NV5’s HDS (High Definition Scanning) team in Salt Lake City was tasked with capturing existing conditions over several acres of wetlands, pools and streams. The objective was to redesign the area due to heavy flooding which surpassed the 100 year flood plain projections in Weber County the prior year.
Combining high tech solutions and ingenuity, the team devised a novel approach to collect the data from the bottom of the waterways using a float tube and a GPS total station. “We combined high tech laser scanning to capture data at a rate of 50,000 survey shots per second however, the laser scanning light does not penetrate water, making it difficult to collect data from the bottom of streams using conventional survey methods” explained Alan DeMann – Business Development Manager of the firm. “In order to ensure everyone’s safety, two team members worked side by side. One of the surveyors was tethered while the other brought him back to shore expeditiously” he added.
The client will utilize the bathymetric survey to develop an accurate design plan with the use of a vertical contour map that identifies potential water flow and cross sections of the stream and pond beds generated from the data.