Comments on Hydrographic and Topographic LIDAR Acquisition and Merging with Multibeam Sounding Data Acquired in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary

Fugro Pelagos, Inc. (FPI) was contracted by GRW Engineers to conduct a site survey for the USACE (and ultimately Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary-OCNMS) along a portion of coastline from Koitlah Point to Cape Alava within the OCNMS. OCNMS’ objectives for the survey effort were three-fold: 1) to obtain existing conditions of the nearshore bathymetry and intertidal zone along a select portion of shoreline that is not ascertainable through ship-based acoustic data acquisition techniques due to hazardous surf conditions, 2) to assess the performance of ALB technology along both exposed and unexposed stretches of coastline, and 3) to vertically transform the ALB data and assess agreement with existing shallow water multibeam bathymetry data collected in the same area.