. |