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Hawaii is a Pacific paradise with rugged volcanic shorelines and breath-taking coral reefs. But to those who undertake surveying and mapping of Hawaii’s coastal zones, it can be an exceptional challenge.

SHOALS, a world leader in airborne lidar hydrographic surveying recently completed the coastal mapping of two Hawaiian islands for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The multi-million dollar SHOALS (Scanning Hydrographic Operational Airborne LiDAR Survey) system is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and administered by the Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise (JALBTCX) at the Mobile, Alabama District Office.

SHOALS accomplished in a few weeks what would have taken a combination of a small fleet of boats and a battalion of surveyors months to match, at many times the cost.

In Hawaii, SHOALS surveyed from the shoreline to a depth of 30 meters, collecting precise elevations for use in hurricane emergency evacuation planning. Collecting water depths from an aircraft allowed fast, accurate information to be collected along rocky coasts and over coral reefs, places too hazardous for survey boats to operate. This information can be critical to hurricane evacuation planning since it greatly improves predictions of where destructive storm waves will strike and cause flooding of low-lying areas. As a result, in gathering this information SHOALS has made an enormous contribution to improved chances of survival for the thousands of area residents.

SHOALS stopped in Hawaii on its return trip to the US mainland after successfully completing New Zealand’s first airborne lidar nautical charting survey.

The highly sophisticated laser system capable of performing bathymetric surveys from the air is operated by international survey leader John E. Chance & Associates, Inc., of Lafayette, LA. Chance is a member of the multi-national Fugro group of companies with 170 offices in 44 countries.