Bladder Wrack (Fucus vesiculosus, sv. Blåstång) and the new Fucus radicans has been selected and investigated for its sensitivity for the discharge of poisonous substrates and eutrophication of the coastal and shallow waters in the Baltic Region. The Fucus areas are important for the marine life because they are the habitats for feeding, sheltering and breeding for the small animal population that in turn are important for other parts of the ecosystem. The Fucus coverage and spreading at various depths has been investigated since 2008 in the shallow water region between Gävle and Hudiksvall.
The brown algae family Fucus is an important indicator in the surveillance of the sublittoral zone extending from shore and out to greater depth. The result from the investigations is that there has been a reduction of Bladder Wrack by up to 50% in some areas and a total collapse in some areas. In areas of collapse little or no re-establishment has been seen. In addition, the normal depth for Bladder Wrack growth is between 3 m down to 6 m. The study has shown that the depth at which the Fucus grows has decreased over time by one meter.
A negative consequence of the reduction in Fucus along the Swedish Coast is the effect on the local fishing industry where a substantial reduction has been seen. There has been a reduction in the spawn from several of the fish species in the investigate bay areas, notably pike, perch and minnow.
References: “Vegetationsklädda bottnar i Gävleborgs läns kustvatten” Report 2011:15 and “Fiskyngel i Långvind och Harkskär sommaren 2009, Report 2010:8 by the County Administrative Board of Gävleborg. The doctoral thesis “PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATIONS IN TWO ECOTYPES OF FUCUS VESICULOSUS AND IN FUCUS RADICANS WITH FOCUS ON SALINITY” by Anna Maria Gylle is available from the Department of Natural Sciences, Mid Sweden University.
The 532 Award for 2011 goes to AHAB CTO Andreas Axelsson.
The award committee motive for the prestigious price is;
"Andreas has over the last 15 years engineered and continuously developed bathymetric LiDAR systems. In 1995, early in his career Andreas was appointed technical responsible of the HawkEye I where he coordinated the development within the SAAB Group and its subcontractors. His latest achievements encompass the development of the shallow water algorithms used in the HawkEye II. He has also developed and improved the reflectance algorithms for seafloor characterization. For more than 15 years Andreas has developed procedures and algorithms focused on improving LiDAR system performance. He was instrumental in developing the HawkEye II system to survey both land and water simultaneously. Andreas has also headed the development team bringing the HawkEye II to its current state-of-the-art technology achieving 4 kHZ bathymetric data collection rate. Also, during this period, Andreas has developed the depth sensitivity of the bathymetric systems to accurately reach depth of 40 m and more. Andreas Axelsson co-founded in 2002 the company Airborne Hydrography AB, and is today Technical Director and one of the key owners of the company."
The 532 Award is given by the US Army Corps of Engineering and the JALBCTX organisation for a significant cumulative achievements award. The recipient will have a history in lidar bathymetry and airborne coastal mapping and charting, contributing to the advancement of the technologies, market, and/or worldwide area surveyed using this capability. No single event or achievement will justify this award, but rather a number over a period of years. This should be awarded to the most accomplished and critical person on earth (or beyond) in the field of lidar bathymetry and airborne coastal mapping and charting.
Airborne Hydrography has recently conducted an under water escape and rescue course for its operators Jonas Gunnarsson and Daniel Gustafsson. The training course with real life simulations in a cockpit-like environment serves the purpose for preparation in the unlikely event that the survey aircraft makes an emergency landing at sea.
A feature article “Lidar Seafloor classification” has recently been published in the Hydro International Magazine (may/june 2011 vol 9, no 3). The article is also available for subscribers here. The article describes the use of bathymetric LiDAR data to generate marine depth information and extraction of seafloor properties. This allows different types of seabed /e.g. sand, vegetation and rock) ro be remotely classified. This is a huge benefit within the fields of survey, coastal vegetation study, inshore fisheries and coastal monitoring.
Spanish survey company StereoCarto, being part of the INYPSA Group, will use airborne laser technology for land areas (topographic laser) and for marine areas (bathymetry laser) for surveying the almost 125 000 square kilometres of the complex Portuguese coast.
More information available at inews.inypsa.es/webs/inypsa.es/eng/articulo.asp?idarticulo=78
Airborne Hydrography AB warmly welcomes the Korean company KESTI as its new distributor. “This is a fantastic opportunity for Airborne Hydrography to enter the Korean market and an introduction for us in East Asia” says CEO Anders Ekelund.
The first DragonEye survey using a small fixed wing airplane, a Cessna 172 was conducted on thursday Feb 20. The Cessna, piloted by Mr Michael Lyckholm at SkyMovies, surveyed three areas.
A 5 square kilometre area in the vicinity of Örebro airport and landing field was surveyed together with a stretch of a power line and a railroad. For research reasons the data was collected at 250 m and 500 m altitude and at a flight speed of 90 knots. To make the installation process quick and easy, the DragonEye system has received an STC approval for installation above an enlarged photo hatch. For more information, please contact Mr Carl-Johan Stigermark at Airborne Hydrography.
This YouTube presentation covers a discussion using the airborne LiDAR system HawkEye II for surveying French territorial waters and acquiring both bathymetric and terrestrial data for flooding analysis. The Litto3D project, headed by SHOM the French Hydrographic office in Brest, is conducting ALB surveys along the French west coast, the mediterranean and the in French territories such as the Reunion Islands in the Indian ocean.
Hamish Grierson, Technical Manager of Blom UK, has written a feature article “Airborne bathymetric LiDAR and hyperspectral imagery” recently published in the GEO Connexion International Magazine (dec/jan 2011 issue 9). The article is also available for subscribers at www.geoconnexion.com/geo.php. The article describes results from a coastal habitat mapping project along the French coast and how the combination of two sensors can provide insights into near shore waters.
Airborne Hydrography AB has been elected member of the Swedish Security and Defense Industry Association (SOFF). The mission of the association is to inform government, customers and other target groups about the security and defense industry. SOFF cooperates with its US counterpart the National Defense Industry Association (NDIA) in the US as well as with other security and defence industry associations. The total turnover for the SOFF member companies amounts to approx 26 bnSEK.
The BLAST project, financed by the EU via the Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme, is a collaboration between 6 member states around the North Sea and 16 collaborating partners. The project, that will run until the end of 2012, will focus on 4 main areas; land and sea model, navigating the North Sea, maritime traffic harmonisation and climate change in teh coastal zone. The first BLAST Conference will be held in Hirtshals, Denmark on 15-16th of September.
More information at the project homepage blast-project.eu
Airborne Hydrography is proud to announce Intermark Aviosistemi in Italy as a new distributor for Airborne Hydrography.
Intermark Aviosistemi markets and sells hydrographic and topographic survey equipment for land and airborne surveys. The collaboration between the companies is an important step for Airborne Hydrography into the Italian market.
CEO Anders Ekelund warmly welcomes Mr Leonardo Bastianelli and his company.
Airborne Hydrography is proud to announce that the company has entered an collaboration agreement with the Center for Coastal and Ocean mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in New England, USA.
The CCOM department at the University of New Hampshire is a world-leader in bathymetry and has an extensive research program within this area. Principle researcher is Mr Shachak Peeri who is researching sea-floor and shore-line mapping characteristics using Lidar.
For more information contact
Andreas Axelsson, Cheif Technical Officer
Airborne Hydrography
Enclosed are two links to newsclips from Swedish television broadcasters (SVT and TV4). The coverage is from the survey presented last week from the Kvarken Archapelago.
www.tv4play.se/nyheter/lokala_nyheter/umea?videoId=1.1664892&selId=1.106...
www.svtplay.se/v/1651241/vasterbottensnytt/havsbottnen_kartlaggs_med_flyg
For more information contact;
Mr Carl-Johan Stigermark
Mrs Jennifer M. Wozencraft, Director of Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technial Center of Expertise gave during her closing remark at the JALBCTX meeting in Mobile, Alabama on (April 27, 2011) a short presentation on detection of oilspill using airborne LiDAR bathymetry. She indicated initital positive results from the first flights and studies in the Mexican Gulf, relating to the current oil spill disaster.
Airborne Hydrography is closely following the development at the JALBCTX center and will, as soon as an opportunity arises, survey areas in the Mexican Gulf. Airborne Hydrography intends to initiate the development of oilspill detection and analysis algortihms.
For more information contact;
Mr Swante Welander
Airborne Hydrography AB