Recent developments in airborne LiDAR bathymetry

Bathy LiDAR has over the last ten years seen a dramatic development, in the range of ten times the resolution, dramatically improved hydrographic object detection, operation in higher turbidity waters and complex river environments. There has been a strong increase of the use of the technology globally for applications such as coastal surveys for sea-charts, shoreline erosion monitoring, coastal infrastructure planning, environmental mapping, river surveys for flood risk analysis and mitigation. Leading hydrographic offices have implemented the technology for shallow water surveys in their national coastal mapping programs, and further countries are planning for the doing the same. The latest advancements also include developments of bathy LiDAR for Maritime surveillance applications, where the data must be available in close to real time already in the survey aircraft, to enable immediate analysis and response related to safety at sea and prevention of illegal activities.