Fugro Awarded NOAA Contract for Airborne Gravity Data to Help Predict Floodwater Inundation

by | Sep 11, 2013

Leidschendam, The Netherlands, Sept. 6, 2013”Fugro has been awarded a contract to collect airborne gravity data by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), in coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's (NOAA) Coastal Services Center (CSC) and National Ocean Service (NOS). Under funds released as part of the Hurricane Sandy supplemental bill, this new contract will provide for additional data collection over the Mid-Atlantic states as part of the NGS programme known as Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D).

NOAA's GRAV-D project has been underway since 2007 and is expected to take up to 15 years to complete. The programme will allow for a much improved geoid model, which will impact directly on height modernisation mapping and related studies, including sea-level rise baseline and monitoring. The collection of gravity data over the northeast U.S., from North Carolina to Maine, will support updating elevations (approximately how heights above sea level are determined). Accurate heights, especially along coastal areas, are critical to predicting the extent of flooding from a storm surge from a hurricane; they also allow the prediction of where water will flow as flooding dissipates. The new vertical datum supplied by the project will correct errors of 50 centimetres (approximately 20 inches) on average in the US.  A 50-centimetre error can result in thousands of acres of inundation that would be predicted incorrectly.

NGS’ GRAV-D project is happy to contract this work with Fugro as a continuation of the excellent work the Fugro team has provided in recent survey work, commented Dr. Vicki Childers, GRAV-D Project Manager/Section Chief. Fugro is a great partner with us and is very receptive to the needs of the project.  We feel assured of a positive outcome while working with Fugro.

 

NEWEST V1 MEDIA PUBLICATION

October Issue 2023